Revenu à Paris!

Back in Paris after a year's absence, it is both a joy to be back and sadness to have been gone so long. You can't seize it all at once. You learned that the first time you came here so why is that lesson lost on each return? You promise yourself to go slow this time. You unpack and carefully arrange your things. You promise yourself: “No pictures today, take a day to settle in.” It starts out well. A round of the markets at Place Maubert. Hello to the baker (Kayser on rue Monge), you need two baguettes, one to eat while you are walking home because you've been waiting a year for it and one for later to be eaten with the cheese you are about to buy. Tell me: how you can spend $70 in the cheese store? Then of course the wine and almost as an after thought coffee and jam at the Huit à 8 (it has been remodeled, I had to search for the coffee). Time now to settle in and get ready for tomorrow? Not me! It's raining, it's dark, and it's Paris, where should a photographer be? How about Buci market? How about a nice pasta dinner at DaPapone on rue St Grégoire de Tours? The lasagne there is always good and seems to ease the jet lag. After dinner you can walk through the market, it's always busy. Tonight is no exception and the Holiday lights make it even better. The Bar du Marché on the left is crowded as usual. It is only a short walk to the LaHune bookstore. I browse the shelves until I can barely stand up. The 86 bus takes me home and I've overdone it, as usual, on my first day back in Paris.