Paris! For many Americans, Paris is the City of Love, with the lovers strolling near the Eiffel Tower and along the grand boulevards. Enjoying an early morning coffee with a croissant on an outdoor terrace and throwing themselves in the nightlife near Le Moulin Rouge. It’s worth a movie indeed.

Growing up in The Netherlands, I have been to Paris many times. It was only 6 hours from my hometown in the Netherlands (now with the TGV, it goes even faster). You could take the bus at 6 am in the morning and take the bus from 6 pm back, to be back at home at midnight. I have done that in high school and it was fabulous. There is so much to see in Paris… you can do it in six hours or you can do it in six days or six weeks…. I don’t think the city will ever disappoint.

In 2016 my then son-in-law-to-be Brandon was with us in Europe celebrating my mother’s 80th birthday. As we were in France celebrating, he too wanted to see Paris. We left early in the morning in the South of France and thanks goodness to the GPS, my husband navigated us through the city (something we had never done before. Paris' traffic was notoriously bad for outsiders and getting into the city by car was impossible in my younger years) and brought us right at a parking garage near our hotel.

We rushed to the closest metro and within a few hours we had taken Brandon to all major highlights. As we were having dinner in Quartier Latin, we saw a map of Paris on the wall and I remember Brandon saying he had seen all these highlights on the outside: Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees. It was a great rush and I’m sure he will get back another time.

Once you have done Paris 101 and 102 and have seen all the major attractions, it’s a great fortune to wander in the city without having to rush to the monuments. 

Paris has many, many different kinds of people. It always had. There are many very well dressed Parisians in the oldest or the latest fashion styles. There are still the upcoming artists who, like their famous artistic ancestors, are gathering in cheaper places to live their art, hoping to one day find that same recognition. There are many hard working people who have no time to even look at the beauty of the city. There are many people from all different racial backgrounds, tourists.. so much to see. They all color the timeless monuments with their existence. These monuments have seen all these different people for many generations and it is almost as if they look back at you and comfort you and your humanity. The grandeur of the city makes an individual small. Time is special and fluid in Paris. You see the history, but you also very much see the present. You can sit on a very old bench in a park and watch newborns getting nursed. You can sit on many of the beautiful squares and look at dancers or listen to a musician, knowing that on that very same square also people put up barricades during the French Revolution. You can sit outside on a terrace and just look at all these individuals. In Paris, people have no desire to conform, it seems. No desire to fit in a group. You see so many individuals that are expressing something unusual in the way they dress, treat their hair, act. Like moving art objects… Now in many places in the world people would turn around and stare at the unusual person in disapproval. Not in Paris. The citizens know they have these humans in their midst and it almost makes people smile….It’s not a matter of approval or not. It’s a matter of appreciating how there is room for a true individual. That’s a very special freedom. That’s why Paris has given us these great works of art. What we now, many years later, consider a work of great art, was in the years of producing the art often very shocking, provocative. To gain a perspective one has to see another point of view. Paris has space for different views.

No visit to Paris can be without a visit to the many museums. The impressionist mecca of Musee D’Orsay has the absolute top collection of the world in what has become a style most loved by people all over the world. Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas and many more…..they are all there. The overwhelming museum The Louvre, that could take a month to just walk around. Museum Rodin with the great intimate sculptures of Auguste Rodin. Like all museums in the world, you will find at the exit the museum shop where you can buy many items related to the displays in the museums. Personally, museum shops are my favorite shops. Not so much to really buy something for which I probably have no need/use at all, but just to look at what is available, the marketing of art. In museum shops you see things that are not anywhere else. I love touching the pens they created, the posters of the works, the puzzles for children. It’s just fun to look at. I do this at every museum in the world and if I have very little time, I make sure I visit at least the museum shop...

One museum in Paris stands out to me. It is the Centre Pompidou in the heart of the city. It was built in 1977, the year I graduated high school and it was a complete new building for Paris in the less wealthy area of the old food market. The bright red escalator on the outside ....I recall many people were totally not impressed by the building. They said it didn’t fit Paris, was ugly. The vision of the architects has proven to be right: right now Centre Pompidou is a major attraction and it hosts the museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. It’s one of the major places for modern art in the world, for sure for European Art and it has lifted the entire area to a new place of attraction. 

What I find most interesting in modern art is that it can surprise me. I can admire and love the work of the great impressionists, but after seeing it so often, it’s hard to get really surprised. The same with music by the way, or food. It’s so nice to encounter something that is “new”. I am not saying that I “know” the old masters but I know even less of the world of modern art. There are so many names I have never heard of, so many works I don’t know. Wandering in a museum of modern art, is like a fresh breeze on the beach. It refreshens me. I don’t understand everything, I don’t like everything, but I love that I have seen something new and can learn. It enriches me, or at least it makes me feel enriched.

The ultimate place of learning for me about colors and design is the Library of this museum. It’s an open library, located on the right side of the entrance, where the museum shop is on the left side. This library is not a library in the classic definition, it is very much a shop as well. You can read, grab and buy books about all kinds of modern art. Not just painting, also photography, architecture, color and design… it covers the whole world of art, with displays that are fascinating. They have coloring books, postcards, games, posters.

This library is probably one of my most favorite places in the world. I can spend hours here looking and looking, browsing and browsing. I buy a few things, but usually only a few postcards as a reminder and a source of inspiration at home. If at all possible, it’s the place I always try to combine with a visit to Europe.

Last summer, my daughter Laura and I had the most wonderful time in Paris. We walked 28.000 steps every day, starting around 9 am in the morning and returning at 10.30 pm. We soaked up Paris, so to say, that had the most gorgeous weather I have ever seen in the city. The sun made the old buildings, that can look old and droopy in the rain, standing like young cheerleaders. We went to some unknown areas and saw how some well known areas were stripped of their character by becoming completely overwhelmed with tourists. And we went to the library of the Centre Pompidou. Doing this with my grown up daughter was such a treat, but after a couple of hours even she said:” Mom, take your time, I will wait outside”. I had to stop, see you next time. Au revoir!