I am really exicted about this. I submitted a workshop on Jetpack for WordCamp Paris, and it was accepted! I will only be there for four days, one of which will be a jetlag day and two of which will be full of WordCamp goodness, so I elected to stay one extra day to walk around for as many hours as I can and see as much of the city as possible in one day (and of course, have a few pastries and glasses of wine along the way). Oddly enough, a few weeks before I even considered applying to speak there, I read How Paris Became Paris:
http://www.amazon.ca/How-Paris-Became-Joan-DeJean/dp/1608195910
which was a fascinating look at the history of things like urban parks, sidewalks, the Pont Neuf, the Place Royale (now known as the Place des Voges), and other aspects of Parisian urban history. And now I’ll get to see these places in person! I even found a nice Airbnb in Le Marais neighborhood, close to Île St-Louis and Île de la Cité and all the other things I read about in that book. I can’t wait!
So, of course I did what I usually do before going someplace new: I took out a bunch of books from the library:
Just a few books on Paris!
and I have extensively studied the metro and public transit maps that my friend Miguel gave me:
Le métro!
I already have my route mapped out from CDG: I’m taking the train!
Needless to say, I’m exicted! Of course, with only one full day in which to really walk around and explore, I can’t sacrifice any time to wait in line to go into any museums so (no Louvre this time), but my boys really want me to go visit the Eiffel Tower, so I hope the weather will be nice and that I’ll have a great view from the top. I’m going to try to do something like this itinerary, which will guarantee exhaustion by the end of the day!
For any of you who have been to Paris, I have a few questions:
- Where do I definitely need to eat (especially in the Marais area)?
- Which alcoholic beverage should I bring back, that I can’t find easily in Montreal?
- Last but not least, is there any particular noteworthy metro station that I should visit?
Richardmtl 