- First catching sight of Notre Dame from across the river
- Seeing a small boy chasing a peacock in the Parc de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne
- Eating a warm Nutella crepe (my first crepe) on a chilly gray morning in Montmartre
- Eating lunch on a Sunday afternoon on the Île Saint-Louis with street music going on all around me
- Sitting in the Arènes de Lutèce, the remains of a third-century Roman amphitheatre, which I believe is the oldest structure I've ever sat in
- Seeing the foundations of part of the 12th-century fortress from which the current Palais du Louvre eventually grew
- Emerging from the Église Saint-Merri and being amused to see a shop selling sex toys directly across the street
- Walking in the Latin Quarter, spotting a remnant of the 13th-century wall built at Philippe-Auguste's command, and being able to guess what it was before I read the sign
- Conducting an entire, if very brief, conversation in French on my last day in the city (it was about where the restroom was, but still)
- Walking into a large bookstore (Galignani's) on the Rue de Rivoli
- Offering a crumb to a little brown bird that hopped up onto the table when I was eating a flan outside a bakery on the Île de la Cité
- Seeing the Eiffel Tower at night from the river
- Negotiating my first relatively complicated subway station on my own
- Seeing the Seine flowing beneath my feet as I climbed the stairs on the lovely footbridge, the passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor
- Coming across some of my favorite Monet and Renoir paintings in the Musée d'Orsay
- Spotting the telescope dome at the Sorbonne on the Rue Saint-Jacques
- Joining the crowd following a group of drummers around the Places des Vosges on my last night
I'm sure I will think of many more as soon as I post this, but c'est la vie.
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