Paris by twilight

This was my next-to-last day in Paris (hélas!). I spent some time this afternoon sitting along the river on the Left Bank and sitting in the Place des Vosges just soaking up the feeling of being here and watching Parisian life go by. In the evening, I had a nice dinner at a restaurant on the Place des Vosges, Ma Bourgogne, with my friend. I had a salad of mixed greens with toasted goat cheese and croutons, a salmon steak with sorrel and some kind of luscious sauce, and an apple tart flambé. That and some Côtes du Rhône made for a pleasant dinner. We were seated outside, which I enjoyed because we could watch people coming and going in the Place. After dinner, we took a couple of slow turns around the Place, and then someone blew a whistle and said something I didn't catch, but it was plainly some variant of, "OK, everybody out, if you please!"

The sun sets around 10 p.m. here at this time of year, and the last of the boat tours on the line we took last time leaves at 10:30, so we took the subway a few stops and hastened to the Pont Neuf to catch that last boat. The trip along the river in the deepening twilight was lovely. I took my first boat tour the day after I arrived, and it helped me locate some landmarks and start feeling more oriented. On this trip, I could recognize most of the sights the guide pointed out, and I had memories associated with many of them. The Eiffel Tower was all lit up and shone golden against the deep blue sky—it's such a lovely graceful structure—and I thought about the view from the top. As we want past the Musée d'Orsay, which houses lots of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, I remembered the beautiful open space under the arched roof, and all the paintings by Renoir and Monet that I enjoyed seeing. When we were near Les Invalides, I had a quick mental image of the rows of cannons with their nameplates. Notre Dame is impressive at night, and it still gives me a little bit of a chill to catch sight of it. I know most of the bridges by now. Obviously I've only begun to know Paris, but I felt very satisfied with what I have learned about the city in these two weeks.

One of the things I love about Paris is how accessible the river is. In addition to sidewalks on all the streets along the river, there are walkways at a lower level, right near the river, and plenty of benches and steps to sit on. I was surprised, tonight, to see how lively these spots all were, even at 11 at night. At the western tip of the Île de la Cité, there's a beautiful park called the Square du Vert Galant, where I have sat a couple of times enjoying the peaceful green space. Tonight the park and the river bank were full of people, some of whom waved at the boat as we went by. Some of us on the boat waved back, and next thing you know, one of the young men on the river bank was mooning us and all of us on the boat were laughing. I don't believe I've ever been mooned before, and it seems peculiar to me that Paris is the first place it should happen.

Near the place where I sat on the river this afternoon, I had noticed some circular open spaces surrounded by several rings of concrete seats, almost like very small amphitheaters, and I wondered if anyone ever performed chamber music or anything like that out there. Tonight I saw couples practicing some kind of ballroom dance in one of these spaces. I sure am going to miss this place.