What's left to say

People gushed, You'll love Paris, there are cafes and brasseries everywhere. I'd ask them to recommend something, and the responses were consistently along the lines of, That's not necessary, you'll see. True.

Everywhere, cheese and bread. And champagne.

To dispel the rumors, at least in personal experience: Everyone I crossed paths with was friendly. Then again, that could be their amusement at the accent I was presenting from my French learned in 7th and 8th grade.

The short of it, but the longest walk I've ever taken:

La Sacre Couer
Eiffel Tower
Arc de Triomphe
Champs Elysees
Musee de Louvre
The River Seine
Notre Dame
And then some

I have discovered that I love train stations. While I've been in Penn station and Central Station, I've only been in and out, our through, not speant any time there. Not checking my bags in a locker, or asking for directions, or hearing so many accents, or having a cup of coffee and watching the platform signs flutter with new destinations and times, while watching the people below rush to their platforms, and high above the pigeons flew through shaft of light, from rafter to rafter. Waterloo, Victoria, Gare du Nord, beautiful stations all. I have more photos of Gare du Nord than the Arc de Triomphe. You go with what moves you.

I have finally been to a place where there is not a Starbucks to be found. After having my first cup of cafe au lait in a nondescript cafe situated along the Seine, I'd say that's a smart move on the part of Starbucks.

The hottest shoe trend in London and Paris is Cowboy Boots. There should be an international law against it. I've seen purple suede ones, ones with flowers and beads sewn on them, pink ones, and even lime green ones. That has wrong written all over. I didn't eat pizza with my fingers, nor that sandwich in Paris for that matter, so on behalf of all Texans everywhere, hey Europe, you have a lot on us with your architecture and wonder but I'd like to request that you get your own darn boots. Decorate those as you wish, but, please, leave ours alone.

I've prayed in two of the most incredible churches I've ever seen, and walked through stone wall corridors saturated with hundreds of years of prayers, one by one, prayer upon prayer, each bleeding through to the other, each one not unheard. I felt it. And then I walked along the very cobblestones upon which thousands on thousands of lives have traveled before my own. To say it's humbling misses the mark but it's all I can think of at the moment. Life is enormous, but sometimes it's small and linear and perfect.





I'm tired and I've missed that dog of mine, the one who danced around me forever when I walked into the door and who is currently snoring at my feet. It was good to have the company of my friends J&C at dinner tonight, to share stories, and the Mexican food I have missed. It's good to be back on Texas soil. If I didn't have this, that trip I just got home from, well, it wouldn't be worth a thing.