The Emerald City

They call Paris the City of Lights. I could see why last Sunday when Davor and I went to the top of Tour Montparnasse at circa 11 pm and saw the city in all of its flaming glory. We even made it to see the Eiffel Tower "twinkle" (it "twinkles" every hour on the hour until 12 am, a bit of a tourist gimmick but it gets me every time). And this year la tour is an electric shade of blue each night (when it's not "twinkling"!) to commemorate France presiding the EU. In a word, it was all so breathtaking.

But I have to say that to me, Paris is the city of parks. I haven't travelled that much, but Paris has to have, in my opinion, the most beautiful parks in the world. The Tuileries, the Palais Royal, the Palais Luxembourg. But a park/museum that I discovered on this trip was the Musee Rodin. Davor had been there before and recommended I go there while he went to the Musee d'Armee next door at Les Invalides. Now, I've never been a particular fan of Rodin. Yeah, his Thinker's cool, the Kiss is nice and Balzac's a bit of a laugh. But when I saw his works up close, I have to say that they really knocked my socks off - I couldn't believe that slabs of metal could exhude such emotion. But it wasn't only the works, it was the surroundings they were housed in that really blew me away. I could have stayed there all day, it was all just too beautiful. Here are a few pics for ya:

And here's my favourite photo of Paris from this trip, taken in another park on the other side of the city. This photo could have been taken anywhere in the world but this little one is a very special Parisien I noticed in the Palais Royal park on our second day. I couldn't resist him and won't ever forget him. May he always soar high over The Emerald City. And here's hoping we meet again...