Paris: Part Two – Les Jardins & The Little Things

When I booked the trip to Paris, my departure date was only 5 weeks away. I had a massive case of burnout. I had been working non-stop in the months before, to the point that my vision would go sideways when I looked at a computer screen. I was overwhelmed. I needed something to look forward to, and some time to refocus. So I finished up what needed to be done before I left, and purposely kept the MacBook Pro at home so I wouldn’t be distracted by work. And once I got to Paris, I didn’t pull a camera out every two seconds. Sometimes I didn’t take a camera with me at all. But when I did, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just full of pictures of landmarks and tourist attractions. I wanted to remember the little things – the little things that I smiled at because I actually had the time to notice them. Like the copper walls of the Metro station closest to my apartment – the one I looked forward to seeing at the end of a long day:Or the cat that would often be found sleeping in the window of Sylvine, the florist just down the street – a window I passed so often that I found myself a little disappointed when he wasn’t there:Or the colorful doors found all through the Marais and beyond:Or the dramatic balloon display in the window at Louis Vuitton:With its many gardens, Paris was the perfect place to take a minute to just take a deep breath and enjoy something simple. Like the day I had lunch sitting on a bench at the Jardin du Palais Royal:Or the day I pulled up a chair for a couple of hours at the Jardin du Luxembourg, and wrote whatever I wanted in a red Moleskine notebook:Or the day I strolled through the Jardin des Tuileries on my way to the Louvre. It didn’t take long for me to feel like I was finally able to catch my breath, and could really look forward to what was waiting for me back home. 🙂Stay tuned for the third round of Paris pictures soon!