February is the best month ever in Paris.
WHAT? WHYYYYYY?, you might ask....it's cold, rainy, snowy, wet, and the days last roughly 3 hours....what about the beautiful springtime breezes and the sunshine and the flowers and the little children who laugh and frolic in the green, green parks? Or the early fall with the days still long and the leaves begin to shed their green for golden shades of red and orange while you sit in a bustling café with a steaming hot chocolate carefully mulling over your book of poetry...and oh, isn't it WOOOOONDERFUL to be in PAAAAAAAAAARIS?
No, it's not.
I prefer February. Why? Because I live on the beaten path of tourists in the center of the number one tourist destination in the world. In fact, the street I live on may as well be called BEATEN PATH and I guarantee if they opened a TGIF on it, it would THRIVE. Beginning in early spring, my neighborhood is descended upon by the 15.6 MILLION annual visitors per year (World Tourism Organization) and does not let up at ALL until January when my spirits rise as it fizzles out mid month. Then comes the month I have been waiting for all year. My precious, beautiful, adored month.....FEBRUARY! YESSSSSSSS.....
I can walk along the Seine without meeting anyone and play pretend it's olden times, like, before 1950....sometimes I try and pretend it's WAY OLDEN TIMES and what shoes would I wear if it was like, 1700 something and would I smell bad? And how would I be moisturizing? Could I drink the Seine then? Would I still be tall with teeth? Would I walk like THIS or like THAT...the possibilities are endless when no is around....
The tourist boats are empty....
I can walk the five minutes to the Louvre and enjoy the art minus the throngs of commentators.....
But mostly I like the low grey sky that rolls in and out like a never-ending ocean. It makes me feel dark, pensive and somewhat dangerous. Then the city belongs to me in my own pretend olden times way, with my own pretend dagger in my own pretend shawl as I pretend dance along a very real river.
6 comments:
this will be your first february in paris without me! i'm still liable to buy a plane ticket last minute, because i too love paris in february.
xoxox
This is awesome. Thanks for helping me appreciate February a bit more. Because I am way OFF the beaten track - border of the 20th wha? - the tourists don't make it my way. So I see gray, cold, rainy, wet, whatever and contemplate....well, gray, cold things. You've given me perspective. Onward with the frolicking!
you KNOW you want to play Pretend It's Olden Times with me....get on the plaaaaaaaane. :)
and YES, let the frolicking BEGIN!!!
Grey rainy february in Paris is preferable to grey rainy february in Manhattan ..... I think.
By the way, I always think about what if I lived in another era and how could I sweet-talk them (if we understood each other at all) into not burning me alive at the stake.
strangely enough February is when I visit France, its cheaper (not tourist season) and its still better weather than Michigan in Feb.
I usually visit in the grayer months and also enjoy the lack of heavy tourist traffic. However, the one time I visited in February it was so stinkin' cold...(bien sûr)...
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