Picture Perfect Paris

*I can't upload any pictures from my camera because I forgot my cord at home, so if anybody has an SD card reader please let me know! Pictures are from my phone, excuse the quality.

Paris in Fast Forward

Can someone help me find the pause button, s'il vous plait?

I want to remember what rue Cler looked like the first night we arrived, rainy and glowing in the dark with blue lights hanging above the people tucked away in cozy cafes. I want to remember the first time I bought lunch at a bakery and had to use my awful French for the first time. I want to remember all the little French school children getting out of school down the street and the cute men who work at the poissonnerie across the street from the hotel, but it feels like this trip keeps speeding right past me.

Our hotel is located on one of the most perfect and picturesque streets in Paris, rue Cler. You can't get more French than this -- everything from wine shops to flower shops line this little charming street located in the 7th arrondissement, or district.

The best part of being on this street is people watching and eavesdropping. (Journalists are inherently nosey.) The people are so French here! You see people going to the fromagerie (cheese shop), people carrying baguettes, old French gentlemen carrying bouquets of flowers, little school children excitedly talking as they buy macarons on the way home from school. It feels like an old French movie, if only I could find the pause button.

Being on this street helped me understand the French way of life more clearly. The French seem much more social, even affectionate, towards each other than Americans are towards each other. Restaurants are filled every night of the week with groups or couples and people are always quietly talking in cafes over espressos. Even grocery shopping is very social. Since shopping happens every day (French people prefer fresh food), people see each other regularly and talk often. And I thought I was close to the deli man at Jewel-Osco.

I'm just starting to become a regular at Artisan Boulanger Patissier (cheap sandwiches when you're in a hurry), but we're already leaving in a few days. Where has the time gone?