Before we left for Paris… Isabelle looked at me, worried… “What if something happens? Bad things? like the tragedy in Paris…? I looked into her eyes and said, “Bad things and bad people happen everyday and everywhere… but you can’t let that stop you from seeing the good and all the beauty in this world…”
We sat at a park as our girls played on the playground… I just sat there resting my head on Mattias’ shoulder… sighing at the beauty. I felt so happy and lucky. We noticed the French families gathering, kissing cheeks, lovers gazing into each other’s eyes, petting faces.
Little Parisian children are some of the best dressed children I have seen. The little girls in their neatly pressed dresses, skirts that twirl… Channel flats, on 5 year olds!
The little boys in Paris dress so beautifully… my God I watched a little boy kick around a soccer ball in his mint green jeans perfectly cuffed and mannnnn his suede loafers… incredible looking! His pals all had great shoes, ironed shirts cuffed to elbows… kicking a ball around.
A mom walked up in a Audrey Hepburn looking dress with a beautifully perfect puff of cotton candy on a wooden stick peg the I thought was for her child… but it was for her. She sat there with her black leather flats just enjoying her kids and nibbling on the puffy cloud…
I love to study my girls faces… their freckles, their lashes… the way their noses crinkle when they are so happy… it’s easy to do on vacation, no distractions… just looking.
This sight of my girls seeing the Eiffel Tower in all it’s glory was a dream come true… They were so blissfully happy and heartfelt thankful to us for taking them… I remember as our plane was landing Isabelle had tears in her eyes as she was looking out of her window trying to see.. She looked to me glassy eyed and said, “Thank you Mamma so much for taking us here…” that’s so filling to hear…
Seriously you couldn’t get more girlie girl than Angelina’s it was magical and dainty and special and exquisite and pretty and lovely all at once! Our girls tried so many tiny little pastries and sipped the best hot cocoa and enjoyed every minute… so did we!
I love getting lost in Paris… turning down streets that wind and turning right where you see a beautiful flower arrangement… You sometimes have to get totally engulfed into a city to really understand it and feel it’s heart beat. I love that my family is ok with getting lost and well not so much lost but more so diving in… Finding those little restaurants that are quiet in a back alley, walking into a photographer’s gallery of Syria’s hardship photographs… looking at art and following the artist’s eyes as he follows us … looking to us to see what we think of just that….
That night we strolled… we wandered… we awed. The sights of beauty we saw I promise will be burnt into my eyes. I don’t every want to forget the warm street light glows. The chatter of the friends gathering. Laughing. The zoom of scooters. The little dogs barking. The artists painting portraits of lovers. The taste of crepes that warmed our hands and bellies. The feeling the heart of this city has… I can’t stop thinking about it…