Stephanie Newton Books

This year, my husband and I cashed in all our frequent flyer miles and spent a week in Paris. It was like going home for me. I studied there in college. All the things I remembered that I loved, I still loved. The café au lait, the chocolate, the museums, the…well, not everything I loved in college. Places I thought were hugely romantic, like the Champs-Elysées, were mostly too crowded to enjoy on this visit. But places I thought were boring, like the gardens at Versailles and at the Palais du Luxembourg, I was content to sit with a cup of coffee and just enjoy with my husband.
We like to travel, but we travel differently. He anticipates, plans, has a daily itinerary. I’m the opposite. I’m impulsive and easily distracted. He got smart this trip and planned extra days so that he could get his whole itinerary in and I would get to say, “Hey, what’s down that street?” or “Oh, look a bookstore! Let’s go in!” I smelled every bottle of perfume in the metro area. He was patient.
Here I am at the fountain outside Pompidou Centre. If I look full, we had just eaten crèpes. Yum. I’m already wishing for another trip. It only took fifteen years to save up enough frequent flyer miles.