TOURIST POINT OF VIEW

Now that the music is over and Kim is here the real work begins: cramming as much sightseeing as we possibly can into just five days in Paris and three in (and around) London. We're celebrating five years of being married, after all, so no slacking on this trip.

Coming back to Paris tonight we both agreed that this city is certainly more our style. Funny we should both feel that way, that the country where we don't speak the language should seem more like home. And after staying over two weeks in France I felt this very strongly when we left, even began to really miss it in a homesick kind of way.

It may have had to do with the somewhat rushed nature of our time in London, squeezing in a day trip to the countryside, but we did cover a fair amount of the city and the impression was very much that of a place in flux, confused even, perpetually under construction with an incredibly jumbled sense of architecture that awkwardly juxtaposes classical opulence with stark urban modernity. Paris seems far more stable, centered, focused. The bustling, big city attitude is certainly there but underneath that surface is a pronounced sense of calm, as if however active things get, they all will inevitably and continually return to stillness.

My camera battery died in London so I didn't take many photos other than these few from our trip to Stonehenge and Bath:

Both were highlights for me. In London we also visited the impressive new Tate Modern where I finally got to spend some time with Rothko's Seagram Murals. Amazing. Talk about a continual return to stillness. I'll shoot back with more on that later.