“There are plenty who regard a wall behind which something is happening as a very curious thing.”
--Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I love walking in Paris . Just walking. Not going anywhere, not with a purpose or a plan, but just walking. This took Liam and Andy a few days to understand. They kept thinking we were going somewhere, that we had a destination, and that my wandering was just to torture them.
Finally, Andy gave up in frustration. He asked to stay in the apartment while we strolled. Liam was teased along by the promise of a pain au chocolat, or an ice cream, or maybe a book. He's still easily bought.
In London, we walked with a purpose. We had destinations, tickets, sights to see. In Oxford and Sydney we walked to explore. For our ten days in Paris, I wanted the boys to see the things they wanted to see, but more than that, I wanted them to feel the city. You can't do that from the top of a double-decker tour bus or by rushing from iconic sight to iconic sight.
We chose a few neighborhoods that I've walked in the past and a few that were new to me. Montmartre, the Latin Quarter, Ile de la Cite and Ile St Louis bring back memories. Montorgueil and the Marais were new to me .
One morning Liam and I walked around the Latin Quarter only to be surprised that the Metro station at which we had arrived was just a few hundred steps away. We had been looking for magical shops: The ones with the window displays that speak to mystery, or old things, or undiscovered treasures. We looked in shops and chatted with shopkeepers, not worrying at all about where we were on our map. We bought a journal for Liam that looks like it belongs in the Bodleian and wished for the quill pens or the sealing wax that requires a tiny, out-of-perspective melting spoon. We oohed and aahed over the chess pieces in a shop where the shopkeeper proudly agreed that his was the pre-eminent chess store in Paris. I thought the two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with strategy books were plenty, but he directed my attention to the opposite wall, where there were four more! We pointed out old, slanted rooflines and tiny windows atop centuries-old buildings.
I bought tiny amounts of creme fraiche, or cheese, or salami, or fruits, or bread from the best-looking store in the street . On Boulevard St Germain, we stumbled upon the perfect square at Place Maubert, with market stalls in the small square and the permanent food stores just behind. Fish, meat, wine, cheeses, produce, bread . . .
It's berry season, and the boys are loving the fresh fruit. On rue Montorgueil we've found a lovely produce store that sells delicious berries just a few steps from the cheese store and the boulangerie. Liam is amazingly loyal to his pain au chocolat (as I was my first time in France), but Andy likes to try different things. Right now his favorite treat is a briochette sucre--a small brioche with large sugar pieces on top. It's melt-in-your-mouth wonderful.
And now we leave Paris. The first time I was in Paris I was a teenager, and the places I visited are still vivid memories. The first time Chris and I were in Paris together, I said that I wanted to live here when I am old. I'm twice as old as I was then, and I still want to live in Paris when I'm old.