Paris

Paris is really the straightest place I've ever been, and that includes growing up in rural New Hampshire. It's still pretty though. Notre Dame is a giant beast, maybe alien, maybe dead, whose vast carcass broods over one side of the city. One night walking by we saw the waxing moon shining through long thin gargoyles on the towers of the church. We found a Canadian bar that serves Molsons and burgers. Some churches are small and dark and holy, mostly because the Virgin hangs out there, and she gets lots of candles. Other churches are big and official and not so special. Notre Dame and the Pantheon, both so beautiful, manage to coexist in this city of contradictions, one so long and dark and medieval, one so tall and rational and full of light.