After two months of travel we were nearing the end of our trip. Paris would be our last 10 days and I knew it would be a bittersweet return. Lauren, one of the girls that came to Italy with us, was flying back to Europe to join us in our Parisian days. Instead of a hostel we decided to rent an apartment in a residential area of Montmartre. It may have only consisted of a kitchen/bedroom with a small bathroom but it was perfect for what we wanted. Our location was over an hours walk from the center but I enjoyed being removed from the congested scene of the first district. We were also moments from the beautiful Sacre Coeur, which made us easily accessible by metro but still provided a sense of detachment.
Each morning was a new adventure of senses. Depending on the day we could have been bouncing from chocolatier to patisserie trying flavors like chocolate with lemon and basil or pastry’s flavored with custard. Other days we enjoyed the mornings sipping coffee and sharing thoughts with one another. Time was as fast or slow as we wanted. We did what we wanted, when we wanted and it allowed each moment to surround us in its entirety. Often we would go to different markets and pick up food for that evenings dinner. It was so nice to be able to cook again and we were taking full advantage of the abundant produce of Paris. Our faces and awkward accents became familiar to our local cheese, wine, and bread stores that we stopped in almost daily. We were even able to return to the amazing falafel stand and ice cream shop in the Jewish Quarter and fell in love with a few new places. Sugarplum Cake Shop and Rose Bakery quickly became favorites as I moaned over carrot cake at Sugarplum and the most delicious quiche of tomatoes, goat cheese, and zucchini at Rose’s. The local pastry shop (which we later learned had a starring role in the movie Julie & Julia) introduced me to a world of flaky pastry dough at its finest. Croissants, pain du chocolate, and raisin brioche recalled how magical butter could be when mixed with a skilled hand. As I sit here writing this post I am literally salivating at the memory of it. Then there was the chocolate éclair at Stohrer, which not only showed me how good an éclair could be (I never really liked éclairs before) but basically turned me off from trying any other. I know nothing will ever beat what I had that day.
If we weren’t cooking in the evenings we were usually found munching on market food somewhere. One night we took a picnic to the Eiffel Tower and watched the lights come on as the sky went dark. It was a time I will always remember. Surrounded by great friends, wonderful food, and a view that epitomizes Paris I knew life was at its finest. It was starting to really hit me that this journey, this part of my growth, was soon to be over. I would be starting a new phase soon and although I looked forward to it I felt unready. When I left over two months ago I knew I was embarking on an amazing adventure. What I didn’t realize was how much it would shape who I am.
When I think about it, I feel one of the attractions for traveling is that it allows you to leave life behind. You escape the stresses of work, the family disagreements, the drama of friends, etc. You leave it all behind and for a short while and you are allowed to just be. Be yourself, someone else, the person you hope to be, whoever. The ability to just be, to truly live in the moment, was becoming my whole life after these months of travel. I have forgotten what it was like to be stressed, unhappy, to have deadlines and commitments. Although we did have hiccups the majority of time was filled with moments that made me the happiest. It was the places we saw, the people we met, the food we ate, the stories we shared, and the memories we created that brought a true sense of life. The ability to live for me and to discover myself through travel is what made this time so significant. I began to realize that this trip didn’t help me to escape my life; this trip helped me find it.
When the day came to say goodbye I was the last of the three of us to leave. I sat in the apartment and immediately felt a sense of emptiness. I was not used to being alone. For the past two and a half months I had at least one constant friend. She helped create every moment of my time abroad and experienced the good, bad, beautiful, questionable, and the incredible just as I had. In countries I barely knew she was my sense of direction and source of trust. Kate became more like a sister over these past months and as she left I sat staring out the window catching the tears that fell from my face. The journey was officially over. As I cried I flipped through my camera reliving the moments of Italy, France, and Germany. Of our first meal in Rome and our last with Stephanie, Kristen, and Lauren in Bologna. Of markets in Lyon, wine in Pheddersheim, and sweetbreads in Paris. The pictures slowly transformed from macchiatos, pizza, and pasta to baguettes, sausages, and cheese. The tears literally could not stop. But by the end I wasn’t crying because it was over, I was crying because it happened.
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