Paris photos up on my flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/diebuechsepics/sets/72157622526073991/

If a picture's worth a thousand words, I'll let them speak for me for the time being!

Still jet-lagged as all get-out, awake at 4:00 a.m., first day back at work yesterday.

Things I Miss about Home when I am in Paris, and Vice-Versa

When I am in Paris, this is what I miss back home:
1. My family, my friends and my precious little dog. I miss him a lot when I see all the other little dogs who get to come into bars and cafés in Paris with their mistresses.
2. My Ford Mustang. Because if I were driving it in Paris, I would be thought to be terminally chouette behind its wheel. Like in Serge Gainsbourg's song.
3. My own collection of ridiculous, impractical shoes. Because I am wearing trainers or ballet flats to hoof it across Paris ten hours a day when I'm there. And I know I have ridiculous shoes back home to rival any I see on passing fashionable Parisiennes. And I hate it that I can't wear the ridiculous, new blue suede gladiator sandals with five inch heels that I've just acquired in Paris until I get back home. Or whatever fashionable shoe monstrosity I've just purchased.
4. My black and white Converse Chuck Taylors. Should have brought 'em. Who knew?
5. Jalapeños
6. Netflix

When I am home, this is what I miss about Paris:
1. Baguettes
2. Croissants
3. Café crème
4. Street markets for food shopping rather than supermarkets
5. $4 French fashion magazines (as opposed to $17-$20 in the U.S.)
6. Monoprix and Prisunic for cheap French-brand cosmetics sold at Sephora here
7. Real French stockings
8. $4 glasses of spectacularly good wine or champagne, the strange apertifs of Europe
9. Artisan cheeses
10. Outrageously flirtatious/charming people
11. Bouquiniste stalls, used book stores, book stores in general
12. Cheap eateries representing the cuisines of the entire world
13. People-watching, eccentric and/or high fashion looks on the street
14. Beautiful shop window displays

What I never miss about Paris when I'm home
1. Rabbits on the menu, or skinned and prepped for cooking in the market stalls
2. Horse butchers
3. The metro
4. Beggars
5. Blisters from walking

Home. Safely. Exhausted.

But deeply grateful to Paris for all her glories and all the adventures she always offers me.

Over a thousand pictures to upload and process.

New shoes from Paris. New stockings.

And a couple of really good stories. But not tonight!