Liv in a Life Well-Lived

  I am sure you have seen countless images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Maybe you have even placed it on your bucket list to visit one day and take silly photos of you holding up the tower. I bet you had an image in your head about what it looks like, right now, as you are reading this. But you have to know this in advance: it looks nothing like you expect, and everything you expect all at the same time. Confused? Let me expound.

  This is not a blog post. It’s a love story. It was late afternoon when we stepped outside of Pisa Centrale, the clacking of my son’s stroller on the cobblestone streets echoing down the lane. We just came from Florence for the day, we had no luggage, and we also had no taxi to take back to our hotel. It had been a long day. We must have walked a dozen miles in the last 7 hours exploring every Florentine nook and cranny we happened to come by. I was at the end of my short string, and my husband was at the end of his long one. Our toddler was quiet in his stroller, obviously just as exhausted as his parents even if he hadn’t left his stroller for more than 10 minutes each time. One wrong move, we would’ve exploded. While waiting for the taxi in silence, I had been staring at a building unseeingly for the last 5 minutes. Then I realized, the light looked yellow. The sun streaming through the sides, and indeed, showering us with its rays was actually golden. That jolted me to the present

  Are you just a casual souvenir shopper who just wants to bring home something special from your trip to Paris? I can imagine that fashionistas or die-hard shoppers will have a very different list of go-to places, but if you are just an average tourist looking for something to remember Paris by, this list is a good place to start.

Have you ever visited a holy place and could just feel the palpable energy emanating from its very walls? That’s exactly how I felt visiting the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Sacre-Coeur). Imagine my surprise when I learned that the church was built on a sacred site where druids were thought to worship! And who hasn’t read (or watched) the tale of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and imagined our unlikely hero swinging from gargoyle to gargoyle in a mad dash to save the beautiful Esperanza? I’d say these are good enough reasons to visit these 2 particular iconic churches in Paris and I am excited to share our experience with you.

  I have read a number of brag blogs. I hope you don’t confuse this blog with them because I like to think my inspiration stems from a genuine love of travel. I make no pretensions about my financial capacity. I rarely go on a trip under my own steam; I am financed in one way or another by my work or my family. So what I am sharing here depicts the real struggle of someone who is blessed to travel, but limited by a very finite bank account. This what you call the Broke-ass Guide to Paris: Foodie Edition.

The Orsay is situated in a former train station which is why it has such an interesting lay-out. Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Cezanne….In one way or another, the common folk has come across some devolution of their work. Printed in cheap mugs, spring notebooks, a candy wrapper, or a billboard along a highway somewhere. Not a lot of us would know who painted what exactly, but they are influential enough to corner the “pretty artworks” most of us now consider real art. Well, what the heck is Impressionism anyway? As the term implies, Impressionism is about the impression of a particular view to the naked eye. It's less concerned about looking real (that's Realism), but more on how to capture a particular image in shadow and light. So this painting style is about simple, singular brushstrokes, capturing the love affair between light and dark, forming a whole. I love the Impressionists because, during the 1860s, their style violated the accepted art precepts of societ