2 Days in Paris

Bon jour! A little different this week due to recently becoming a world traveler..... 

Travel makes the world feel bigger, but it also makes people feel more human.

I have been in Paris for two days, and I feel like I have seen all there is to see.

Which is not actually true. But it feels true to my legs and feet. 😅

We figured out the subway but you still somehow find yourself walking everywhere and there are stairs... So.  Many.  Stairs.

But also, so many people everywhere. Languages everywhere. Buildings everywhere... And all of them look like they belong in movies or fairy tales or history books or all of the above!

And all of it is real. Every corner feels like it has a story. Every building looks intentional. Every street seems to hold layers of people who came before, people who call this place home, and people who are just passing through. 

Paris is beautiful in a way that is hard to explain without sounding dramatic.

But I will say this: I haven't found a single stereotype yet that doesn't fit! And the Eiffel Tower is everything people say it is and more. I wondered if it might feel overhyped. Like maybe I had seen so many pictures that the real thing couldn’t possibly hold the same wonder.

But then the lights started twinkling at the top of the hour, and there I was, standing on a boat in the Seine River taking it all in ... Then walking around at the base of the Eiffel Tower and ordering crêpes with my brother. Finally, talking to my husband and kids back home, eating a Nutella and Kinder crêpe, and taking in one of those moments I know I will remember for the rest of my life.

Not because it was fancy.... Although it was.... but because it was full.

Full of wonder.

Full of gratitude.

Full of the strange feeling of being very far from home and still deeply connected to the people I love most!

People.... One of the most unexpected things about traveling.... People pop into my mind. People I haven’t thought about in years. People I haven’t talked to in forever. Little memories. Little oddities. Familiarities you didn’t expect to recognize in a place completely unfamiliar.

As we take in our fair share of people watching here, I keep thinking how strange people are. Not in a bad way.

Just… people are just ordinary and extraordinary all at once.

We dress differently. Talk differently. Eat differently. Walk differently. Order food differently. Navigate trains differently. We are all so very different and yet.... The same. Some of us know how to look effortlessly French, and some of us try for about 8 minutes before realizing we are still very much from South Carolina. 😂

But I felt the desire to want to fit in almost immediately. Soak up the language, understand the rhythm, and somehow become just a tiny bit French while I was here.

But wanting to fit into a place does not make it yours. And trying too hard just makes me feel a little silly. Thank goodness for my brother... The confident and easy travel partner! 

Still, there is something beautiful about being reminded that my way of living is not the only way people live. Seeing the world does not make me want a different life, it allows me to truly appreciate the life I love!!

......

The daylight stretches almost until 11 p.m., which no one warned me about. Everyone talks about the Eiffel Tower. No one says, “Also, the sun may forget to go down and you'll lose all sense of time.” 😅

I ate  "Rouge Delphine" raviolis, crêpes, escargot, French onion soup, bread, cheese, and found out that Coke Zero is absolutely available everywhere, which felt like a small mercy from the Lord.

There was Lillet Rosé with sparkling water and more food than any person should reasonably consume and yet I regret nothing.

On our first night, we slept in a small fourth-floor room in Paris with the balcony window the full length of the room open ... No air conditioning. I fell asleep and woke up to city noises, and somehow it was incredible peace and rest.

Then came day two..... 

Notre-Dame.... 

There were tourists everywhere. Conversations happening over sacred spaces. A repeated “shhh” over the PA system that felt both necessary and completely ineffective.

There was something sadly funny about how ordinary some of the overheard conversations were in such a reverent place.

The art.

The side chapels of the saints

The candles.

The architecture.

The intentional details.

The story of Jesus from birth to resurrection carved into the choir walls.

The prayer book where my brother and I wrote prayers for people we love.

The real people who were not there as tourists at all, but as worshippers.

         People confessing sin.

         People praying..... Crying

Where millions may walk through and miss the gospel carved right in front of them, people were still coming to worship. I was touched by that. Because you can stand inside a cathedral and still miss Christ.

You can admire the art and miss the Creator. You can whisper under the high ceilings, study the stained glass, take the pictures, and be in awe and still walk past the very story the whole building is trying to tell.

How often are we surrounded by evidence of God’s goodness and miss Him because of distractions or simply being unaware?

Scripture says:

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

— Psalm 24:1

Paris belongs to Him. Notre-Dame belongs to Him. The tourists, the worshippers, the tired traveling parents, the street musicians, the people standing in line for food, the ones taking selfies, the ones lighting candles, the ones shushing and the ones being shushed — all made in the image of God and all belong to Him. 

Travel reminds you that God is not regional. He is not confined to my church, my town, my country, my routine, or my comfort zone. He is Lord over all of it.

“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.”  - 1 Chronicles 29:11

...... 

After Notre-Dame, we went to the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was held prisoner. There is something heavy about standing in a place that used to be a palace and became a prison. History feels different when you are walking through it instead of reading about it.

Then the Louvre. And no, I did not even get a picture of my two-second view of the Mona Lisa. There were too many people, too much movement, and honestly, I was more taken with everything else. To see paintings by Rembrandt, Veronese, Delacroix, Ingres, and so many others in person — artists I have heard of, artists I barely knew, paintings that somehow felt familiar even when they were new to me — it was overwhelming in the best way. 

The opulence.

The history.

The treasures.

The rooms that once belonged to kings.

It was like stepping into the kind of setting I had only seen on big screens, except this time I was standing inside it with tired feet and a very real need to sit down, but not wanting to miss anything. 

One of my favorite parts of traveling though ... Sitting in the Louvre shopping area with gelato or in the gardens behind the Louvre with my brother. Resting our backs but still taking it all in.

Not rushing to the next thing for a moment.

Just being there.

That is what travel has done for me already in only two days.... 

It has made me wander... It has made me wonder. It has made me tired and ready for the next thing. It has made me hungry and full. It has made me grateful. And it has impressed on me that the world is both much bigger and much smaller than I think.

Bigger because there is so much beauty, history, culture, language, art, and life beyond my little slice of heaven on earth. 

Smaller because everywhere you go, people are still people... And God is still on the throne. 

So the lessons I am carrying from my travels so far....  

Yes... The Eiffel Tower is worth seeing.

Yes... The food is worth tasting.

Yes ... The art is worth standing in front of in real life. 

But people are still the most eternal thing in the room.

And God is everywhere all at once.... 

The rest of France 2026 begins tomorrow....

Where is God using something outside your normal routine to remind you of His omniscience, His people, or the life He has given you? 

Lord, thank You for the beauty of Your world and for the people You have created in every place. Help me travel with wonder, live with gratitude, and notice You in both the extraordinary and the ordinary. Open my eyes to the people around me and remind me that every thing and everyone belongs to You. Amen.

Until next time, keep following the Plott, and I will be praying for us all. 💛