I lived here (Place 18 Juin) in the 80's - also lived in the
Marais and on the Ile St Louis.....Was living in NYC before that, and Paris felt like a little village in comparison.
It grew in my heart every day i was there. I could never walk past Notre Dame without pinching myself that it was actually really materially there...
I loved most the layers of history, beauty and tragedy on every street - "Ici Est Tombe Pour Le France...", "Ici Vecu Georges de la Tour..", sometimes multiple layers like the Obelisk on the Place de la Concorde which besides being stunningly powerful as art from ancient Egypt, brought there by Napoleon and being near where the guillotine was placed during the Revolution, and pockmarked by war damage from the Liberation....
The cemeteries are overwhelming history lessons and full of pathos...want to know what the Great Wars cost France without all the military pomp ?....and GO TO THE CATACOMBS!!!!!! - "as we once were...."
One day I opened the windows in my apartment, looked out and saw tanks going through the square...another cold blue dawn, hearing bells I looked down to see a flock of sheep being led to the Jardin de Luxembourg...
One week terrorists were blowing off bombs all over the city and I passed inches by the biggest at Chez Tatti less than a minute before I heard and saw it go off....
The people are wonderful once they trust you, I think for the Parisians it is a serious thing to be a friend and so don't offer their friendship lightly...but once you gain their trust you are family.
And falling in Love has a different feel there...
Thanks for the memories...so many