I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to my blog stats, but since I noticed a few interesting questions that landed readers to the blog (and planning to write a post on that soon), I thought, why not make a list of ten most read blog posts of 2013? This should also fall nicely into the end-of-year-listicle phenomenon, so this is my minor contribution ;)
A number of general observations: the posts are mostly Paris-related, the number one post had been read more than the other nine combined (just to show how often it has also been searched for people needing such information), and these posts were mostly published in the first half of the year – I suppose those later in the year haven’t got the equal amount of exposure time thus not as widely read yet.
10. Daytrip: Paris to Amiens
Since I had a little free time on my hand (and I needed to grab some points for my SNCF frequent traveller status) I went to Amiens for the day to see the famed cathedral and to suss out the city in general. With a journey time of just over an hour, it’s a very do-able day trip from Paris. I wished I had opted for a late return rather than one in the late afternoon, for I lacked time to check out the Hortillonnages.
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Paris remained magical on Sunday morning. In fact, even more so in comparison to Saturday. Throughout the day, snow continued to fall all over the city (and other parts of the country), depositing layers of powdery ice over everything as well as everyone who ventured out from their cosy apartments.
Frédéric and I went out for an impromptu date morning, but first up, after seeing Carina’s blog post, he requested if we could stopped by at the Louvre before heading up to Montmartre, my destination pick. Of course! After we wrapped ourselves well, we were out the door.
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Overnight, Paris underwent a most magnificent transformation.
I got up really early this morning, put on layers of clothes and headed out when it was still dark outside. The plan was to get to a couple of spots within the city where snow would not be cleared away too quickly, and while they were tourist-free. I should have a good couple of hours to try to grab some photos of a Parisian winter wonderland.
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There has been much excitement towards the end of last week, when snow was forecasted to make its first appearance for the year. Everyone (I know) was waiting in gleeful anticipation on Monday when Météo-France issued the relevant alerts. Still, most part of the day was uneventful while the temperature remained chilly.
We spotted them upon our exit from the Grand Palais that evening, having fast-tracked our way in for the final evening of the exhibition of Bohèmes thanks to the card of Sésame+. We really should have gone a long time ago instead of squeezing it in last minute like this because the exhibition was completely packed!
It was fun and magical to have fat and fluffy flakes surrounding us while we ran for our bus and then on our short walk home from the bus stop. My inner child was just begging for more time outside. Unfortunately, food and beckoning warmth were too difficult to resist and after grabbing another couple of shots, we made our way indoors.
I was hoping for the snow to stick but no, shortly after we got home, it started to rain. Morning came and it was back to yet another morning of grey sky. We had a couple more short bursts of snowfall but that was it. The forecast of 5cm of snow never made it to Paris.
A new waiting game then began. The cold front will once again bring along snow – even more than earlier in the week – for the weekend and oh how everyone’s wishing it will stick this time. The collective praying seems to work – this evening, as you can see, rooftops and roads are turning into blankets of white. The lucky people who have garden/internal courtyard (sadly, not us) get to enjoy a real winter wonderland.
I am warmly wrapped up at home, looking out the window, debating whether to go out and play, or not. Alas, I will leave it for now. I’ll leave the continuous sprinkles of snow to weave its magic and be prepared to be up and out early tomorrow morning instead. Fingers crossed that this patience will be rewarded in the form of pristine winter scenes.
