Trip Backlog: Trocadero

I'm currently in the middle of backlogging trips made before the conception of this blog, and today's backlog is on the City of Lights. Forgive me if I keep coming back to this city; I love it to bits, and if I were to be blessed with the opportunity to live there for a small portion of my life, I would be so happy. Riding the Metro, frequenting the weekend street markets, reading a book in Tuileries, hanging out by the courts of Roland Garros... oh, to go back there again! I wish I were living the life of Carla Loves Photography (yes, an Australian Carla who moved to Italy to follow her photographer dreams and is now living in Paris!).

While the whole of this city is just absolutely marvelous, I must say that there is one bit of this magical place I shall never forget: Trocadero. (Station along Lines 6 and 9, in the sixteenth arrondissement.) Whenever I hear a friend is heading off there, I always tell her: "Go to Trocadero! Go to Trocadero! You musn't miss it!" because I do believe that from a tourist-y point of view, it gives the best view of the Eiffel. It's as if it's a balcony jutting out from a building, and all of the best of Paris is lying before you for you to inhale. 

In this place there are stalls selling crepes of all sorts of fillings, and men selling Eiffel Tower keychains left and right. A group of Filipinos are having lunch on the grassy steps, and a couple is sitting by the ledge, taking pictures as they lean against each other. Young men are roller-skating down the stairs, and you can't miss those people sunbathing as they lie on the concrete, relishing the warmth. There's a tiny merry-go-round down below, and a bateux mouche is making its nth trip along the winding Seine. 

The sky is a dangerous gray, and right after you take your photos with the Eiffel as your backdrop, lightning strikes and it begins to rain. Spring, after all, is full of these erratic rain showers, and you run for cover, back to the Metro, back to Rue d'Orleans - all the while promising to yourself that you will return to Trocadero -- to Paris -- one day. One day.