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Paris is Just Outside Your Door

How I found the City of Lights by Indiana cornfields…

Aaron Charles
Stubborn Travel
8 min readAug 22, 2024

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After planning the trip for over a year, we were finally here. Our bags having been dropped off at the hotel, my wife, Sarah, and I were on a walk through Les Marais in Paris. Yes, that’s Paris, France. I had to remind myself a couple of times on this first walk just to be sure.

Then we turned a corner and the Seine itself coursed away in front of us. Notre Dame stretched to the sky and its glory was somehow undimmed by the scaffolding that has adorned it since the fateful fire in 2019. Then finally, after walking a few miles, grabbing dinner, and taking an Uber when our legs wouldn’t carry us one step further, we saw the Eiffel Tower. We were here.

That split second of traveler euphoria was quickly squelched as — no more than a minute after we had stepped out of the Uber — the rain started. It was slow at first. Sun was even breaking through and splashing over the famous curved iron. But then the rains really came.

We tried to hail an Uber, but none were available — probably because we were now part of a growing throng of people huddled underneath the measly branches of landscaped trees near the queue for the Tower. We looked at each other through rain-soaked eyelashes; our clothes were drenched.

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Stubborn Travel
Stubborn Travel

Published in Stubborn Travel

By explorers with adventure in their DNA and a story to tell.

Aaron Charles
Aaron Charles

Written by Aaron Charles

Christ-follower. Husband to @SarahLCharles. Simple moments hold great power. Connect with me at my website: www.aarondcharles.com

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