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Arriving in Paris for the first time in my life on December 27, 2013, I found it to be breathtaking and big and crowded and moving fast.

I couldn’t wait to settle in at our hotel and begin a walking tour of the neighborhood. I was charmed immediately by the florist shops, groceries, seafood markets and more all spilling out the doors and filling the granite sidewalks with their offerings.

Many of these shops were very small and filled to the brim inside and out with the freshest, most beautifully arranged goods. The arrangements were simple and oh soooo elegant. I love the French aesthetic of understated and ordered beauty.

Above these shops were five to eight stories of apartments built of granite and limestone with wrought iron railings and balconies. These timeless stone structures were crowned with slate-tiled mansard roofs.

The narrow streets of fan-patterned cobblestones soon gave way to the larger boulevards frenetic with movement from the cars and sidewalks of pedestrians. These streets were also lined with mostly small shops with the typical Parisian apartments above.

As we traveled the Metro to some of the great churches, museums and government buildings, the streets of Paris revealed more and more extravagant architectural riches. I saw more than I could take in; Paris seemed unending in its size and extravagance!