It was my first time in Paris, and I only had a day or two to try and see everything — so I walked the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triompe and the Eiffel Tower, and had a great morning run along the Seine as the sun was coming up, and did all kinds of other touristy things (like getting ripped off by a street con artist, but I digress).

But the best moment of the whole trip by far was sitting in the legendary Cafe Flore on Boulevard Saint-Germain having a cafe au lait (seven Euros, thank you very much) and watching people stroll by. It was a timeless experience in many ways, and almost worth the entire journey. I kept picturing Sartre or Camus or Simone de Beauvoir coming to sit and smoke beside me, as the sun sank slowly behind the cathedral.