Daydreams and Fountains

Continuing with the theme of yesterday's post, the fountain at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden is the perfect place for daydreaming. I suppose the first pretense is that I'm going there to read, and I usually do get through a page or two...but most of the time I watch the water and the people, listen to the giggle of children, and just enjoy the spray of mist picked up by a gust of wind. It reminds me of afternoons spent in the Tuileries in my early twenties, writing in my leather journal about children pushing boats through the fountain and how I was going to conquer the world. Yeah, I was one of those kids, a little scruffy, overly pretentious, chasing ghosts of Joyce and Sylvia Beach. Ah, young idealism. Here are a few of my favorite blogs, in no particular order, that keep me fantasizing about running off to Paris.

• Paris Daily Photo, you know.
• Little Brown Pen is gorgeous. I especially love Nichole's Paris Color Project. I'd love to do something like that for the District. Basically, this blog is everything I wish I could do with mine.
• From Me To You is not just about Paris. The rest of the blog is pretty too, but the Paris section is so pretty it aches a little.
• Codzienny Paryz, Elsa's daily Paris photo blog, is not just gorgeous, but also impressively trilingual.
• David Lebovitz: living the sweet life in Paris covers my two favorite topics--Paris and food. That makes this blog just about perfect. But before you click, just a warning, don't lick your screen, folks.

If I missed your favorite, please let me know. I'm always looking for new sites to while away the day.

Now, back to DC! On Friday afternoons in the summer, a jazz band sets up next to the fountain and the entire park fills up with picnickers sharing cool pitchers of sangria sold from carts around the garden. And when there's a blanket covered with an assortment of cheese and desserts and surrounded by a group of good friends, it's better than daydreaming.

Inside the garden as it rained.