Share your defining travel moment with us!

[framboiseetrose]

Sis and Happy, do we all have the same syndrome? SE, like you, I cried big tears at Notre Dame on my first visit - real big tears. My children (they were quite young at the time) were really concerned.

It still happens occasionally - the latest one was a couple of years ago at Saint Sulpice. Big sobs that a priest came and asked if I needed help. He ahd that puzzled look when I told him those are tears of joy!

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

Happy, your post about Florence resonates - my first time there was only a few years ago, and being a history lover I was mesmerized with how real and immediate the past centuries feel when standing in the center of the area around the Duomo. I got shivers couple of times, because I could have sworn that I heard horses' hooves just fading from my hearing - envisioned a troop of retainers clattering after a nobleman (undoubtedly Medici!) or bishop, who had just turned the corner out of sight. And the feeling of immediacy of the past was magnified when standing in the (unfinished) Medici chapel/tomb, an incredibly grandiose monument to personalities far larger than life, yet long gone and with the family having simply died out.

[Penny]

During my years of traveling on vacations and then several years for business I saw many sights.

Grand Canyon, first sight is breathtaking.
California Redwoods
Golden Gate Bridge

And some that were a one time only experience.
Fireworks from a deck over the Tennessee River at the '82 World's Fair in Knoxville..
Fireworks over the Mississippi from atop a giant ferris wheel at the '84 World's Fair in New Orleans
The full moon reflected in the St. Johns' river just past Astor Florida. (a photo op with no place to stop )

Of course my list could go on and on.

But my most definitive moment has got to be the first sight of the Arc de Triomphe.
The morning we arrived in Paris I had bad jet lag plus a hangover (yes I have learned, no more alcohol on trans-Atlantic flight). We get into taxi and head for hotel. My boss is going there is Norte Dame, there is, there is, as I going hm, ah, yeah! As I'm trying to stay awake long enough to get to hotel.
Sleep the entire first day and night.
The next morning headed for work.
We turned right from Rue Berri onto Champs to walk to Charles de Gaulle Etoile metro strop. Ahead about 6 blocks is the Arc.
That's when it hit me, I was THERE!! And the Arc was 1000 times larger than I ever imagined.
So every morning up the Champs and every evening emerging from the metro there was the Arc.
We did not go over to the Eiffel until our second week and yes, it is my favorite sight but seeing any picture of the Arc and I right back to that 2nd day.