Here Comes the Sun

When I got to Europe, my body was not appreciative of the hour change. This was compounded by European Daylight Saving Time happening two days after I arrived. But I trudged along, and got myself used to it. But then, three weeks later we went to Paris. All of a sudden, the days were a LOT longer. And I don’t mean that metaphorically. It was light outside until about 10:30pm, which seemed pretty late, ever for Daylight Saving Time hours. So I checked some figures. Orem Utah from whence I departed sits right at about 40.3 degrees latitude. Nice, France sits at 43.7. So that’s not so much of a difference. The negligible lack of latitudinal change combined with European Daylight Savings Time meant that there wasn’t much of a difference to notice in Nice.

But Paris is a different story. Its latitude is 48.87. And as everyone knows, during the summer, the northern hemisphere gets more sun more of the time because of the tilted nature of the earth’s rotation relative to the sun. So with summer fast approaching (going by the solstice, and not by when school gets out, that is) the lengthening days will indeed cause much lighter skies much later in the evening. Like this photo here, captured right around 10pm. 

Perhaps this is one reason that Paris seems so magical. It’s just in the right spot to make an evening last forever. But the days don’t get too long that you go crazy with insomnia. Like the proverbial baby bear, it’s just right. The amazing food, history, art, culture and overall artistic vibe help, too.