Paris part Un - Paris is confused
Trip Start
Mar 18, 2008
1
3
Trip End
Apr 07, 2008
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Sunday, March 23, 2008
As some of your may know I am currently experiencing some down time in the employment area of my life.
I love to travel and what better time than now when I don't have to coordinate a vacation with coworkers or
deal with a cheesy alloted 2 weeks that isn't worth squat. But how to travel cheaply and yet, decently? I
solved this dilema by going on Craigslist.com and swapping my apartment out with some guy from Paris.
He's staying in my apartment in NYC while I'm staying in his apartment in Paris. His name is Sacha, but I
prefer to call him Frenchie.
I promised regular updates to everyone so you would know that I'm still alive...
I would be having a great time if it wasn't for this crazy weather. One minute it is sunny, then it turns
cloudy, then it starts to rain, then it turns into hail, and then the cycle starts all over again on the
opposite side of the street! One night the wind was blowing so bad it sounded like there was a tornado
outside. Last night it was raining and at one point was so cold it turned into snow for about a minute
before Mother Nature remembered she doesn't snow in Paris.
Before I got here the temps were in the 50s so all the trees and flowers are starting to bloom, but I guess I
brought the frigid NY weather over with me. Its actually supposed to warm up later this week, but Im
not holding my breath.
My friend Heather who came with me just left back for NY this morning. So now I can get off the business of
sightseeing, and go back to my purpose for being here - taking photos. Funny thing is that we havent been
able to do too much sightseeing cause everything is closed or on strike! Parks and churches included!!!!!
We were fortunate enough to get to go to Easter Mass at Notre Dame yesterday. They did the mass in
Gregorian Chants. It was very beautiful. Although the priest spoke in French so it was impossible for us to
understand what he was saying.
The apartment where I'm staying is very small, but quaint. It serves my purpose and is right outside the
Metro stop. There are 4 homeless guys who are living right outside the apartment door across the street
under the train tracks. All they do is sleep, drink, smoke cigarettes, and philosophize with each other.
They never move from that spot. Sometimes they'll have other homeless and normal people from the neighborhood
visit them and they'll have a little party with more drinking and cigarettes. Saturday some random dog came
to hang out with them for the day too. Im actually not too afraid of them because they never pick their butts
up off the mattresses that they are sleeping on. Plus they don't seem to really be bothering anyone who walks
past them.
My guidebook says that this is not a good area to stay in if you are visiting Paris, and clearly there are
absolutely no tourists where I am at. The other day I took a walk around the neighborhood, as long as I
don't venture too far from the metro stop into the hood Im ok. I was trying to find some park that the
guidebook says is fabulous - it is toward the outer edge of my arrondisemont. I was wandering down a
street and pulled out my map to figure out which street I needed to walk down next. I look up and a few
feet away from me is some guy staring menicingly at me - he looked just like Charles Manson, except skinnier.
I decided to get out of there and find another spot to review my map. Then I walked past this beautiful
graffiti, it really was almost like artwork. I really wanted to take a photo of it, but I was afraid to take
out my camera so it wouldn't get stolen, and plus Charles was still pretty near by. Fortunately he
wasn't following me though. Then as I'm walking further along the graffiit wall I see where the artist
wrote "I love my ghetto" in English. Then I get on this bigger street and I see the park in the distance,
but I'm also seeing a gang of shady kids with fire crackers and other scarey types around. I promised
myself to not take risky chances on this trip to get my photos - as I have been known to do in the past. So
I left the area and went back to my apartment. So no visit to the Parc la Villette for me on this trip.
So that's all for now, I'll be in Paris for another 2 weeks, so I'm sure there will be more stories...
