Paris 2
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2008
1
14
102
Trip End
Feb 26, 2009
Paris,
France
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Our tour guide for this was a crazy Swiss drama student called Linda. Drama students annoy me because they tend to overdramatise things, especially on tours where they think they´re funny acting out the events in their stories. This one had a very high opinion of her own sense of humour, as did exactly one other person on the tour, who cracked up at every stupid act our guide performed.
For the three guys, this was our first real taste of Paris. Mich decided to join us even though she´d already seen many of the sites last time she was in Europe, and even though she thought it was ambitious to fit so many far-apart places into a short tour. She was right, as a lot of the sights listed on the website (eg. Eiffel Tower), we didn´t see close up but were quite far away.
Some of the places we visited or saw from up close:
Notre Dame
The Louvre - we walked through the quadrangle up to the glass pyramid
Palais Royal
Tuileries Gardens - where you aren´t allowed to actually walk on any grass
Place de la Concorde
Arc de Triomphe
Champs-Élysées
As usual, what fascinated me most were the stories about the city´s history, especially about Napoleon whose tremendous sense of ambition is inspiring. Like when he marched back into Paris following deposal and exile on Elba, faced thousands of armed guards with their muskets pointed towards him ready to shoot, before he fearlessly declared "If any of you will shoot your Emperor, shoot him now". None dared.
I´m aware this is almost certainly false propaganda, as was much of our tour. Linda kept referring to France´s noble resistance during WWII, and how there was only one building in all of Paris that had bullet holes, as the city was liberated so successfully in 1944. I would have referred to France´s weakness in capitulating so easily against a nation they defeated 2 decades earlier, and explained the only-one-bullet-hole theory as showing how little the French actually fought to defend Paris.
Towards the start of the tour, we saw a group of people jumping off each side of the Pont Neuf bridge into the Seine, and then doing the same over each bridge after that. Tow has some cool action shots of the jumps, unfortunately I don´t as I noticed just before the tour that my camera screen is now cracked. Although I can still take photos, I have absolutely no idea if the site I´m photographing is actually in the photo.
Deutsch left the tour early to meet up with a (HOT!) French girl Sophie who used to work with him at Rebel. He missed Linda´s fascinating story at the end of the tour, about how Hitler, when realising he was about to lose occupied Paris, ordered the city to be utterly destroyed. One of his generals was ordered to set up dynamite around all the city´s landmarks, which he did, but deliberately sabotaged the wiring so that only 2 minor buildings were blown up, and Paris survived. True French resistance. By a Nazi general.
Eiffel Tower
While Deutsch hung out with his hot friend, and Tow went to sleep, Mich and I climbed the Eiffel Tower. Up and down all 669 stairs!! We took the train to Trocadero where the view was incredible, both of the tower and of the gardens nearby. I´m not usually that into art unless it involves some mathematical beauty, such as symmetry or impossible structures, like M.C. Escher´s work. Paris to me is symmetry defined. Like the Arc de Triomphe, with 12 boulevards equally spaced out around a central point. All the major Parisian sites are like this, including the grounds near the Eiffel Tower where the buildings to the left appear the same as those to the right, forming a cohesive order that forms beauty.
The stairs took us to level 2, which had incredible views over the whole city, and little placards telling us about the sites we could see from each part of the tower. We did this when it was still daylight.
We waited forever to catch the lift up to the very top of the tower, so that by the time we reached the top it was becoming dark. This was perfect - seeing all of Paris both in daylight and at night. It was really windy at the top and Mich´s 4 layers weren´t enough for her, so we didn´t spent too long in the outdoor area.
While we were waiting to go up, I saw a guy who, from the side, looked exactly like Deutsch. I said to Mich "Geez that guy looks like Deutsch". She looked a bit to the side of where I was looking, and responded: "No, that IS Deutsch". He was actually there standing about 5m away from the guy who looked exactly like him! We didn´t even know Ben was at the tower. It was very funny at the time.
After catching the lift back down to level 2, we walked down the 669 stairs of the now luminescent blue tower, with stars around it, to commemorate France´s presidency of the European Union. This looked stunning. We met Deutsch and Sophie at the bottom, and on the hour saw the Eiffel Tower light up with flashing lights. Following this, we four walked to the Champs Elysses, perhaps the world´s most famous street, which looked pretty with fluorescent lights in each of the trees.
UEFA Cup: Paris St Germain vs. Racing de Santander (Spain)
Mich, Deutsch and Tow had also booked tickets for this match, but the first two barred it, Mich because it was too cold, and Deutsch because he wanted to pick up. I found my way to the Parc des Princes stadium, whereby I tried selling our 2 spare soccer tickets, which we bought for 20 Euro each ($40). A group of 5 or 6 teenagers were literally begging me to sell them the tickets for a total of 15 Euro, I thought they were going to mug me at one stage, but I wouldn´t sell them below a total of 30 Euro. Eventually I found a buyer and found Tow. Even though Deutsch and Mich were content with wasting their 30 Euro each, Tow and I decided we´d be generous and give them money they never expected to receive, minus a share for our (i.e. my) efforts so we could buy a snack.
The crowd was nuts, even nutsier than the Premier League crowd had been nuts, with both sets of fans singing, dancing and lighting flares. The away fans were literally fenced off into a separate area, and even in our neutral-fans section we had lines of guards with bullet proof vests around us. The one nearest us looked like a cross between Matthew Johns and the funniest man on television Stephen Colbert, so Tow and I struggled to look at this tough guy without laughing.
The match itself was quite exciting. PSG had 2 international stars playing, Claude Makelele and Jerome Rothen, and took an early 2-0 lead. We were really excited when the goals were scored, cheering just like the locals. However, Santander scored 2 late goals to equalise, and the crowd fell deafeningly silent. The Tony Soprano lookalike sitting next to us did not look happy. We´ve booked 2 tickets to FC Barcelona´s Champions League game in a few weeks, and can´t wait to see 1 of the world´s biggest clubs in a major match after enjoying this one so much.
Ford Fulltime
I enjoyed the Eiffel Tower so much that I went back with Tow after the match, to see the blue tower again from the Trocadero. We decided to spend 5 Euro each on awesome crepes, of Deutsch and Mich's ticket money - with nutella, banana and coconut. Delicious! The nutella tasted so much sweeter knowing those 2 paid for them, and knowing that they had absolutely no idea. I'm too kind to not tell them now. All these African guys were trying to sell us flashing Eiffel Tower figurines and they were pestering us non-stop. I had a fantastic day, got up to far more than each of the others and far more than I expected, and it was definitely one of my trip highlights so far.
