Paris in a flash
Trip Start
Mar 29, 2007
1
2
3
Trip End
Apr 08, 2007
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Saturday, April 21, 2007
General notes: I flew with Korean Air, which I heartily recommend. Good service, good food (and we all know that's the most important thing!), no delays. My flights were Narita to Seoul (2 hours) then Seoul to Paris (12 hours) and the return was Zurich to Seoul (11 hours) and another 2 hours back to Narita. I arrived in Paris on the 29th of March and the rest of my family arrived the next morning. We stayed at the Hôtel de Roubaix, in the 3e arrondissement, within easy walking distance of the Louvre, l'Ile de la Cité and most of the stuff tourists want to see. As for the weather, it cleared up after two days of chilly drizzle and we had sunshine for the rest of our stay.
So, Paris. Paris in the spring, no less. When I went to Paris five years ago, I was there in mid-May for a few days and then again for a few days in mid-June. It was my first time in Europe and my first solo trip and I was utterly enchanted. It was hard not to be; it's Paris, after all. It's in all the books, the songs, the poems, I felt I knew it
already. And I did, in a way. Growing up in a francophone culture, but not French, Paris was IT, the centre of it all, where it all began, in a way. So my first time there was spent seeing all the things I'd read about and seen pictures of, so I could take my own pictures and tell everyone else all about it.
This time was quite a different experience. Obviously, you don't go to Paris for the warm and welcoming people, but when I was there in 2002, I found people generally kind and the atmosphere pleasant. This time, though the city itself was as lovely as ever, the atmosphere was much less pleasant. Everyone seemed worried and drab, hurrying along. I felt rather conspicuous in my pink coat, much more than I do in Tokyo, surprisingly; you'd think that Tokyo would be grey and Paris colourful, but it's the other way around, at least these days. The social problems they're having really seem to be wearing the city down.
We stayed in Paris a total of six days, days during which we "did" the typical things: the Louvre (twice for me and my father: we went back to see the special Praxiteles exhibition), Notre-Dame, St-Germain-des-Prés, Montmartre, the Cluny Museum, the Sainte Chapelle, shopping at Printemps, the Catacombs, the Champs-Élysés. Not all five of us saw all those things, since we split up in various configurations, but I think we all got to see what we wanted to. Also, we ate lots of cheese. And drank lots of wine.
And now, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
Comments
ooh
niiiiiiice :D