Paris, France
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2008
1
24
31
Trip End
May 28, 2008
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Arc de Triomphe in the Sun
. Obviously worshipers would be allowed in free of charge on Sundays, but I thought this was overall bad form. We decided to not pay the entrance fee as I fail to be impressed by cathedrals anymore. I've seen so many lately, each one is beautiful and unique. But after seeing so many in such a short amount of time, they kind of lose their impressiveness. After walking around, we ate at a pizzeria and then grabbed our bags and caught the 2-hour train from Antwerp to Paris. Ah, the original city of love. Paris radiates love throughout it. Except for English speakers. If you're going to France, you'd better learn French. Because they hate speaking English, even though most of them can. One guy even told us so. I wanted to tell him that if he wanted us not to speak English, then the French should stop wearing Tommy Hilfinger shirts and New York Yankees hats. I've never agreed with the philosophy supported by many Americans that if Mexican people want to come to America, they should learn English. I think as neighbors to Mexico, we should attempt to learn Spanish to be able to serve the Mexican clientele better. But I am a minority in this thinking and writing this and posting it on the internet just put me on the no-fly-terrorist list. I'm sure of it.
Paris, among many other things, is very photogenic. You could just hold up your camera and shoot and almost every picture would turn out beautiful
Cannes Film Festival Poster
. The French have definitely perfected the art of the beautiful city. All the modern growth has been pushed to the western part of the city so that everything in the center has a relatively old and usually pleasing feeling about it. Anyway, after checking into our hostel we bought a bottle of wine and a light dinner and walked the short distance down to the Eiffel tower. We sat in the park and sipped our wine while we watched the sun go down behind the hills. After dinner we wanted to go to the top of the tower but there were several police and military personnel with semiautomatic rifles and stern looks. Apparently someone had just committed suicide off the second landing on the Eiffel tower. He didn't get a good enough jump, so he caught himself on the first landing on the way down and landed in pieces. This kind of spoiled the romantic mood, we decided to cancel the Eiffel Tower and go back home.
Day 69 - After breakfast we bought ourselves 2-day Paris museum passes. These would allow us unlimited access to all of Paris' most popular museums and in most cases we could skip the line and go directly into the museums. The first item on our touring itinerary was the Palace of Versailles located just outside the city. I came to Versailles when I was in Paris last, but I wanted to show Karla because it was undoubtedly the most amazing palace I've ever seen
Central Garden at Verasilles
. We toured the palace, the hall of mirrors and the kings apartments. Then we walked all across the grounds and gardens. I have learned much more about the French court and the Monarchy in my Music Education classes in college so it was very cool to see where a large portion of French musical history took place. Even the famous Mozart children were guests of the French Court in the 1770's. The weather today was perfect I couldn't have asked for a better day to be strolling along the garden paths. We caught the train and returned to the city around 3:00 and went to the Louvre. I have also been to the Louvre before but our tour group was only there long enough to see the grand gallery and all the notable pieces. From 3:30 until the museum closed at 9:00pm we walked through the exhibits. The Louvre has a very interesting audio guide that is a PDA showing a map of the museum, as you walk through rooms you can click on the map and hear about specific paintings as you walk by them. We made sure we were very methodical in our method of looking through the rooms. We saw many famous pieces that I remember reading about in high school or college. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo along with several other sculptures and paintings by Michelangelo, and Rafael. The Louvre also has an extensive collection of Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture as well as a whole wing dedicated to Egyptian artifacts. After nearly 6 hours straight we had managed to see a little less than half the museum. I've never been in a museum that made me feel so small and insignificant. After the Louvre closed we went to the northern part of the city to try and find the Moulin Rouge. Karla is a big fan of the movie and wanted to see the famous cabaret theatre. We found it but unfortunately it had been renovated into a modern high-dollar theatre with a night club next door. To even have a look inside would cost you $100. It's too bad that it's been renovated rather than preserved but I guess it's better than tearing it down and building a new theatre in its place
Cupid and Psyche
. What a long day, we've been going for 14 hours straight. Tired with sore feet we returned to the hostel for some well needed sleep. Day 70 - Back to the Louvre for day number two. Yesterday we looked at a majority of the sculptures so today we looked at mostly paintings and terracotta Roman Artifacts. The Louvre really has way too much art to be appreciated in one trip. I've been there twice and probably seen everything but I don't remember it all. The art is overwhelming not to mention the building itself. The former palace of the Emperors looks huge from the outside but is even bigger once you get in. My favorite part of the museum, aside from the very famous paintings like the Mona Lisa, was probably the Egyptian wing. Karla enjoyed the French Renaissance paintings and the few Vermeer pieces that were on display in the Dutch an dflemish wings of the museum. After the Louvre Karla wanted to go see the Musee de Orsay, the impressionist art museum in Paris. By this point I have had about enough of art museums. And a modern art museum was probably the lowest thing on my list of things to see. So off Karla went and I bought some postcards and sat in the park for a while. We met later that afternoon at the Notre Dame cathedral. The towers and Façade of Notre Dame were undergoing renovation the last time I was here so this was all new to me. Our museum passes got us free admission to the top of the tower, but the one catch was that there were no lift
Eiffel tower close up
. If you wanted to see the top, you had to climb the 422 steps each way. Slightly reluctant we made our way to the top. We had a great view of the city from the top and we also got a great look at some of the gargoyles on the sides of the towers. We got to go inside the southern belfry that houses the large bell named Emmanuel. It's absolutely massive, over 13 tons and takes up the entire belfry by itself, it's ringer alone weighs 1,100 lbs. I wonder how they rung the bell in the day's before mechanical aides, Quasimodo would have to be pretty ripped to ring a 13 ton bell. Emanuel is only rung on specific catholic holidays whereas the four bells in the other belfry ring several times daily. After the tower tour we went inside and looked around the inside. There was a mass going on so we couldn't walk everywhere, but it was neat to see the procession and hear the services, even if they were in French.Our next stop was the Arc de Triumph. When we arrived there was a service going on to light the Eternal flame at the base of the memorial. "If the flame is eternal, why do they have to relight it?" I asked Karla. Apparently it must be some kind of memorial flame rather than an eternal flame. I ceased caring honestly. Just like Notre Dame, the Arc de Triumph did not have a lift either. After 300 more stairs and a liter of water later we were at the top of another French monument. Do I have to tell you that the view was good? I do? Ok, the view was spectacular. We've hit a beautiful stretch of weather that has afforded us about two weeks straight of textbook perfect days. I don't know if Europe is normally like this but it feels very weird to the Oregonians in the crowd. When we have two solid weeks of sunshine we start shouting "Drought!" and stop watering our lawns. After another long day of French sights we needed something a little less French for dinner. We hit up the Paris Hard Rock Café because we knew they wouldn't discriminate against English speakers there. I never thought that I would need an American Oasis in Europe but the Hard Rock Café has been a lifesaver for both Karla and I. Whenever we get tired of cafés that charge $4 for a cup of coffee or guessing our dinner from menu's in foreign language, we can always find a Hard Rock café and feel like we've been transported back home just for a couple of hours. It's good for my soul to hear some American Rock n' Roll every once in a while.
