“Paris Holds the Key to My Heart…” – song in Anastasia, but I’m pretty sure it has more interesting roots than that.
If ever anyone reading this has the opportunity to journey to Paris, take it. I’ve been looking forward to Paris since I heard we were getting a fantastic deal on transportation and lodging, but I was still a little worried about the hot spot being touristier than I care to enjoy. I have to admit, that I loved every moment – with the exception of our hotel area. We were definitely lodged up near Gard de Nord, which is a little bit shadier than I would like to admit. On the first night I discovered ants crawling along the floor and our bathroom was ridiculous! I don’t think a very, very tiny person could have used the toilet without sitting sideways on the seat. It was ridiculous.. and to the astonishment of many, myself included, I forgot to take a picture of how obscenely small it was.
We arrived Friday evening and had heard through the grapevine that the Louvre was free to students after 6pm. Not knowing whether this was true or not, we journeyed to the Jardin des Tuileries and took in a sunny Friday evening with breathtaking views of the Effiel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and other beautiful works of art. My friends Erin, Kristal, Emily and I walked over to the Louvre and found the student rumour to be true. Waiting not a minute longer, we made our way inside and headed towards Da Vinci’s La Giaconda (Mona Lisa). Unfortunately, she was stuck behind some serious glass as well as a roped off area that made it very difficult to see details. As we stood next to about a million signs that displayed pictures prohibiting cameras, people would walk up and snap a shot just to be verbally assaulted by one of many guards standing around the painting. I did my best to envision the scenes from the Da Vinci code in my head, but I think I’m going to need to reread it since it has been awhile.
After the Louvre we headed to Moulin Rouge and took those famous pictures as well. This was an easy option since it was close to our hotel and we were pretty exhausted from the day before. My friends and I departed only after deciding our EARLY start time so we could be some of the first to the Eiffel Tower.
For some reason waking up in Paris was a lot more exciting than waking up anywhere else. There wasn’t anything too special; still a hotel room with ants and an impossibly tiny bathroom, but it was Paris! The “fab four,” Emily, Kristal, Erin, and I, headed to the Tower. It was a little nerve racking trying to figure out the metro system, since none of us had any idea how to read French, but we did it after a little bit of struggle. The Eiffel Tower appeared to us as we made it off of the metro and sent us practically jogging to see the symbol of Paris. All along I had figured that it was just a tall monument that we would take some pictures at, ride up to the top, take a few more pictures and then be on our way but we were mesmerized. Standing in line with many more mesmerized people, we finally made it to the elevator and descended the giant steel structure. The view was amazing; we had blue bird skies with a minimal amount of clouds that made everything look spectacular. I could have sat in the garden for days.
After the Tower we made the quick jaunt over the river and onto the island that holds the Notre Dame. Erin is an architect major and turned out to be a fantastic tour guide for all of the old works of art. I learned about flying buttresses and also that the Notre Dame could not even be recreated today because the stone work was not passed down into our generation. It is kind of sad really. We didn’t make it up top to hang out with the gargoyles, but it was still well worth the visit. I can totally see being French and chillin with all these fantastic monuments everywhere!
Our admiration for Paris continued from there into the small streets that seemed kind of Italian, but had a different aura. We had heard that the French didn’t really like Americans but everywhere we went, we received smiles, and some much appreciated English (Even though the French language was intimidating, we were still happy to hear Italian once and awhile). Also, it’s been in the news lately that there are riots going on in Paris because people are protesting. I was minutely concerned about this, but we didn’t see any protestors and our train didn’t have any problems. It was unfortunate that four in our group (there was about 18 or so of us) missed the train back to Torino today. Hopefully they don’t have too much trouble working that whole situation out.
After that we walked around the streets a bit and made our way towards Sainte-Chapelle. This church is unbelieveably beautiful. Since I’ve been to a ton of churches over here, they are all beginning to look a bit similar… of course all of them are amazing and huge and gorgeous, but similar nonetheless. Well, not this one. The upper chapel contains 1,134 scenes from the bible in stained glass. This church is most famous for its rose window which has 86 multicolored glass panels depicting the Apocalypse. One of the King Louis’ built it and it is absolutely amazing.
Another highlight included an evening boat tour on the Seine River. We bought baguettes, cheese, and some wine for the excursion and our feet enjoyed the rest from the very busy, exhausting day. After that we saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up for the evening and even got to see the “sparkle” show which happens every half hour for ten minutes.
Sunday morning we hadn’t quite decided a schedule but knew the time to get up and wouldn’t you know that I overslept. My alarm clock didn’t go off and Erin and I were late to breakfast. Luckily, we salvaged the few hours we had before the train left and went up to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. Yes, another church. This church happens to be set up in the hills a bit and has a breathtaking panoramic view of the city. We climbed the stairs (where the annoying vendors tried relentlessly to get us to pay money for moronic things – I resisted like a pro) and checked out the huge structure. It was Palm Sunday today and the church had Mass going on so we were amazed to see they were still letting tourists in the church. It was a pretty amazing church, but we didn’t stay too long. For the last few hours we moseyed around and picked up a few souvenirs and other fun stuff. Lots of places were closed, but we had fun anyway.
On the way to the train station we started to see tons of people in matching ponchos and got close enough to read that they were from a marathon. As it turns out, Paris hosted a marathon this morning and all the athletes were walking around, probably cooling down. We didn’t get to see anyone running, but on the train ride home we rode back to Torino with an athlete. They were Italian so we used our second favorite language and talked to him and his family about the marathon (he did really well) and eating raw peppers.
Low and behold we made it home and I’m now avoiding my homework like a pro. I hope my teacher never finds my blog, she would be very disappointed in me. My only happy story about the weekend was when we got off the train.. Apparently my bag must have spilled open and I didn’t think everything spilled out, but I lost a few of my souvenirs. I am pretty bummed, but it could have been worse. At least it wasn’t my camera or my ipod.. the total value lost was probably around 10 euro. I have a friend who has either wrecked, lost, or had stolen 4 different cameras. (One of them wasn’t hers) and now she’s on her 5th. I figure as long as my damage toll doesn’t get that high, that I should be alright.
Ok, I’m headed to bed… tomorrow I’m going to talk all about the cockroaches we have in our apt. That’s just something to look forward to.
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