A Final Paris Goodbye

9-19-2008

Around 10am Jenny and I headed back to the Lourve for round two, and this time it was open. We had to “manipulate” the date on our museum passes, a.k.a writing in dark letters over the old date, because they were only good for two days and we needed a third. And the third day was totally worth it. We caught quite a few wonders that we would have missed entirely:

Following our final Lourve experience, Jenny, Cody and I also partook in our final Flunch experience, which for me was a good thing. I’m not one to be picky about food quality (after all, I do work at summer camps where I douse everything in ranch just to survive), but I guess I was just disappointed we didn’t get meal vouchers to someplace more “French.” But I suppose that would have been more expensive so, whatever.

Following the Flunch, we went to the Opera house. Due to a rehearsal, we couldn’t get into the actually performance hall, but even the lobby area where we chilled for a bit was worth the journey. Supposedly, underneath the Paris Opera house is an actual subterranean lake which Phantom of the Opera is based off.  

We left the Opera House an attempted to make it to the catacombs across town, but arrived ten minutes late and hence missed the skulls, bones, and other dead parts of people.

After completing my packing for the next day, Jenny and I made our way to Sacre-Coeur, a cathedral in the north of Paris which is on a high hillside overlooking the city. Litering the steps leading up to the chapel were a gaggle of college aged younglings drinking, smoking, and all taking turns getting up in front of the crowd that had gathered there and butchering Bob Marley. It was a nifty sight.

The difference in views over the city from last night to tonight is quite notable.  From the Arch in the middle of the city, Paris looked beautifully lit and awe inspiring. From Sacre-Coeur, due to it’s altitude and distance away, Paris looked like a smoggy, grungy metropolitan city, which truthfully, it is. But at the same time, it is so much more than that. That city has an intangible quality that draws you to it. It is easy to see why it is known as the city of love.

On our way back to the hostel, we got a street-side Panini. We sat at an outdoor table right next to a French couple. As we ate, it became apparent that the couple knew no English and we knew no French. Every so often in our conversation, I just stopped and listened to them. Such beauty in their language.

As we sat listening to our neighbors chat, an unruly pub crawl walked long the streets next to us. Low and behold, a number of students from our group were on this pub crawl, so I got their attention by throwing garbage at Emma. We got pulled into the pub crawl and made it to a couple of pubs. Eventually everyone made it home alive, and got at least some sleep before our final leg of the journey to the United Kingdom.

Viva paris.