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.

Just Another Day in Paris

9-18-2008

I awoke at 6 this morning in order to meet Jenny and Cody at 6:30 to make the walk to Notre Dame for 7am mass. Upon arriving, the beautiful cathedral was all locked up and we were made aware that mass didn’t start until 8am.  Thanks Jenny for the hour of sleep that I will never get back. Anywho, It seemed that’s when the rest of the town wakes up as well, because we walked around the church looking for a place to grab a light breakfast and it was slim pickings.

However, we did stop into a bakery that was just waking up. There I ate the most delicious croissant as it came almost right from the oven to my mouth. The bakery wouldn’t let us eat in the shop since he was still getting thing set up, so we had to bare the cold for a bit longer until they opened the cathedral. The mass was behind the alter in an intimate setting. I believe we were the only tourist there as the rest of the crowd looked like regulars who would be on their way to work right after mass.

Following that early morning experience at Notre Dame, we went back to the hostel, grabbed some breakfast, and then I needed a nap.

At 11:00 the whole group made the two block journey down the road to the Lourve, the place where art magic happens. Here I was able to take in more art than my body had room for:

Battle to the Death

This dude just reminded me of my dog

Yup, hieroglyphics

 

My imitation, ancient Bob Marley

 She's even more beautiful in person than I imagined she would be

No, I did not take a picture of the Mona Lisa. Rather, I took a picture of all the people trying to take a decent picture of the Mona Lisa. Yet because of the protective glass over her, no one ever gets a decent shot. She is much smaller than I  imagined her though.

Four hours in the Lourve later, I was getting some hunger pangs so we got some Chinese to go. I played it safe and got the sweet and sour chicken, but it was quite different than other sweet and sour I’ve had before, mostly because it wasn’t breaded. I almost preferred it. I love those little unexpected differences. They’ve been coming at me a mile a minute since I’ve started these past two weeks of Euro madness. But the little surprises that make you say, “ohh, I wasn’t expecting that” engrain the roll-with-the-punches mentality into your every day. Once you can confidently say “I’ll take each day as it comes and not sweat the details,” you days get much more enjoyable.

After a short nap, Jenny and I attempted to take in the Lourve around two. However, it was closed. The gift shop was open however and I purchased the best children’s book of all time My Little Louvre.

We watched as the night began to consume the Paris sky. We walked along a park by the Louvre watched the fountain and made up stories about the statues with we knew nothing about. For example, this fella is doing the morning-after walk of shame. 

We watched the sunset over the city from a high point in the park. We ate our first Nutella Creepe.  We walked down the Avenue Kleber to the Charles de Gaulle Etoile Arch. From the top of this famous Paris landmark you can see all the city in all of it’s splendor.

Following that we went to an extremely untouristie part of town where we each got a fabulous panini sandwich. By this time, it was midnight thirty, so we decided to make the journey back.

Once we got out of the underground station, Jenny and I spun around like a couple of lost tourists, because at that moment we were. Just then a kind woman came up behind us and said, “excuse me, I help you. Where you need to go?” We were blown away. This kind lady saw some confused American tourists and stopped to help us without our even asking.

She pointed us back in the direction of Notre Dame. We knew once we got there we’d be able to find our way back. What we didn’t know was that at 1:00 in the morning a film crew would be setting up for the shooting of what we assumed was a hip hop music video. At first, we thought they were sending off weather balloons. But it turns out the large balloons were for lighting. We saw a group of hip hop dancers warming up and watched as the crew set up their monitors, cameras, lights, and all the accoutrement needed for a film shoot. We didn’t get a chance to watch the filming, as it was getting cold and time for bed.

Art and Paris

9-17-2008

At 9am this morning we took a bus tour around Paris. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from Paris. All I saw was one more city between me and London. However, this city took me by surprise. Partly thanks to Jenny and her ridiculous list of amazing things to do in Paris, and mostly thanks to this bus tour and our I’ve-smoked-since-I–was-twelve tour guide and her overly raspy voice. She pointed out so many amazing sights that I am looking at a trip back to the capital of France in the near future because I doubt I'm getting it all in over the next few days.

The tour ended at the Musee D’Orsay where I saw some of the most wonderfully moving paintings I’ve ever seen by some of the worlds most renown artists, as well as those that I've never heard of but fell in love with:

• Paul Helleu's Femme Assise Accoudee; pastel; a depressed woman staring at a bowl of apricots
• Odilon Redon's Le Bouddha; pastel
• Maximillien Luce's Une Rue de Parisen mai 1871; French Revolution war depiction, very Les Miserables-like
• Georges Lacombe's Iris; painting on a wood carving; blood pouring from a woman's breast giving life to flowers below
• Camille Pissaro's Chataigniers a Louveciennes
• Renoir's Etude ou Torse, effetde soleil; 1875, pools of light on a naked woman
• Henride Toulousey, captured a darker, more real side of life

Then I came across my favorites, mostly because of their popularity and my art ignorance: Seurat and Van Gogh.

Let's start with Seurat. One of my personal favorites has always been Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of Le Grande. After traveling halfway around the world, I've come to discover that this masterpiece is just a 3 hour drive from Green Bay. I should have gathered that from watching Ferris Bueller. Anywho, Seurat, wow, brilliance. For those of you who may not be firmilar,  Georges-Pierre Seurat is the master of pointillism, the use of tiny dots blended together to create an image. And while "Sunday Afternoon" is in Chicago, his studies on it are in the Musee D'Orsay. In his studies, one can get up close and personal, and see that his points in this particular painting are more like hash marks, but still stagnant points. 

Walk down the hall from the "Sunday Afternoon" studies and one will find another Seurat that trumps any piece down that corridor: Le Cirque. I was not expecting to see this puppy, but sweet sassy malassy am I glad I did. Here, Seurat is still very much using pointillism yet here his hash mark-like strokes give movement to this lively big top scene. 

Following Seurat were the Van Goghs: his self portrait and his chamber. The eyes of Van Gogh's self portrait are world renown and to be staring right back at him stirs a belittling feeling really. He's just so damn good. However, you turn around and look at his chamber picture and realize that the poor guy was just a lonely artist with only his paint and imagination to keep him happy. All I could think when I looked at his works were "Bring on the Paint!" Up close, it looks like the globs of paint are just barely holding on to the canvas, almost as if they are going to fall off under their own weight. 

After the Musee D'Orsay and during it really, I was on my own. I got an awesome sammich, walked to Paris' oldest cathedral, the Natural history museum (which my museum pass didn't get me into but it had a cool park), and then to the Pantheon where I saw the crypt of Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables. 

I walked and shopped with Chad, Mike, Jenny, & Cody. Then the guys ditched the ladies and did a little shopping of the metro manly type. We walked past  Roman ruins in the middle of the city, just like in Verona, and saw a bum with a bag full of cats who hates tourists. 

At midnight that night it was Chad’s birthday. We tried clubbing but failed and settled for two bottles of wine at a little cafe, plus a little birthday treat for Chad. Good day. 

First Night in Paris

9-16-2008

Ten minutes in Paris and the French police were already on our tail. Our hostel was down a tiny one-way street and when our bus plugged up that intersection, the po was on us like a pack of dogs on a two legged cat. We all threw our bags out from under the bus and Rupert got the bus out of there with time to spare.

We found our rooms, which were a bit tighter than previous accommodations. However, our room looked out onto an open air courtyard, so I really couldn’t complain.

Lucky us. Two of our three meals a day in Paris were covered, our breakfast at the hostel (where they couldn’t have been more anal about trays) and dinner at Flunch, a fast food-like cheaper quality Perkins of France. After moving in, we made our way to this Flunch place and ate our fill.

Later that night, a small group of us purchased the cheapest bottles of wine we could find and made the journey along the Seine River to the Eiffel Tower. I can’t think of a better way to start my stay in Paris. As we walked we took in the sights along the river. As if the city wasn’t lit up beautifully enough, the tour boats cruising up and down the Seine had huge spotlights that blinded us as they drove by. However, they did light up much of the shadowed beauty around us. We passed by some late night djembe players, which is a typical sight in a metropolitan city, but in Paris it was all the better.

We walked passed the National Assembly Building. During the day, it just looks like another government building with it’s tall columns, relief carvings on the top, and statues outside the gates. At night, though, there is a fantastic film that projects onto the outside of the building. It’s a well thought out historical, political, tribute-like video that cycles every 20 minutes or so. We stared at that for a while and moved on.

There was a park close to the tower where we passed a group of students who needed to borrow our bottle opener. In the 10 minutes we stopped to chat with them I broke my bottle opener and cracked the bottle of my cheap ass chardonnay. Luckily Chad had another bottle that we could consumer underneath the tower. Because let’s face it, what is an evening underneath the Eiffel Tower without at least one bottle of wine.

You’d think that the Eiffel Tower would be a shining beacon that you can get to, and from far away it is. But there’s a point when you are walking to it that the buildings cover it up. You have to keep walking until you reach an alley that looks up to it. But it really isn’t hard to find and when you do, it’s all worth it.

Currently, France is in charge of the European Union (from my understanding, the Union leader switches every 6 months). Because they are in charge of the Union, they’ve decided to celebrate. One way is by lighting the Eiffel Tower up with a vibrant blue as opposed to the traditional white. On one side, the European Union stars circle the tower’s center. The best part of this iron tower, every hour it sparkles like Tinkerbell for a good 10 minutes. It’s a breathtaking sight. While pictures will never do it justice, I’ll post one so ya’ll can get the gist. 

And for something you may not know about the Eiffel Tower. Sure, it can be romantic to sit underneath this beautifully lit beacon of love, but just watch out for the rats scurrying about from bush to bush along the lawn below....