Paris, Paris, Paris, yes today was extremely Parisian, but I have to confess it was like I thought it was going to be, but it was so much fun that I just had a blast overall, and got a very good impression of the city, but not as great as my expectations from peoples’ descriptions led me to believe. So, let’s begin with the day.
To start, this event filled day, we received a wake-up call at 7:30, and I slept in about another 20 minutes after having gotten it. I then proceeded to get ready, took a very rapid shower, and put my clothes on and went downstairs and ate as big of a breakfast as the continental breakfast committee would allow me to (European breakfasts are tiny, especially compared to American ones). After this, I got on the coach, and sat near the front so as to see the sights optimally. Our beloved professor Reuter got on the coach and his eccentricities were by all means the highlight of the day I can assure you. For example, on the coach, he would do things like complain about the coach driver (who I am sure did not speak English so it was okay) saying he did not know Paris very well and things like that, nothing too harsh, but funny to us. He would also do things like not turn the microphone on and talk for a while or something like that, and more often he would leave it on after he finished talking breathing in a quite strange and comical manner into it, letting out his sighs clearly displaying his more subtle emotional state to the full coach. The best part of course was, he would often begin a story and then just kind of stop in the middle of it, quite oblivious to what he had been saying before. One thing I particularly picked up on, was that his French was quite poor, as when he would talk to the coach driver or anything like that, it was funny how this was obvious to me not knowing French, but the ability for me to recognise the quality was a bit strange. On his behalf, I do think that he is actually deaf to tones above certain frequencies and that may account for a bit of his oddity.
As to the day’s events itself with the trip, it went as follows: we got a slightly late start because apparently one of the rooms from our party did not receive an alarm call as they were supposed to, so they were about ten minutes late to begin. As we left we went down Le Grande Boulevard which was about fifty feet or less from the street we were on. On this little trip to our first destination we went by all sorts of great things including: the Paris Opera, Maxim’s Place de la Concorde, Champs Elysee, the Arc-de-Triomphe (this was the only monument I did not take a picture of that I really wanted to by the way), The French President’s Mansion, the American and British Embassies and so much more. Where we were going was of course, the Le Grande Arche, or the 20th Century equivalent of the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower by the way, was extremely impressive, because when you saw it, you realised that you were in Paris at that moment, indubitably in Paris, it was quite awe-inspiring in its way, the same way the Colosseum is. Back to the Grande Arche, basically what this is, is a gigantic office building that looks like a huge picture frame, the interior is so big that you could fit all of Notre Dame cathedral inside of the core of it. Apparently it also houses the world’s largest mural on the inside of one side of it. It was constructed in 1989 by the French President of that year and as celebration of the 200 year anniversary of the French Revolution, as the Eiffel Tower was the 100 anniversary one. Anyway, it was very impressive in its way and nothing that would not get your notice. The funniest part about seeing this to me, is that we drove around the thing three times before we actually parked and walked up to look at it, because the coach driver, mixed with Reuter’s aid I am sure, was unable to locate the car park. We finally did stop there, and walked on to the centre of it, and it was again very impressive, and it had a direct line of sight to the Arc de Triomphe of which I took a picture, but the weather was rather bad, so I don’t think it came out well.
After this, we went to a place called Villa Savoye, by a bloke named Le Corbusier, this was apparently the first modern house in many ways constructed in the year 1930, in an extremely modern style (especially for the time). It was much more impressive than I thought it would be, and it had all sorts of modern innovations in it, including built on furnishings (like closets versus wardrobes) and things like that, and it also catered to sunbathing on the roof. A place that I don’t think I would recommend to go out of your way to see but nice all the same.
After this house, we went to something that I was actually quite eager to see, and that of course was the Palace of Versailles, rather impressive. I was so happy to be in there, and I saw so much there. It is, of course, extremely elaborate in its most Baroque of styles, and I got the feeling that Louis XIV was a bit self-obsessed, but maybe not, who knows? Anyway, yes, I walked around there, and was impressed a lot by the fire place, because they simply had three tree-trunk logs about ten feet long or more set in there and I just had to wonder what burning those would have been like. The chapel was also very ornate and quite nice, the whole place had great materials and there was nothing in the furthest stretch of the imagination poor or modest about this palace. The rooms were loaded with busts, paintings, statues, and extremely rich materials. I had to take a picture of the throne room, because it was just very cool to be where the last kings of France ruled their kingdom. The hall of mirrors was under restoration with a segment of it showing, but when it is restored in 2007 I think it will be the coolest part of the palace, but unrestored it still was very impressive as well. After Marie Antoinette’s chambers (which were a little after the Hall of Mirrors) it was very neat because there was a room filled with all the battles that the French won from the first one (in 400 something AD) to the last battle Napoleon won... they didn’t have Waterloo there for some reason, curious... and I can say it was surprising that over a history of 1400 years or so it was so few paintings. Anyway, the ones of Napoleon’s victories, which were quite a few mind you, seemed very famous to me and the one that caught my eye most was of the Battle of Yorktown with Generals Washington and Roechambo, just because this was during the American revolution, but it was neat to see there all the same.
I was a bit hungry following the Palace so wandered through the town eventually picking up something to eat from a little café nearby. I finally got back to the coach at the scheduled time, but apparently two of the girls did not, and held us up ten minutes because they were shopping for shoes. It was extremely funny because Reuter went out to search for them and they finally showed up late, and Reuter directed the coach in a very frantic manner to go and pick them up on the way out apparently but it was not obvious that is exactly what he had in mind, and when the coach pulled around to get them, he pushed the girls out (not literally) and then himself got on. He was saying how we needed to be on in time, because if we were late to one of the next destinations we would not be able to get in, and then he realised he left his folder at the restaurant he ate at, so he made the bus stop and he ran across the road to get it and came back empty handed. Naturally he was quite worried but he then realised that he had just left it on the bus. So we were off again, but to the Citroen Park, which is where there used to be a car factory, but President Chirac then mayor of Paris, had a park put there in the late 80's. It was actually a very neat park, with tons of different sorts of garden styles and everything over it, and it was very fun to see, but the problem was when we wandered through it, to get where the coach was supposed to meet us, it was not there. This had Reuter in another conundrum so he set out and walked the path that the coach was supposed to take to meet us. He did so and a little later returned victorious in the coach and we all boarded and left. Our next destination we did not make it in time for, which was supposed to be Les Invalides where Napoleon was buried. We did not make it in, but we drove around and it was a very nice and again ornate church.
After this, we were dropped off at the Eiffel Tower, and left on our own. I along with the rest of the class (more or less) decided it would be a good and appropriate thing to go up to the top of the Tower just to know we did. The queues to get in were not long at all, but getting to the top from the second level the drop you off at was a different matter, it did not take real long, and it was not like I had any other plans so I just stood in line talking to my classmates about the fact that having a higher IQ lowers a woman’s chance of getting married by some very high percent. Anyway, we finally did make it to the top and it was very chilly, because it was late at night, but it was breathtaking, being at the once highest point in the world for 40 years. It was just awesome and I finally understood what made Paris such a romantic city. I wished I had someone with me to share the experience and appreciate it in the proper sense, but being alone always does have its own solaces as well so maybe it wasn’t so bad. My camera did not take as good of pictures as I wanted, but nothing too terrible either I hope. We finally went down, which was another line of course, but it was fun and the view as I said was just magnificent and I am very glad that I did it, though it cost me 10 Euros, I guess it would be worth doing again, but just once. When I got down, two people I met from the trip and I decided to go back by the Metro, which we were provided a ticket for, to our hotel. We did this, and it was stuffed to the gills, making London look slightly better, as these Metro lines had little to hold onto. It was funny too, because this old woman pushed me out of the way to get on, and she was just kind of aggressive like that, as I notice old women here tend to be. I remember when the train leaned at one point, I had nothing to hold on to, so I just sort of feel into a group of people, but there was nothing I could do.
We finally made it back, and I went to my hotel room, where my roommate was already watching French television. It was pretty funny because neither of us speak French, yet he was just watching this thing for a while. Being a bit knackered, I took a bit of a nap and then woke up realising I was hungry, so I decided to work my way to the Moulin Rouge, as it was down the same street we were on, and I did so, with the expectation of coming back and eating McDonald’s. This did not manifest itself according to the plan but something better happened. I walked down the street and it was quite a ways, I noticed all the odd smells and some rather pleasant ones on the way there, which I discovered what they were on the way back. As I was walking up, I thought I went too far, but out of curiosity pushed on for a while and boom, there it was. It was fantastic, because I was expecting a big let-down based on what other people had told me, but this made it a lot better as a result. The windmill of course was going, and that was great, but also, they had a spinning sign and the show playing was Feerie displayed in big electric lights. I was so impressed that I got a decent picture, which turned out better than I thought it would, plus I was so happy I came at night, I think that really makes the difference. I read the history to it, which was all in French, but understood nearly all of it, so I was quite impressed with myself and my linguistic skills, and I think I may want to learn French as a pet interest someday, being in France has definitely made that happen.
I saw they had a Quick next to the Moulin Rouge, so I went into it (Quick is like McDonald’s, but better and a good fast food restaurant). I ordered a Long Chicken meal, but in French, and as a result of doing that, I think the cashier thought I spoke French so started speaking to me in French and a bit baffled I did what I could to understand and got my meal okay, but I stupidly replied in English’s ‘yeah’ rather than the French ‘Oui’ oh well, those are the breaks. My meal was quite good, surprisingly, and I felt special knowing I was eating next to the Moulin Rouge, I don’t know why this was such a point to me but it really was. So after this, I headed back, and discovered what those great smells were, and they were in the most appropriate place too, in the district of Montmartre, they were Hookah bars, two of them I passed in a not very long distance of each other. Well, on the way back, I thought I needed to get a crepe in Paris, because that is just what one does, and I did too. I bought a Nutella crepe, which was exceedingly good and there was quite a lot of it, but it tasted great and now I can say I did it. When I got back to the room, I found my roommate still watching the French television, and I came in, and organised the rest of my files for the accumulative London adventure, and wrote this. That was about the day, a great one and a full one, but hey, I guess that is the way to do Paris, non?