This past weekend saw me go to Paris a week after coming home from Fall Break. I am really trying to maximize all the time I have left studying abroad by going to as many places as possible. So I got as much rest as I could, got as much work as I could get done, and with Kate and Sabrina, headed off to France. Sid was coming as well but he went with us to go meet up with his parents.
We had to take a train from Florence to Pisa where we would be flying off, and once we got through security and everything we found out our flight was delayed for 2 hours because of a strike I think. We thought it would be ok to just bum it for a few hours, but once the 2 hours came a passed, we were further informed that there was another delay of 2 hours. So we basically sat in the terminal for 4 more hours, with everyone sleeping while I did a samurai sudoku for awhile. But once we got on the plane, the excitement starting building and I got to witness one of the funniest performances I have ever seen.
Immediately after we get on the plane, Sabrina and Kate started their Oscar award winning performance. What they do is they sit in a 3 seater aisle, with an open seat in the middle. Then one of them begins to pretend to be sick while the other starts to openly ask if she needs to throw up. They do this for like 20 minutes, and even on a really packed flight people will look at them and then just walk passed them. It works like a charm, and to have seen the matinée performance. They got the aisle to themselves while Sid and I had quite a portly fellow sit in the middle of us. No matter, a samurai sudoku in hand and in no time we were in Paris.
Trays in the upright position
Last town on the edge of the Italian coast before going up to Paris Orly
We got to Paris Orly and hailed a cab to Porte de Clichy in the 17th Arrondissement. The hotel wasn't that bad since it was near a square of sorts and close to a few restaurants, but most importantly it was close to the metro. After dropping our stuff off, we walked around looking for food, and we walked into a small bar and decided to have our first real French meal. I ordered the steak-frites because I had seen it in all my french books while I was studying it, and had to find out what the fuss was about. Not bad, your standard meal but it was nice to finally come face to face with this. What was more interesting was eating Roquefort cheese for the first time. It was quite possibly the most intense and transformative cheese I have ever had. It tasted like an antique, in the sense that the flavor seemed much older than myself, with each layer evolving into another; I counted 7 distinct flavors in that cheese, and thought wow, I am not sophisticated enough to eat this cheese. But no matter, because we needed to move on to see the Eiffel Tower, and that is exactly what we did next. We experienced the Parisian subway system, and I have to say that it is the best system I have ever experienced. Lines crisscross like a patch on an old pair of jeans. If I needed to get anywhere, there was the neighborhood lines or the RER, which I first jumped on and it turns out it is a double decker train! We flew to the Eiffel Tower, and when we first saw it we suddenly felt suffocated. It literally, for lack of a better word, towered over us and streaked up from the ground up and pierced the sky. Kate, Sabrina, and I took pictures while it was lit up, and then we ran to the other side after the advice from another couple told us the light show was about to begin. It was an absolute gorgeous show with orchestral music blaring in synchronized fashion with the lights. We all stood there, craned necks and all, absolutely mesmerized by the neon lights.
Steak-frites
Roquefort Cheese
RER Train...Paris has the best subway system in the world
Eiffel Tower at Night
Walking underneath the Eiffel Tower
The Prelude
Mesmerized by the Light Show
Look at all the pretty colors
Kate tries to order a French crepe...in Italian...and gets owned in English
That's a picture
We ended up walking to the Champs-Elysees to see the Arc de Triumph to end our night. It stood majestically in the center of what seemed like 8 living and breathing avenues. Traffic was bustling, and it was amazing to, like everything up to this point, to have finally seen something that I only once dreamed of seeing. We followed that experience by going back to our hotel room and passing out since our superday in Paris was about to begin.
Finally made it
Champs Elysees
Hotel room at Place de Clichy
We woke up early and headed towards Sacré Coeur under the advice of Natalie. We walked through a really artsy neighborhood, almost the Brooklyn of Paris, and we made it to Sacré Coeur. What a gorgeous church I must say. It, like most buildings in Europe I have come to find, creep out from behind low buildings and jump out at you. Sacré Coeur did the same, and I was pleasantly surprised. It sits on top of a large hill and overlooks Paris. The views, albeit a bit hazy, were gorgeous. After marveling at the view, we saw a merry-go-round at the bottom of the hill and we had to ride one since it seems like these establisments are the Parisian pastime. We were definitely the oldest 3 people on that merry-go-round, easily beating the next participant by 15 years.
Walking to Sacré Coeur
First glimpse of the Basilique du Sacré Coeur
Basilique du Sacré Coeur
Basilique du Sacré Coeur
Yes, my first thought for decorating a church is to put a man with a sword at the door
Basilique du Sacré Coeur
Merry-Go-Round
And they're off!
Too excited!
After Sacré Coeur, we headed back to the Seine to stroll along Parisian avenues. With an incredibly blue sky, we took our time walking from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame. However, hunger struck us all with a fierce intensity and so we hunted for a small restaurant. We stumbled upon a nice hole in the wall place that was filled with regulars, so we grabbed a table outside and ordered. We all ordered sandwiches, and below you can see what Parisian sandwiches look like. We reminisced for the next hour and a half, enjoying what it feels like to be an expatriate in Paris in the 1920s. After our amazing entree we got to enjoy creme brulee as a dessert, and it was absolutely heart meltingly good.
Incredible
They were everywhere
Art Show along the Seine
Lunch at a place with all regulars
Had to macro
Crème brûlée
Crème brûlée macro
Our walk from the restaurant took us past Invalides, an imposing building of sorts which, according to our maps, is the location of the body of Napoleon. It has a huge gold dome with over 2 dozen cannons protecting the entrance. Going big? Not bad for a short guy. At first we thought it was a military museum, and then we thought it was to celebrate the veterans, and then Kate decided it was for the wounded, and pretended to be a wounded soldier, which ended up looking more like the hunchback of Notre Dame more than anything. We abused the cannons by climbing up on them, and after getting our fix we decided to continue our trek to Notre Dame. The walk was getting to us, so we chickened out and took the metro.
Invalides
Where Napoleon is buried
Having fun with cannons
Kate trying to look like the hunchback of Notre Dame
Mrs. Mulhern would be proud that I found Thomas Jefferson
We arrived at Notre Dame with a flock of other tourists, and stood outside in relief knowing we finally reached it. For one reason or another, we weren't all that moved by it, and although it was a gorgeous sight to behold, we simply moved on. Because it was Halloween, and we had to make it to Pere Lachaise, the most famous cemetery in Paris.
Notre Dame
The Seine
Hotel de Ville
We entered Pere Lachaise and there was haunting beauty to it. It was dusk by then, and with the sky overcast, the light was trapped in between the clouds and the earth, thereby highlighting every yellow, red, and orange leaf that had fallen and the scene was one out of a Hitchcock film. Stone graves everywhere, monuments with figures in agony or despair everywhere, and not a sound as people walked around, either paying tribute to love ones or strolling to find a famous grave. Our mission, according to Kate, was to find Oscar Wilde, who happened to be situated all the way in the back of the cemetery. We followed a convoluted but serene route, with only a rare crow cackling every now and then. The only way we knew that we had actually found Wilde's grave was the fact that there was a huge group of tourists flashing pictures at his monument, which was peppered with lip marks. It was interesting to note that his monument is done in a modern, almost science fiction theme while every other monument is of the romantic or gothic nature. Sabrina and I ended up feeling uneasy about our trip there because it was a tourist attraction, and yet there were real families hurting because they had actual people buried there. I still don't know how I feel about that. After that, we took the metro for 45 minutes back to the Eiffel Tower, where the lack of energy hit Sabrina and Kate hard enough to knock them out.
Pere Lachaise Cemetery on Halloween
Haunting Beauty
Oscar Wilde's Grave
Going hard in Paris
Light Show + Seine = Good Night
The biggest rip-off we encountered was dinner. For the first time all semester, I paid the most rediculous amount for what we ate...3 cups of tea, a cheese platter, one french style hotdog, and two french onion soups, came out to €50! That was what we got for eating near the Eiffel Tower. So everyone else be forewarned: do not eat near the Eiffel Tower! It's a trap with fancy lights and a great view!
A hotdog...Frenched
City of Blinding Lights
We spent our last night strolling down the Champs Elysees trying to shop but to no avail and sitting by the Seine watching the boats slowly float by. We decided to go to bed early because we still had the Louvre that we had to see the next day, and go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We hadn't gone up to the top yet because the top floor was closed due to maintenance. We were banking on the fact that we would be able to go up on our last day.
We woke up and checked out early, heading straight to the Eiffel Tower. Thankfully, the third floor was open, and for €9.90 we went up to the top! We took a crazy elevator to the 2nd floor where we walked around and took a million pictures of the skyline of Paris. It was extremely windy and the weather started to worsen as rain started to fall. Coupled with the win and the height we were at, the rain drops pelted us like tiny rocks, and I hustled to grab an umbrella to shield the three of us while we waited in line. Sabrina told us how she was afraid of us, and certainly a creaking elevator to the very top of a swaying Eiffel Tower didn't assuage her fears. She closed her eyes for the 45 second ride to the top, and she held on to Kate for dear life as we slowly trudged up. Once we got to the top, the overcast and fog obstructed the view, but nothing could hinder our efforts of finally going outside at the top of the Eiffel tower. Even with all the rain, we excitedly took pictures while the rain tried as hard as it could to dampen our spirits.
Waiting for the elevator to go up to the Eiffel Tower
View from the 2nd etage of the Eiffel Tower
View from the 2nd Etage
View from the very top
Waiting in line while it was pouring rain
Sabrina getting over her fear of heights!
The elevator rail
After the unforgettable Eiffel Tower experience, we went to the Louvre. The line was out the door and through what seemed to be a shopping mall. However, and much to our delight, the line moved with remarkable speed, and we found out that we lucked out because it was free! We went to the Louvre on the first sunday of the month, which as it turns out makes it free. Once we were in the bustling center, we all grabbed maps and ran to the Mona Lisa. Fighting through waves of tourists, we ran into the room, where it seemed like the wave became a huge lake of tourists who didn't move which reduced us to fighting our way through tourists speaking in numerous tongues to try and get to the front. My immediate first impression was that the piece was smaller than I thought it was. In all honesty, I don't get what all the fuss is about. My personal favorite was the Large French Format area, where paintings dwarf those of the Italian counterparts that line the main hallways. In fact, one large French Format painting could fit up to 100 Italian pieces. I walked in and felt like a spec of dust standing next to these paintings. The words ornate, ostentatious, and absolutely stunning come to mind when describing these pieces. The best piece was finding Coldplay's Viva la Vida album cover completely by accident. Once I found it, I got Sabrina's attention, where we proceeded to listen to Viva la Vida and I took what has now become my favorite macro shot of the entire semester.
The Louvre
Where is Tom Hanks?
Main Lobby
Walking down Sully
Mona Lisa!
So just when you thought Italian art was amazing...
The French go and paint something this big! Imagine a wing of stuff all this size
Going down to see the royal crown
The Crown
Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix
Thought that looked familiar! Favorite macro shot
Going up in the elevator...sorry its sideways
City of Blinding Lights - again sorry its on its side
A trip to Paris is in the books, and the week after I went to Prague. I say went because this post is a week older than it should be and I'm trying to keep up this blog with all the work I have to do. I can tell you though that Prague was amazing, Rutali and I had a great time there, and that pics of that place will be up very soon!
Norah Jones - Sunrise
Sunrise, sunrise
Looks like mornin' in your eyes
But the clocks held 9:15 for hours
Sunrise, sunrise
Couldn't tempt us if it tried
'Cause the afternoon's already come and gone
Looks like mornin' in your eyes
But the clocks held 9:15 for hours
Sunrise, sunrise
Couldn't tempt us if it tried
'Cause the afternoon's already come and gone
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