Paris: city of lights

Paris!

I had left over tickets from my 'euro-rail' pass and Quinn did as well so we decided to make it into a trip! After being in Rome I got a serious craving to go back to the romantic, cultural and traditional city of PARIS!! I tried until worlds end to get a couchsurfer.. turns out they are really picky about 'which' stranger they want to stay at their house and maybe i seemed like a psycho or killer but no one wanted to house me :( I got two people but they could only house us for one night. We decided to get hotels through a new-found life saver 'clickbed.com' 22 euros a night and in town! MUCH cheaper and better than any hostel in paris.. future reference for study-abroad-ers

so anyway.. we go to the train station that morning and turns out they dont have any tickets to paris for the whole day for 'eurorail pass holders' (which is insane because trains leave almost every hour or more!). They lady was nice enough to illegally upgrade our ticket and we hopped on the train.. and accidently into first class. What a difference... it was so nice, lots of room, comfy CLEAN seats.. tables, quiet.. ahh paradise. We had a gorgeous view as always while going through france as well.. towards the end of the trip we had to move to second class but didnt called out on our completely wrong tickets (non composted, interrail, didnt match our passes.. pheww). and got excited to see the eiffel tower as we approached the city !!

got off at gard de lyon and got metro tickets to head to our hotel. It was amazing being in paris the first time understanding everyone and everything and being able to function like it was my own city :). We got to our hotel and they were the nicest of people.. got our stuff upstairs.. pigged out on one of the 10 sandwiches véro packed for us and decided to walk the city.

I have the map of paris pretty well in my mind now. Our first hotel was by Place de Republique first walked down past centre pompidou and Hotel de Ville which in my opinion is the best french square.. pigeons scattering themselves around the front, an old style carousel.. and the gothic hotel de ville with french flags around and signs of the republic (l.e.f.), old light posts and trees, symmetric fountains and frenchies still wrapped in scarves a black jacket and walking their dog.

Notre Dame

this time i made sure i stepped on the 'touch to return' spot in front. we weren't going to go in but thought, ahh what the heck why not! (good thing cus we didnt return later). There was an evening mass going on. I always feel guilty being in during mass but it was actually awesome to see. We stood and watched for quite a while.. its such an amazing church. The stainglass stuns me everytime, and its the epitome of gothic architecture. flying buttresses, ribbed vault high ceilings and stainglass. 

we spotted a glimpse of the tour eiffel as we walked towards the seine .. chills :). we walked past saint chapelle, louvre, musée d'orsay.. and continued on and on.. past napoleons tomb, place de concorde.. until we reached the round about way to the tour eiffel.. We turned the corner and were on the lawn in front as the sun began to set. unpacked our picnic and soaked in the view waiting for it to get dark enough for the sparkles to set off. There was  a guy playing guitar but got muted out by some dancers farther away blasting michael jackson :/.. we people watched as each person stared and was stunned and snapped pictures in front of it. who could resist?

we took the metro back and called it a night.

Père Lachaise Cemetery

First thing the next morning we went to the père lachaise cimitière where many famous frenchies and those with a large influence on french culture are buried. It is a huge area.. the map that we bought (after getting a lecture about why the american dollar bill is best) could barely help us navigate around. It was eerily beautiful.. surrounded by tons of bodys from hundreds of years before to present, yet it was silent.. sad.. gorgeous.. all around touching to see flowers still being placed down for all of these people (whether famous or not) and for so many years.

We saw the graves of Jim Morrison, Federic Chopin, Molière, La Fontaine, Proust, Edith Piaf, Allan kardec, Delacroix, Balzac, Oscare Wilde, a million locals.. and memorials for those from flight 447, wars, and the holocaust. 

It was so great after all the reading and studying of french literature, history, culture and language i have done to see all of these people. Very moving experience.. We picniked in the park next door next to a pond watching school groups quietly come through and search for fish and frogs in the pond. 

Orangerie Museum was a major place I wanted to hit.. it has paintings from many top french painters - matisse, cezanne, renoir.. but most of all Monet and his lilies. Somehow i never knew that they were such huge connected panels. When you entered there was a blank white room for 'decompressing oneself from the clatter of the city' before seeing the art. It was amazing, i realized his artwork is truely unlike any other. From far away it looks like a perfect image of landscape.. so soft that it seems you are looking through some fog at the ponds and plants.. however up close its almost impossble to see the entire picture while looking at each individual and bold stroke left behind by monet

as in this picture the part of the image farther away looks perfect and real, but the closest part of the tree you can see the strokes squiggling down from the tree. I was just amazed by this style and had to walk super close past all the paintings and then see them from the opposite end of the room. so peaceful.

The museum is in the Tuilerie Gardens which i also had never seen. We zigzagged through to see all the sculptures and ponds. the main pond was beautiful as well. cafés are scattered through the gardens as well.. and at the end is a perfect view of the Louvre, the arch and the pyramid. We went inside the pyramid just to.. well.. just to! and then left on search for a croissant. We found one (surprise) along with a café. We passed the Opera house and proceeded down the Champs Elysées .. where we stopped into the disney store (cutest mickey in the tricolors with a beret doll) and in a sport car room. Otherwise we approached the Arc de Triomphe and went to take a look at the memorial for the unknown soldier and the details of its grandness from underneath and up close :)

We then crossed the bridge over to the eiffel tower (after passing rediculously beautiful houses and hotels.. and a bunch of military standing and talking :P).  We sat on the wall next to the Seine by the carousel just staring at the tower killin some time. We didnt want to go up until nighttime. It worked perfect though.. by the time we got inline and up to the second floor.. it was twilight.. and night while we were on the third floor. We got to the sommet just as it begin twinkling! i was pushing my head through the wiring to be able to see the feet of the tower :) What an amazing feeling!!!! I had never been to the very top before, and i loved it! gorgeous view and so neat to picture.. being up there :D. I took advantage of going to the ladies room up there.. and then we walked around the inside as they had country flags and mileage there. I waved at the US, 5,849 km away. before we headed back to the second floor. The second level i love because you look out without any caging. I hugged it.. avoided kissing it just for germs sake. . and stared out over la seine as boats pass by, and seeing all the monuments lit up from sacre coeur in the distance to notre dame and the arc de triomphe. I was captivated.. and before i knew it an hour had passed and it began to sparkle again

finally pulled myself away from it.. didnt know it was the last time id be under it for a while when we left.. but later found it would be :(.. so late we couldnt find food on the way home so that was not so great, but overall a wonderful day.

the next two days we lost the first half of the days due to hotel and then train/flight problems. I really dont want to type them out cus.. it sucked. overall.. we were desperate to the point i was running into every hotel asking if they had availabilities (again thank god for being able to easily communicate).. we found a great place close in town though eventually. and with the trains.. they were so bad quinn ended up having to dish out a ton for a flight to rome instead and i had to ditch out too much for a super slow 12 hour travel home (should only be 3hrs). Needless to say we were not happy.. but mostly about the lost of time we experiences.. welp thats traveling as a student for ya

the first of these two days we really lost a lottt of the day. We were going to try to 'squeeze in' the louvre.. if thats even possible.. but on the way walked past a great street of multicultural bars, restaurants and shops.. we were relieved to realize that the search for great thai was over :). got to have thai rolls.. PHAD THAI.. great service and great restaurant. I was so incredibly happy ! Not to mention we had tickets on the champs-elysées at the movie theater there for Pirates of the Caribbean 4 !! The line spilling onto the champs elysées (which at dusk looking up to L'Arc is just stunning) was surprisingly 18-25 year olds.. mainly men! haha we watched it in 3D with french subtitles scrolling on the bottom. May 17th.. three days before the US and in my favorite place in the world! it was really fun and the crowd was fun inside too. The movie ended super late so thats really all we did that day

the second of these days was a little more productive. We finished with the ticket junk and shuttled off to Versailles and the Gardens!!! I had been before, quinn had not, but I knew sooo much more about 17th century france/history, Louis XIV.. the writers at his time than the last time i went (which back then was basically nothing)  PLUS the gardens were all in bloom unlike when i had previously been in march. we felt cool being 'long term european residents' and walked in with ease with an audioguide. The palace just amazes and mainly amuses me at all of his extravagance.. the sun king that is :D. We of course got ice cream and then rented bikes for the gardens. I never realized how much land is really there.. we spent an hour and were flying through! it was just endless.. went past the retreats and fav places of mary Antoinette and got to see the Kings Gardens as well. We went entirely around the huge pond.... my legs burning.. we headed back into paris

Little did i realize.. our legs were getting no rest as we decided to go to Montmartre :). Off the subway and up a seemingly neverending staircase we went. Get out then climb up a hill.. then climb up the 200 some odd steps to get to sacre coeur.. !!! Classy street performers entertained the crowd on the steps.. we tiptoed up the steps to take a peak inside the beautiful Sacre Coeur

We grabbed dinner at a Rick Steves suggested spot.. what a hit it was.. Split a giant chevre chaud (goat cheese salad).. a great bottle of wine.. and he had veal in a creamy mushroom sauce with rice while i had a vegetable loaded quiche with a side mixed green salad with onions carrots and tomatos as well. The place could not have been more adorably artsy french and local. We tried to go to a live singing kinda show nearby but were too late and so instead sat in a square up by the church where artists walked around asking to draw or paint you.. and cafes spilled into the square (as usual) to grab a little more wine. .. before catching the metro i was thinking.. i KNOW we can see the eiffel tower from here, we need to say bye.. so i ran down a little path, following the faint twinkle i saw.. just to find a perfect clearing and view of the tower which at the time happened to be sparkling :). needless to say i cried. It was such a symbolic closure to my time in france i felt. I cant explain it better than that.. but i just stared and finally made quinn drag me away and assure me it wasnt too long of a goodbye. it was a goodbye nonetheless to paris.. and this time with no definate return date :(

the next morning (quinns last morning in europe) consisted of eating stereotypical french foods, french onion soup, cheese salad, croissants, and hate to admit that we returned for some more thai :) before catching our metros in opposite directions to, for him the airport to rome -> US.. and me to lyon, marseille, and aix (which took 12 hours grrrrr miserable). So glad i went.

Could not have been more proud of this time in Paris. I was in paris once with a tour group and couldnt use french.. went my first days here this semester and was with my french friends.. scared to even say Merci wrong. This time.. I flew through the city with easy and not ONCE having someone speak back to me in english :) If we used english it was ease to not translate back for quinn. We didnt encounter anyone bitchy or snobby.. and i sure ran into a lot of people especially with the problems we had and had to fix. It was great. And somehow.. maybe because we didnt do the biggest tourist things.. but going around the city it felt like a normal city.. the tourism wasnt that insane! I really saw paris as a place i could live and love. i never thought that before.. I used to see it as a hectic money making tourist trap of beautiful sites.. This time i realized that Paris is so special because it is somehow still so culturally pure.. soo purely french while allowing so many to visit at the same time. The sites are enjoyed by the locals sitll as they jog along la Seine or take their kids to the gardens to play.. they live their life in that beauty while running with breifcases to their next business meeting. Its such a lively and real city.. yet the biggest tourist destination in the world at the same time. I do not understand how they do it but it is beautiful. I could go on forever about this city.. well if i havent already

à bientôt