I think every city has a strong first impression. In Istanbul it was the colour, Edinburgh was the sudden leap from new to old, London is the pandemonium. My first impression of Paris was of the language. Not completely incomprehensible, but certainly foreign, the words roll in the mouth like hard candy. Street signs take on an air of poetry that they certainly lack in English speaking countries. The whole city gets in on the act. Somehow, even the rain seems artistic. I’m not sure how the city does it, but it sure pulls it off.
And you know how everyone says the French are cold, unfriendly, unhelpful? We have found it to be exactly the opposite. When my dad uses his somewhat rusty French (he hasn’t spoken it in over 20 years), people are appreciative. (Mind you, you don’t get the completely unwarranted flattery you get in Taiwan—“Your Chinese is so good!”—but hey. You can’t win them all.) Most people speak English, and are willing to use it. Luckily for me. Thanks, Paris, for proving your stereotype wrong.
Ellyn and I arrived in Paris on Saturday night, after the world’s most intense school week ever. She had come to London to meet me, and we took the Eurostar together. We met my dad at the hotel, and after dinner around the corner, we headed off to explore. We ended up walking basically the length of the Champs d’Elysées, up to the Arc de Triomph. I don’t know why I imagined it would be smaller than it was, but it was certainly enormous, and the first of the many Absolutely Beautiful buildings we saw in Paris.
The next day was one of the busiest I have personally experienced (and that’s saying something!). We started off with the Louvre, heading there shortly after it opened. We went to see the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa right away. I have a hard time believing that I actually saw such famous works of art. Each was set apart from everything else, carefully sectioned off and guarded from too many adoring fans. But can I just re-state this? I saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Me personally. What a surreal experience.
From there, we explored some more sections of the Louvre. I could spend weeks wandering through there, marvelling at the art at my fingertips. We saw classical Greek statuary, and paintings by Vermeer, Rubens, Monet, Degas, Van Dyke, Renoir, Rembrandt, Picasso, and, of course, Da Vinci. I’m probably forgetting someone major, because there were just so many. I have never had much of a celebrity obsession, but I was starting to feel it in the halls of the Louvre.
Eventually we extricated ourselves from the grip of the paintings, and headed over to Notre Dame. Talk about starstruck! I had come from the Louvre, and was now inside Notre Dame. I wouldn’t say I’m a small town girl, exactly, or unexposed to culture… but these were places I had heard about my whole life. It was like walking into a storybook, or becoming part of a famous painting. The inside of Notre Dame was, of course, gorgeous. Nothing short of that. The two rose windows deserve their acclaim, and the Gothic architecture was worth the almost 200 years it took to construct the cathedral. Ellyn and I then climbed to the top of the cathedral, up a spiralling staircase of 387 narrow, stone stairs. When we were finally thrust onto the balcony, we were agape. Paris stretched before us, and gargoyles stared us down. We stared them down, and took more than enough photographs of them. I’m not going to make things up, I was deathly afraid to be up that high… but it was totally worth it. The gargoyles and I became fast friends.
Following lunch, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower. Talk about a day of celebrity architecture! We decided to go all the way up to the very top, an endeavour that had me shakin’ in my boots before we even stepped onto the elevator. I was quivering by the time we got to the first level. By the second level I was quaking, and by the time we reached the third… well, I was fine. I think my brain went into self-preservation mode, but I was absolutely able to appreciate the beauty of the view. The Arc de Triomph was lit up as usual, and especially stood out to us.
When we got down again, we found that the tower was glowing blue against the sky. It certainly was a sight! Then, weirdly, amazingly, peculiarly… it began to sparkle. Really. The whole tower was covered in various flashing lights, that made it look like it was glittering.
That night Ellyn and I headed out for a bit and discovered Pink Ladies in a nice bar with live music.
The next day was also an experience. We climbed the hill up to Sacre Coeur, a cathedral made out of white stone. The view from the steps of the cathedral was absolutely lovely. I have seen Paris from above many times now, and each time it just seems prettier than it did the time before. Unbelievable.
The following day we went on an excursion to Versailles. My head was really with random “Treaty of Versailles” facts I learned in IGCSE. I felt like making some comment about how much the Germans had to pay in reparations, what their army was limited to, and so on. I opted out of it, and instead had a mini-heart attack in the Hall of Mirrors, where it was signed.
It hadn’t even occurred to me that Versailles might be anything but a place where a famous treaty was signed. Turned out it was a royal residence for a couple of centuries too. Who know? The whole palace is white and gold, and beautiful. It is also, for reasons never satisfactorily explained to me, full to brimming with Jeff Koons’ art. Why? I don’t know. But it includes things like a MASSIVE statue of a balloon dog. I’m not kidding. And these type of objects are found in every room—a large balloon dog, a pool toy lobster suspended from the ceiling by a chain, a statue made of porcelain of Michael Jackson and a chimpanzee. Nothing could have been more out of place. The rooms themselves were lovely, though, and managed to handle the invasion with great grace.
Thus concluded our time in the cold, rainy, and absolutely breathtaking city. We headed out the next day to drive through more rural parts of France—stories to follow!
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