Paris

PARIS

My last post ended as I was chunneling towards Paris, France with my Mom, my Dad and Tessa.  Since then I have returned from Paris and continued my adventures in England, but this post is not about England.  This post is about Paris.

We arrived in Paris around 7pm, and after an interesting train station experience we made it to our living arrangements for the next three nights.  The apartment was on Montmartre in northern Paris, but far enough away from Sacre Couer and the busy square at the top to still be quiet. But boy, was it cozy.  Too small for 4 people if I do say so myself.  Perfect for 2, too small for 4.  Herve, the man we were renting from, took us on a walk to show us the area.  He was very helpful and his english was just good enough!  He had some good stories too.  Apparently, Picasso and Pissaro, while living in Paris, had lived on the top floor of the building in which we were renting an apartment.  When they went out, and got too hammered to climb up the stairs of the building to the top floor (there was no lift), they would rent the apartment that we were renting. Prettfy effin' cool.

After the walk, which was incredibly helpful, we had a little snack, settled down, and went to sleep.  The next morning started early with the most awkward shower I have ever taken.  This is because the shower was tiny, and the shower head was handlheld.  You had to half sit half stand to bathe, it was a process, and whenever someone used water elsewhere in the apartment, even if it wasn't hot water, the shower water would turn to ice in a fraction of a second.  That really kept me on my toes.  Afterwards we headed up Montmatre for breakfast and coffee, then our day and adventures in Paris began!

We took the metro to the Tuileries and walked through them towards the Louvre.  Although it was early in the spring, there were still flowers in the Tulleries, but i'm sure if you were to see them in full bloom it would be spectacular and beautiful.  The weather could have been better too.  Cloudy and 50 is not my optimum sightseeing temperature.  We reached the Louvre, took photos (required outside the Louvre), and went in to get our tickets.  Being a student at UCL, I got in free!  We started wandering through the halls of the huge museum, admiring and appreciating the priceless paintings and sculptures.  Now I like art, but I don't know enough about artists and their styles, influences etc. to feel like I came away with something REAL from that experience.  I had a great time and liked a lot of the art and collections (maybe a few too many religious pieces), but I just felt like I wasn't educated enough to TRULY appreciate what I was seeing.  There were a couple more famous paintings I recognized, and of course Mona is chillin' in her own little room and large group of phototakers around her (I think I took a picture with 15 people taking photos. a new personal best.).  From the Louvre, which also houses multiple Starbucks and an Apple star, we went to lunch and then to Notre Dame.  Notre Dame (Know-trah Dahm) was crowded, but magnificent.  Much more stunning from the outside than inside, but that is just my personal opinion.  The inside was PACKED with people.  One thing that gets me sore (I'm currently reading Catcher in the Rye, hence the use of 'sore' in this context.),  is the exploitation of historical and even religious buildings for monetary gain.  I'm not religious, but placing vending machines, where you can buy souvenir coins, at every corner in the cathedral seems wrong to me.  I know places like that cost money to upkeep, but there has to be a classier way of making money than that.  We left Notre Dame, walked around a little, got our bearings, then headed to the Eiffel Tower.  We didn't go up, but we did get to see all the people selling trinkets run away when the police came up, so that was a treat.  We took the required photos, admired it's greatness (it really is cool and to see it in real life, close up, it really was something), then headed back to Montmartre before dinner.  I will say one thing about the food we had in France and then not mention it again.  They food was amazing, and that might be an understatement.  Most of places we went were recommended by this book we had, but even the ones that weren't recommend were out of control good.  ALL THE FOOD WAS TOO GOOD.  They know how to cook, and eat,

The next day started at the catacombs (after breakfast of course).  This is a kind of tomb for people that died.

I have never seen so many human bones in my life.  It was eerie, creepy and interesting at the same time.  This was one of my favorite places in Paris.  There weren't tons and tons of tourists, like the other places we went, which was a breath of fresh air, and I took some cool photos.  After the catacombs, we had lunch, I almost had an anxiety attack and found our way to Mussee d'Orsay.  This museum houses much more impressionistic art (more my style than all those religious paintings).  I was more familiar with a lot of the artists here: Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, etc.  I actually recognized some of the paintings here.  I also recognized the high powered automatic rifles that the French  soldiers were holding outside the museum (Thanks CS 1.6.  B-4-1, if you are interested in what gun it was, and if you aren't using binds, noob.).  Our last full day ended by marching up steps to Sacre Couer on the top of Montmartre, dodging all the bracelet makers.  There were TONS of people there watching the sun set over Paris.  My trip to Paris was capped off with a delicious crepe and a view over a beautifully lit-up city.  We left the next morning after breakfast (2 free baguettes!), and channeled back to London before we caught another train, 3 hours later to Salisbury, England.  That began the next chapter of this 12 day adventure, but that elicits another blog post.

I bought a kindle recently, and have been reading books I have always meant to read.  So I will leave you with an excerpt from one of the books I have recently finished.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference." - Serenity Prayer (I read it in Slaughterhouse Five, hehe)