Paris!!! Finally!!!

Sasha and I just got back (at the time of initial writing) from an absolutely wonderful trip to Paris. Surprise! We fell in love with the city! It was perfectly picturesque, just like in the movies, complete with outdoor cafes, accordion players and bridges over the Seine. It was also great to be traveling again and to get a change of scenery. This trip proved Sasha and I to be great travel buddies. I was sure we would have some sort of conflict, because we’re good friends and we’d be exhausted and together non-stop for a week, but there was really nothing negative. Our traveling desires and our wants and needs were identical. This trip was also another accomplishment for our quickly advancing independence; we kept reminding each other that we [almost] pulled off a perfect Paris trip without too much experience. We were also proud of how frugal we were! It certainly helped having free housing, but we ate well for little money and got in free at a lot of tourist sites (many cashiers deemed us European enough to get the European student discount: free). I really wished I spoke French, and managed to switch my Rs’ pronunciation to attempt a few phrases. We went from saying “merci” with a Spanish R to “gracias” with a French R once we returned to Spain. In [only] four crepes, three baguettes, and two chunks of cheese we had an unbeatable trip to Paris.

Day 1:
My day began at 5:23 am Friday morning, April 3rd when I woke up to head to Paris. I love waking up that early for exciting things, and going to Paris certainly counts. I walked through the dark to the Bus 5 stop near my house, which was surprisingly crowded. I took this bus to the airport shuttle stop, where more young people were gathering. The airport shuttle was 80% students from my program, and almost everyone was going to either Paris or Italy. It turns out our flight was a popular one, we knew half the plane! Sasha joined the shuttle at a different stop, and we soon arrived, for my first time, to the Seville airport. After a short flight and the smoothest landing of my life (yeah Transavia.com!), we found ourselves in the Orly Sud airport. A couple trains later, we emerged from the Gare de Nord train station in Paris. Our first move, per the recommendation of Sasha’s mom, was to leave our luggage in a locker at the station. We couldn’t go to our host’s house until 7:00, so we were glad to see that this was an option. We immediately set out walking to explore the Montmartre area. Ten steps into our journey, we witnessed something that neither of us ever had before: a mass Muslim prayer. There were hundreds of people, some kneeling on rugs, some on cardboard boxes, all facing east. We were definitely culture shocked, but we were so glad to have seen such an event. Diversity, in general, was a nice change. We headed right towards Sacre Cour, the famous cathedral with the “onion bulbs” atop the hill. This was a Friday afternoon, and church was in session. I was glad our timing was right, because the music was a sight for sore...ears. The nuns were singing, and the audience joined in. This in itself was truly incredible. The cathedral’s acoustics have been artificially boosted, so the entire place was filled with the eerily beautiful sound. Sacre Cour is a good tourist spot because of its view of the city. Unfortuately it was very cloudy out, and we could not see much. We could still, however, appreciate being in the exact spot where Amelie executed the wild goose chase for Nino, and were unfortunately a little too sleepy to reenact it. At this point, desperate for our first crepe, Sasha and I wandered around the little Montmartre streets, comparing the abundant crepe stands. We chose one, and sampled our first “crepe complete” (jam, egg, and cheese). [Note: proofreading this now. Took several times reading over that last statement to find the problem. “Jam” is not “jamón” in English. They luckily did not put jelly with the egg and cheese, but rather ham.] These were, of course, incredible. After getting a feeling of Montmartre, we headed back to the train station to retrieve our luggage before crossing the city. This proved to be easier dicho than hecho. The Gare du Nord station is SO confusing. We wasted so much time trying to figure out how to buy tickets, how to find the metro, etc., and with the addition of undercaffeination and the reunion with heavy backpacks, we were pretty cranky. We finally got on the metro and emerged at St. Michel. All crankiness disappeared when we caught our first glimpse of the Notre Dame. We walked around this area more, and stumbled across the fabulous Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. I told Sasha that my mom lived above it when she was studying abroad in Paris (my mom later corrected the story: she had gone in and they asked her if she was there about renting the room. No residence ever happened). After a while, we proceeded on the 12 train to the 15eme district, where we would be staying. Our hosts were Florence and Jean-François Allegre, friends of Sasha’s family friends. They are a couple in their sixties: Florence teaches high school students and Jean-François is a children’s book publisher. Needless to say, since he is a French children’s book publisher, Jean-François is a Tintin fanatic, and I was thrilled to see action figures all over the house. Florence speaks very good English, and Jean-François understands it pretty well. When we got there, thirsty, Florence wanted to ask if we wanted seltzer or plain water. Due to the language barrier, she asked us if we wanted water with or without “pshhhhh,” which of course entered Sasha’s and my vocabulary forever.
After settling in, Sasha and I went out for a quick bite. We headed to the middle of many tourist sites so we could see them by night. Of course, we stumbled into the most expensive area to look for a cheap dinner. On top of that, many restaurants were closing and we were still on Spanish time. We finally settled for the cheapest option: twelve euro salads (amazing ones) at a typical French outdoor restaurant. We went home and slept sooo well. It was great to have Sasha, because she is an experienced yoga-doer. She led a little stretching session before going to bed each night.

Day 2:
Saturday morning we headed to the St. Michel area. There was one thing we wanted: Nutella crepes. We succeeded in procuring them, and experienced a new level of heaven. We then headed to St. Michel to meet up with our tour. Ally had told us about New Europe tours. In several major European cities, guides run four-hour walking tours around the city for free. At the end, participants tip the guide what they would have paid for the tour. This was the highlight of the trip, for sure. Our tour guide, Philip, was from New Zealand and studied in London or something. He was fabulous: he was funny and really animated, and gave these huge interactive historical demonstrations (Sasha got to be Napoleon’s wife at one point). We walked all over the city, saw everything, and learned so much about French history. Some stuff we learned:

1. Napoleon’s tomb is in the Invalides. He is buried below floor level, so to see him one must bow down to the fallen emperor. Hitler visited Paris, and had no interest in seeing the major sights. Instead, he went to see Napoleon’s tomb. Refusing to bow down to him, staff installed mirrors on the ceiling so Hitler could see him.

2. Standing in front of the Louvre, there are the three arches perfectly lined up, each half the height and width of the arch proceeding it (the Arc du Triomphe being the middle one). However, one German tourist pointed out that they aren’t perfectly lined up. After some research, she was proven correct. Government officials talked about demolishing the Louvre and rebuilding it ten feet to the right. It was decided eventually that this would be far too expensive (I think the figure was about ten million euros), so it was left out of line. However, a building is currently being moved in Berlin for the same reason.

3. There are many faces carved into one bridge and the area around it. The story behind it, of course, was that the king threw a party and everyone got pretty drunk. The king hired the artist in attendance to sketch the guests. These carvings legendarily depict the King’s drunk friends. Philip declared these as the first Facebook.

4. To determine how the subject of a statue died, look at the horse below him. If the horse is standing still, the rider died of natural causes. If the horse is in a trot, or has any leg up, the rider was murdered. If the horse is bucking, the rider died in battle.

5. The roundabout around the Arc du Triomphe is the most dangerous in the world. It has twelve roads and no signs. Therefore, there is some sort of accident every thirty minutes. Philip said that, statistically speaking, if we climb the Arc and watch for half an hour, we’ll be sure to see an accident. Sasha and I tried and didn’t see our own accident, but we saw the remnants: a police car parked next to a car pulled over.

6. The Eternal Flame marking the tomb of the unnamed soldier under the Arc du Triomphe has not been eternally lit. It went out when a Mexican tourist, upset that France beat Brazil in the World Cup finals, urinated on the flame. He was put right on a plane, never to return to France. A few years later, Australian tourists were caught cooking hot dogs over the Eternal Flame. They, too, were put on a plane, never to return to France. Philip suggested that if we’re ever stuck in Paris, penniless, with no way to get home, we simply have to somehow tamper with the flame to get a free ride home. Sasha and I regretted not doing this when we were stuck in Valence.

And so much more. I highly recommend this tour for anyone who’s in Paris (or Madrid, Munich, and others, google “New Europe Tours”). We were disappointed that we had already done Montmartre, because Philip was leading a Montmartre tour that evening. Philip, Matt from Vegas and I discussed other tours he could create. Because of how often it came up, we decided that a Paris Beheading tour would be fit. There were also several instances of castration. We combined these tours into the Severed Appendages of Paris tour, which would surely make millions.

After the tour, Sasha and I proudly got kicked out of the most expensive hotel in Paris. Philip pointed it out and told us that it’s easy to stay there for free. All you need to do is win the Tour du France! We entered just to use the bathroom, but the doorman immediately suspected that we weren’t guests and asked us to leave. To cope with our defeat, we headed straight for Café Angelina: a spot recommended by many trusted tourists (Ella Reily Stocker and Tito Crafts). In line, we admired the little pastries, many of which were laden with golf leaf. We ordered the Chocolat African, which was amazing, thick hot chocolate that came with a fancy dish of whipped cream (Tito explained that you can put it in the hot chocolate, eat it with your spoon, or just eat it with your face). We thought we ordered a fruit tart to go with it, but it was really just more chocolate. When we left we were literally drunk on chocolate, clutching our stomachs.

Before the sugar crashed, we conquered the Musee d’Orsay. This museum, set up in a former train station, has the biggest collection of Impressionist art in the world. Since the galleries close earlier than the whole building, we had a mere forty-five minutes to see it all. Sasha completed her first “uh-huh, uh-huh” tour, which was luckily enough to seee the greats. We were so excited to see the famous pieces of art in here, and were equally glad we shared each other’s enthusiasm (this was the art quota test of our travel companionship). We agreed that we are lucky to have been brought up appreciating art and knowing these artists. This museum would not have been as exciting if I had not regularly watched “Linnea in Monet’s Garden” as a kid and if Sasha had not watched “Brian in Van Gogh’s Patio” or whatever.

After the museum (and a sugar crash and search for caffeine), it was time to conquer the Eiffel Tower. We waited in line forever (forty-five minutes) to find out that we were in the elevator line. We crossed to the stairs line, where there was literally no line. We stomped up the stairs and got over the line error by the first floor. It was so beautiful, seeing the city lit up at night. Once at the top, we celebrated by finishing the chocolate tart from Angelina’s that we had snuck into my bag. This was a truly Parisian moment, reveling in the fact that we were on top of THE Eiffel Tower in THE Paris. Furthermore, ever hour on the hour the flashy lights go off, which is absolutely beautiful. We were in line for the 9:00 flashing, on the tower for the 10:00, and we had just gotten down for the 11:00. Climbing the Eiffel Tower is my one memory from my last visit to Paris, for which I was about three years old. I clearly remember climbing the stairs and seeing something yellow. I was glad to see that my memory did not fail me and that the upper elevator was, in fact, yellow.

Day 3:
Sunday was busy. We got up early and got on the metro to the Louvre, which is free the first Sunday of every month. We planned on beating the crowds by entering through the basement metro entrance. Every other tourist planned this as well, and the metro was very crowded. Luckily, we booked it and managed to beat all lines. Phillip our tour guide had warned us that one “cannot conquer the Louvre, the Louvre conquers you.” This was the exact experience we had. We went first to the Mona Lisa. It was...disappointing. It was tiny, in glass, in more glass, and with a rope creating a large buffer zone. The place was packed, and we had to fight our way in to see her. The only reason I ever wanted to see her live was to get really close, but with all the protection there was no way to do so. There was a bad glare, so fans are really better off seeing any reproduced version of her. We saw a bunch of the museum (including some, but not enough, Spanish stuff) and got yelled at for eating our apples on a windowseat. In the Louvre we bumped into two groups of people we know! First were family friends of Sasha who are teaching in Granada this semester. Secondly were a few Clarkies who are studying in Scotland. Crazy!

After we accepted defeat a few hours in, we decided to head to the train station to proceed to Versailles. On the way, I yielded my biggest success on the language front: I asked a man with a baguette “ou est baguette?” (“where is baguette?”) to which he simply pointed to the bakery right in front of us. Our baguette (for dinner) was half gone by the time we arrived in Versailles. I had thought that Versailles as a town was the tourist attraction, not just the chateau. After the Louvre we were so pooped that we were glad there it was just one stop. The Chateau was obviously incredible, and between the audioguide and Phillip’s tour from Saturday we learned quite a bit. We walked around town a little bit and bought another baguette, some brie, and a bottle of cheap wine for dinner. We took the train back into Paris and set up on the pedestrian bridge. We shared our stupendous supper as we saw the Sunday sun set over the sparkling Seine. The night concluded with a stroll through the lit-up Champs-Élysées.

Day 4:
Monday was our day to do some big tourist things. We started out at our favorite crepe place on St. Germaine then headed to Notre Dame. We had just beat the crowd; when we left there were a million people waiting. It was nice to be awake in Notre Dame, the last time I was there I had been asleep on my dad’s shoulders. We unfortunately didn’t climb the tower because the separate line was very long, so there’s something to do next time. After a panini and a coffee, we went to Saint Chapelle. I had not heard of this church before, but it was one of the highlights of the trip. The second floor features fifteen massive stained glass windows telling the story of the bible. Each window is very intricate and has different shapes inside. The light is incredible, and it is incredible even for those non-religious folk (as Philip had warned us). We proceeded to the Marais district to meet up with two co-workers from last summer: Erin Q, my closest friend at the camp where I worked, and Inger from Denmark who was visiting. Erin is studying abroad in Paris. With them we walked through this district where there were un monton of little street shops. Included in these was a vintage clothes store, which is one of the things I miss most about the states. I left with a red felt wraparound skirt and a matching red Madeline-ish hat. We ended at the town hall were a protest against Bolonia, a European education reform, was going on. I only knew about it from graffiti in the bathrooms of the University of Seville, but Erin explained it better. The protest took the form of walking in circles through the courtyard in front of the town hall, so we participated for a few laps.

After bidding farewell, Sasha and I proceeded to the Arc de Triomphe. It took us a while to figure out how to get onto the island in the rotary on which sits the structure. We finally found a secret underground tunnel that brought us under the road. We climbed and admired the view. As Philip suggested, we watched for awhile in hopes of seeing a car accident, but all we saw was a police car parked next to a pulled over car, which we believe to be the immediate aftermath. That night we were going to stay for dinner with Florence and Jean-François, so we searched for a dessert to bring. Pastry shops in Paris are ubiquitous until you need one. We finally found a nice place, and were enthralled by the cakes and petit fours in the window. Because of the language barrier, I drew a diagram of the display, and colored in the ones we wanted. The lady was amused, but didn’t really get it. Sasha’s family friend and Florence herself had both warned us against Florence’s cooking (“I’m a bad cooker”) yet our dinner was spectacular. It was nice to really have time to chat with them and hear about all their trips. We learned that the amazing photographs around the house were all taken by Florence. After dinner, Jean-François ran off and returned with two beautiful Paris pictures books published by his company. I was really touched that he gave them to us, because we didn’t know him very well, and we had just crashed there for a few nights. I have learned some new French vocabulary from reading the book, which explains all of the beautifully illustrated Paris sights.

Day 4:
Tuesday was sadly our last day. We planned to leave our stuff at the apartment, doing some last things, and coming back for it before the train. However, Jean-Francois invited us to leave our luggage at his office downtown. This was very helpful, since we’d have much more time. On top of that, Florence offered to drive us in. It was great to get a car ride through Paris to purely look around and not have to navigate. We arrived at Jean-François’ office, which was absolutely wonderful. It was a complete children’s book workshop. There were posters and books everywhere, the walls were covered with children’s book characters, the place smelled like paper, and everyone kindly greeted us. We dumped our stuff and headed to the Tintin goods store. It was a wonderful place, with SO much Tintin stuff, but it was all very expensive. Jean-François must have spent hundreds of euros on his collection. We proceeded to find our last crepes and get the last views of some landmarks. Our primary goal was to find Rue Mouftard. After a very long time of searching, we found it. It was a cute little street market with fruit, fish, and chocolate abound. We headed next to the catacombs, the most highly recommended stop. We waited in line for a while and took turns ducking out to buy bread and cheese; thanks to the fluorescent pink hair adorned tourists in front of us (although little did we know how much we’d be seeing them) it was easy to find our spot in line. The catacombs are AWESOME. People were getting sick way back when because the cemeteries were overflowing. They moved all the bodies to the old mines. Some guy arranged the bones to fit as much as possible; as a result the walls are lined with stacks of neatly arranged bones. It was hard to resist playing Jenga with some ulnas. Some had patterns of skulls built in, some had crosses. It was kind of gross at first, but also just really really awesome.
After the catacombs we booked it to the Rodin museum which we refused to leave Paris without seeing. It had cleared up by then (it had been raining all day) and we had a beautiful sunny view of The Thinker. The quick stop at this museum was a great way to end our trip to Paris. Content, we headed back to J-F’s office to get our luggage. As we descended the office building with our luggage, we ran into Florence who was walking by in case she saw us. We were pleased to see her again to fill her in on our last day, and she was glad to have found us for shoe opinions. Her son is getting married in June, so she was deep in preparations. The current stage was shoe-selection. She brought us to the store where she showed us some adorable flats that we both approved.
Sasha and I headed towards the Gare du Lyon train station and stopped for Chinese take-out on the way. We boarded the train to Valencia (so we thought) with thoughts and dreams of Paris swimming through our heads. We hummed “La Vie en Rose” until we fell asleep.