(A very very late) PARIS

Paris was amazing! There is absolutely nothing normal about the city. Everything, from the subway (Metro), to the imposing old stone palaces, to the glitter of the Eiffel tower at 11:30pm on a rainy Paris night is one-of-a-kind; wonders I had the opportunity to see on a quick nine and a half hour stay in Paris on May 8, 2010.

Originally, I had wanted the trip to Paris to be just my host sister and me. But, since both of us have no knowledge of the French language, we came to the realization that our plans needed to be adjusted. Then, we found out that Meike had to take two class tests on the two days after we got back from Paris. Since the trip lasts from 8am on Saturday until 5:30am on Sunday, we decided that it probably wouldn’t be such a good idea for Meike to take part. I was really disappointed because Meike and I had wanted to go to Paris together for awhile, but school is naturally a higher priority.

In the end, I ended up going with a German friend of mine and her mother. The mother is from Belgium and she speaks fluent French, so we were able to get by just fine in Paris. Corinna also has had lots of French in school and went to elementary school in Belgium so she also speaks a fair amount of French and understands quite a bit, too.

Just like on my trip to London, I traveled with Tusculum Busreisen. We left Aachen at 8:30am on Saturday morning and drove across Belgium. We were almost to the French border when a motorcycle cop pulled us over to a truck stop, where we had to wait for 45 minutes while the police checked to make sure the bus driver was taking enough breaks! The only entertaining part about that delay was that we got to watch the Belgian policemen hang around and do nothing; while wearing these pretty much normal uniforms with ridiculous hats. After we finally crossed the French border, the bus driver decided we should immediately take a 45 minute break! So here we are, sitting at a gas station/café on the French border with nothing to do for 45 minutes! And we were already behind schedule! Finally, at about 2:30pm, we reached the center of Paris and parked at the Arc de Triomphe. On the drive in through the suburbs, we had already caught glimpses of the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur.

To start off our adventure, we went into a Paris “drugstore”. This place wasn’t anything like Bartells or Walgreens! This place sells everything from Cuban cigars and Prada baby clothes, to handbags and wildly expensive jewelry. Maybe the fact that this “drugstore” is just down the Champs Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe has something to do with its wares! After continuing our stroll down the Champs Elysees, we went to the first Metro station and took the subway to the Moulin Rouge. We ended up taking the wrong subway at first, but it turned out to be a good thing because we got a great view of Paris from the elevated tracks. It was quite shocking coming up out of the subway at the Moulin Rouge and seeing a street lined with sex shops and cabaret show theaters, although considering the nature of the shows in the Moulin Rouge, it all makes sense. Then, we headed up the hill towards Sacre Coeur. On our way, we stopped and bought I Love Paris t-shirts and postcards (which we proceeded to write while drinking café au lait in the Café des Deux Moulins, made famous by the French film, Amelie). As we entered the Montmartre (artists quarter), we marveled at the paintings and caricatures made in the Place du Tertre, the famous little square close to the base of Sacre Coeur. Sacre Coeur turned out to be one of my favorite places on the trip. The huge, but elegant white cathedral reminded me a bit of the Taj Mahal. Inside, there were burning candles everywhere and the stained glass windows shined brightly in the sun. There were a lot of tourists walking around, but also some people were praying. Outside on the white steps, tourists and Parisians chatted, picnicked, and relaxed in the sun as African immigrants attempted to sell miniature plastic Eiffel Towers and Paris key chains to naïve tourists. Needless to say, I was not caught up in their scheme.

After Sacre Coeur, we walked down the hill and along a boulevard until we got to the next Metro station. From there, we rode the Metro to the Hotel de Ville, the city hall and center of politics in Paris. We checked out a couple of shops, but even the GAP in Paris was crazy expensive! After that, we tried to get to Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris. We asked a bunch of people, but still ended up going in the wrong direction. However, it turned out to be ok because we got to see the Saint-German-des-Pres quarter of Paris. There were so many one of a kind shops and cafes! The 6th Arrondissement is the home of Saint-Germain-des-Pres and is the former Art and Literature quarter in Paris. After we spent an hour in the rain walking in the wrong direction down tree lined streets along the Seine, we finally got the right directions to Notre Dame Cathedral. Although we didn’t go inside, the outside of the cathedral was quite the impression in itself. The building is older than Sacre Coeur; one can tell from the architecture and materials used. Truthfully, Notre Dame reminded me a bit of the Aachener Dom. The stones and carvings are similar on both structures. Another connection to Aachen that we found at Notre Dame was a statue of Charlemagne on his horse! After our quick stop at Notre Dame, we walked across Pont Neuf (New Bridge), the oldest bridge in Paris. Do not ask me why it is called Pont Neuf! Haha I do not know! There was a lot of boat traffic the day we were in Paris. Even in the evening when it was raining and cool, there were dinner cruises and sight-seeing boats all over the place.
Following our walk on Pont Neuf, we strolled past the courthouse in Paris and entered a tiny square that comes across at first as quite unassuming, but is actually the home to many of France’s most famous celebrities. No, we didn’t see any of them. And if we did, we probably wouldn’t have recognized them anyways! Walking further parallel to the Seine, we came to the Louvre. Unfortunately, the museum was already closed for the day, but we took in the palace like structure and walked through the big arch onto the plaza with the famous glass pyramids. On a clear day, one can see all the way from the Louvre down to the Obelisk and even farther down the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe. It was raining when we were there, so we could only see as far as the Obelisk and the giant round about packed with cars around it, but that alone was astonishing!

If I remember correctly, the one of the city planners for the early Washington D.C. was a Frenchman, L’Enfant. His city plan for Washington D.C. copied the strong points of the city of Paris and influenced the later city planners to use L’Enfant’s design. One can see the similarity today between the Washington Mall (Capitol-Washington Memorial-Lincoln Memorial) and Voie Triomphale “The Grand Axis of Paris” (Louvre-Obelisk-Arc de Triomphe). That really interested me, because I have been to Washington D.C. twice and I find the layout of the city so practical and people friendly.

Our second to last stop on our whirlwind Paris tour was the Statue de la Liberté (Statue of Liberty), a scale copy of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour. The statue in Paris faces west, towards her sister statue across the Atlantic. We reached the climax of our last stop, the Eiffel tower, at 11:30pm; half an hour before the bus was set to leave from Arc de Triomphe! The rain and cold didn’t stop us from going up to the second level and enjoying a wonderful view of Paris at night. The nighttime view from the Eiffel Tower was definitely an experience I will remember for as long as I live.

After descending the STAIRS of the Eiffel tower (340 stairs in the dark rainy night=a little dangerous I think) we raced across the street and up the stairs to Place du Trocadéro, now home to the Palais de Chaillot, and originally built for the 1878 World’s Fair in Paris. On the other side, we caught the Metro and arrived a couple of minutes later at Charles de Gaulle Etoile Metro station on the Champs Elysees. After ordering burgers and fries from the most elegant McDonalds in the world, we raced back to our bus and arrived (the last ones) at 11:58pm. Some of our fellow travelers had already been sitting on the bus for a half an hour!

Our trip home ended at 5:30am in Aachen with no delays or weird police checks!

Thank you all for being very patient with me and my not-so-regular blog posts. I am very behind on this one (Paris was a month ago!) but I have been very busy here lately, finishing up my Berlin project and getting ready to go home in 2 and a half weeks!

I have a lot more about the last month to tell you all about (soccer games (mine and professional), HAMBURG, Holland on the North Sea), but I’ll let it wait for a couple of days until after I come back from Berlin next Saturday!