Paris

I forgot to tell you I was going to Paris. I was going, and I went. I just got back home from spending four days with Liza. It was fabulous. I arrived at Liza’s in the thirteenth arrondissement on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately she was sick, so I braved the freezing rain and checked out her neighborhood toute seule. I watched horse races and drank a café at her local tabac, found a Panini and Internet… it was the next day while Liza was at school that my real sight-seeing began. I hit the Bastille, L’Arc de Triomphe, Concorde, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Hotel de Ville, and Hotel de Sully while Liza was in Class. Thursday night the two of us made it to the Musee D’Orsay (my favorite place in Paris). Friday I got to join her class on a tour of Belleville and then we wandered around Paris window-licking (that’s the French term), made dinner, and hit the Louvre. Saturday was Montmartre (and Sacre Coeur, bien sur), the Pont Mirabeau, and les Halles. Evidently there’s a lot to write about. I think, for your convenience, I’ll compartmentalize each site so you can read about the ones you’re interested in.

Bastille: Liza’s Paris guide-book described the Bastille something like this: « the world’s most famous non-site; a place millions of confused tourists flock looking for the prison that is no longer there. » The Bastille was a prison and the start of the French Revolution was when the non-royal frenchies stormed the prison to set the prisoners free. Now there is just a monument in its place and cool murals depicting the revolution in the metro tunnel below it.

L’Arc de Triomphe: I wasn’t fussed. I was cold and hungry. I got out of the metro and saw it looking like every picture I’ve seen of it and thought I would rather be in a warm building looking at a picture than walking around it. Napoleon put arcs up all over France to celebrate victories (there’s even one just a down the street from me in Montpellier). This one is famous for multiple reasons. One reason is because the death-wish traffic circle around it is a twelve road intersection designed by Haussmann (working for Napoleon III) while cleaning up Paris. According to my guide book, Napoleon built his arc there on the Champs-Elysée, architect Charles François Ribat was going to build a giant bejeweled elephant as a tribute to the French military. My guide book seems to think this would have been worse than the arc, but I think it would have been amusing to see. The arc has been the backdrop of many French parades—the allied troop’s victory parade in WWI and then the Nazis march into Paris in WWII, a parade celebrating the inauguration of President Charles de Gaulle—who randomly made the former president get out of the presidential car halfway through the parade and walk back… If I hadn’t been afraid of the maniac drivers speeding around the circle (I keep saying that I’m going to get run over by some form of French transportation before the program’s over) I would have gone to check out the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier—there’s a flame there that has been burning since WWI.

The Place de la Concorde: Honestly, I have nothing to say about it. I would have more to say if it were summer and I got to see the fountains running and if my hands weren’t freezing. Apparently this is where both Marie Antoinette and Louis XV, among many others, were beheaded. I just popped out of the metro station, got my cold hands to take a picture, and hurried back under ground. The Concorde metro station, however, was listed as one of the top ten stations to pass through (if you are on line 12) because its curved walls are covered in mosaics spelling out famous quotes.

La Tour Eiffel: I don’t know why, but I loved the Eiffel Tower. I think it is because the first time I saw it was a surprise. I was on the metro train going to find it and as we were passing over the Seine river, I looked up, and there it was, through the scuffed up window. It was a fabulously normal way for me to see it--surrounded by decaffeinated commuters. I hate all of the grandiose post cards depicting the Eiffel Tower at the end of the Champs de Mars (originally Napoleon’s military training grounds) with the fountain leading up to it, but there was something beautiful in the clean lines of the metal. Also, I love all of the reactions to the Eiffel Tower. Gustave Eiffel, its creator, said, “France is the only country in the world with a 300m flagpole.” Some Parisians called it the “metal asparagus.” Famous author Guy de Maupassant ate lunch everyday at its ground-floor restaurant (which I couldn’t find) because he said it was the only place in Paris he couldn’t see offensive thing. It was made in 1889 for the World Fair in Paris—almost two million people climbed the stairs of the Eiffel Tower during the fair. I don’t think that it was supposed to be a permanent Paris attraction, but it remains.

Les Halles de Paris: We have our own little “les Halles” in Montpellier. It’s a place where fruit, vegetable, cheese and flower vendors come together under one roof. Les Halles in Paris is quite different. Les Halles in Paris is a massive modern-day Dr. Seuss Mall with its outdoor center cascading down four floors from ground level. Les Halles are filled with only-in-Paris designers and haute-culture specialty stores. The chain stores (swanky in Montpellier) humbly inhabit the buildings bordering les Halles. According to my guidebook, les Halles has been the main market place in Paris since 1135. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon when we were there and a lot of people were roaming outside les Halles. Liza and I got to see some high schoolers dancing the Techtonique (a teenage dance craze I’d been trying to tell Liza about—WEBSITE) and because it’s the last weekend of les Soldes we got to do more than lick the windows at some of the stores—I found a mini cadeau for bébé Jones there and some cool little gifts for my tenth grade girls.

Notre Dame: I didn’t expect to have any type of religious experience while visiting this sight, but it was inevitable—I immediately thought, whoa, Jesus is probably ticked about this place. It was like a Disneyland, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see people in oversized costumes walkthrough giving people hugs and taking pictures with them. The first thing you see when you enter Notre Dame is the information booth where you can purchase guidebooks, souvenirs and audio tours. The next stop is a bank of penny machines in which you can roll your two Euro pieces into souvenirs depicting Notre Dame. Above the candles (which you can light for 2 Euro a piece, or ten Euro for the big candles) hangs a beautiful sculpture of Jesus on the cross. It’s natural that Notre Dame was jam-packed with tourists—it has been a cathedral, dubbed the “Temple of Reason” by secular revolutionaries, home to Hugo’s Quasimodo, the site of Napoleon’s papal coronation, the place of Joan of Arcs heresy hearings, the site of royal weddings, the place Charles de Gaulle almost got sniped by Nazis, housing for livestock… but still, John 2:13-22.

Le Pont Mirabeau: One of my favorite places in Paris. It was tourist free because the non-French speakers don’t know the Guillaume Apollinaire’s famous poem I could recite for you when I get home. It has the best view of Eiffel tower with one of the statue of liberties and big river boats in front of it. I liked it much better than all of the other famous bridges—though I couldn’t help but like the Pont Neuf (New Bridge) as well—it’s ironically the oldest bridge in Paris.

Belleville: On Friday morning I got to join Liza and her class on a tour of Belleville. I was originally interested in it because of the great movie The Triplets of Belleville, but there were many reasons to love the neighborhood. I learned that both Belleville and Montmartre were originally outside the walls of Paris so people who couldn’t afford to live in Paris lived in these neighborhoods (immigrants and artists). Also, outside of Paris there wasn’t any tax, so there was a thriving bar and café community there because Parisians would step outside of the city limits to amuse themselves. Now Belleville and Montmartre are a part of the city and have maintained some of their multicultural charm. Belleville hosts the Bobos (bourgeois-bohemian) and is home to many fantastic art ateliers. Murals depicting a silhouette man with his suitcase and a red balloon tell make once-plain buildings more interesting. Also, there are “Space Invaders”—little PacMan aliens hiding on tiles around the neighborhood, apparently there’s a point system and French children play a spotting game.

Montmartre: Despite the hoards of tourists covering the slopes of Montmartre, I really loved it. At the top of one of the highest hills in Paris looms the Sacré Coeur—just as touristy, but less sold-out than Notre Dame. Like Belleville, Montmartre was once home to many artists when the rent was cheap and it maintains its artistic enthusiasm—many artists set up their stands in squares around Montmartre selling their souvenir paintings and walking around with clipboards asking people to buy drawings of themselves. Montmartre is also known for porn shops and prostitution. It’s a very funny place where opposites coincide. In the tourist shops pictures of the Sacré Coeur and nudes line up next to each other on post card stands. The streets are just the same, at one turn you’ll come across a street packed with tourists and tourist shops, and at another you’ll be in a practically empty street with residents and African hair salons. Liza and I laughed most to see a huge crowd of tourists sitting solemnly on the stairs up to the beautiful cathedral behind them listening seriously to a harpist play our Titanic favorite “My Heart Will Go On.” We got a Sugar Crêpe from a stand for a good price (even if the tourists have invaded Montmartre, the tourist prices haven’t caught up yet) and ate it walking down to the metro station. I’ve eaten a couple of Crêpes since I’ve been here, I like to get them when I miss my dad—they’re not as good as his skinny pancakes though.

The Louvre: I’m excited to go through my table book of Louvre works when I’m home. That’s what I thought about while I was at the Louvre. First of all the Louvre is massive with beautiful walls and ceilings, but after seeing the Musee D’Orsay, it wasn’t as spectacular as it should have been. I would have been just as happy looking through my table book as I was walking through the halls of the Louvre. After admiring the massive paintings and taking pictures of the mass crowding around La Jaconde (Mona Lisa) with their cameras (and ignoring the spectacular paintings behind them), Liza and I amused ourselves by posing with statues. We might be the only ones who have pictures of ourselves mimicking Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and many other famous and funny-posed statues. We even gained a little bit of a following. A group of French people seemed to think we were more amusing than the actual works in the Louvre and started following us around—luckily we shook them off. The glass pyramids of the Louvre—the entrance of the Louvre—are actually very cool. In theory, they should be obnoxious against the backdrop of the historic building (royal castle turned art museum), but in person they are quite cool. They might have been my favorite part of the Louvre.

*The Musée D’Orsay: I loved this museum; most of you could have predicted it. Once a train station, this spacious museum hosts my favorite artists. Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Cezanne, Renoir… it was pretty close to heaven. Liza and I spent about an hour and a half there Thursday night before closing (that’s when it’s free for 25 and under) and we only visited the four chambers of the impressionists I just listed, but it felt like we sprinted through them. I fell in love with a couple of Monet pieces I’d never seen before, and many others. I almost felt like I should’ve had my Linea doll with me (from Linea in Monet’s Garden—my copy is well-worn) since I was seeing in person the paintings I grew up loving—I did my sixth grade hero paper on Monet. I also thought a lot about Olivia and Grace while I was in the Musée D’Orsay. I always took them to the impressionist rooms at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and we would look at all of the colors really close and walk backwards to see the picture. They’re fabulous companions in an art museum. No one is too young to appreciate art. Oh, and, Monet and I have the same birthday.

The Metro: Did you know that the musicians in the metro have to try out to be there? That was my favorite detail about the metro. Some stations are really cool—my guidebook listed the top ten and I made it to almost all of them—but most smell like urine and are pretty dumpy. I loved the advertisements covering metro walls—I started using phrases I learned from them, my favorite being “Hoplà, nous vivons!” (Hopla, we’re living!)—and I thought tunneling around underground like rabbits or gophers was a pretty funny thing to do. I kept wishing I’d memorized the very short Ezra Pound poem “In the Station of the Metro” so that I could recite it while seeing the trains come in and out of the tunnels like the snake in the Chamber of Secrets (HP).


Saturday afternoon I hugged Liza goodbye and metroed my way back to the Gare de Lyon where I waited for the TGV to pick me up and bring me back to Montpellier. I spent an hour in the train station watching pigeons play soccer with a Peanut M&M while listening to a couple children sing Edith Piaf’s classic “La Vie on Rose”—I’m sure you’ve heard it, la lalalalala la…