Day Forty

Sunday, August 2nd 2009

Our first real day in Paris began bright and early as Abbie, Amanda, and I woke up, got showered, and ate baguettes (because it was Paris. Duh.) We then walked to the train station near Amanda’s house. She technically lives just outside of what is officially considered Paris, but it was only about a fifteen minute train ride into the city. Our first sight was the gorgeous Notre Dame Cathedral. I admit, after seeing that ridiculous Disney cartoon, I excpected it to be gargantuan, but it was actually fairly normally sized.

After that, we walked along the banks of the Seine. I guess I was expecting tiny, winding streets with cafes on either side and fancy little frou frou shops all over the place, but Paris is just as metropolitan as New York or Dublin. As we walked along the Seine towards the Musee Orsee, we actually ran into two of the girls from our USAC trip, proving that Walt Disney was right and it is, actually, a small world after all.

Since it was the first Sunday of the month, all the museums were open to the public. Yes, you may be wondering why we didn’t immediately go to the Louvre and gawk at the tiny Mona Lisa, but the Musee Orsee was so much better (by the way, I’m way too lazy to deal with accents. Deal with it.) Inside the museum, we looked at all the marble statues featured. Amanda introduced us to the “Statue Game” in which one recreates the pose with props et al. We went further along to look at impressionist paintings before going upstairs to look at the Master’s.

It was as if my education at CSU Chico was staring me at the face. At one corner was the giant, wall-sized painting by Gustave Courbet that Dr. Katie shows in her THEA 350 class. Further along, I was visited by the ghosts of scenic painting past. Monet, Degas, van Gogh (mine), The Floor Strippers (Abbie’s) all stared at me from the wall. I spent way too much time staring at the Starry Night Over the Rhone, which was my painting. And Dan, after having seen the actual painting and stood on the bridges in Paris seeing the same sights van Gogh did…I finally got it. A little late, I know.

After the museum, we stopped to eat our egg salad sandwiches we packed for lunchon one of the bridges on Paris. Then, we walked over to the Tuilleries in front of the Louvre where some big carnival was going on. I, having read The da Vinci Code on too many times, begged to walk up to the Louvre to see the giant pyramid. So we did. And I was a little sad Tom Hanks wasn’t standing there with his terrible mullet haircut.

After the Louvre, we did a literall about-face and walked towards the Arc de Triumph along the Champs Elysee, supposedly the most famous street in the world and built so Napoleon could quickly move troops through the city. After reaching the Arc de Triumph, we hopped on the metro towards the Eiffel Tower. We had caught glimpses of it so far throughout our day, and I was feeling kind of bummed because it wasn’t quite as big as I was expecting it to be.

But after a quick stop at a coffee shop, we approached by the back way (i.e. not from the huge green in front of it) and as soon as we came around the corner…there it was. Huge and mighty. Originally built for the World’s Fair, it was never intended to be a permanent structure. But could you imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower? It was a truly amazing sight to behold and we walked all the way under it before deciding to come back later to go to the top.

After the Eiffel Tower, Amanda took us to the Jewish Quarter of Paris to get the falafels she had been talking about ever since she returned from her study abroad trip two years ago. And, it was totally worth all the hype. Though there were many falafel stands in that particular area, that one was clearly superior as evidenced by huge line in front of it. We sat in a park to enjoy our falafel and Abbie was almost attacked by a pigeon.

After digesting our food, we walked towards the Seine once more, seeing the luxurious Hotel de Ville (which is not actually a hotel). We sat on one of the many bridges spanning the Seine, just relaxing and waiting for the lights on the Eiffel Tower to come on. They did, gradually instead of the instantaneous show of light I had been hoping for. It’s apparently a little known fact that on the hour, the Eiffel Tower actually sparkles. It’s true, I swear. We waited until 10 p.m. to see the sparkly (everyone within eyesight of the tower goes “ooooh”), and even though we had originally intended on going to the top that night, we decided to call it a day and save it for tomorrow.