Pictures and a Paragraph (or four) on Paris

Paris. I didn’t spend long here–by the time our severely delayed ferry arrived into Calais and we managed to find our way to the city, my friend Rachael and I really only had about a day and a half to spend exploring before we had to leave to drive back. However, the time we spent in the revered city was still worth the effort.

A boat trip along the Seine was our first adventure, helping to orient us to the landmarks of the city so that later we were able to find major landmarks without much difficulty. Then the Eiffel Tower, where we ended up waiting in line for over three hours to see the top. For those who have never been, it is my opinion that the view from the very top is not worth the wait. The view from the second floor still allows you to see the entire spread of Paris, in better detail and outside (an advantage the top does not have), so if you’re debating whether or not to spend that extra five euros and three hours, don’t. However, do go up, and make sure you stop by at some point to just look at it at night. When it’s lit up, it’s gorgeous, and it has a dazzling light show (which, I know, sounds cheesy and like something from Disneyland, but it’s not) which is really cool.

In addition to this iconic monument, we also met up with one of my friends from Pacific and visited the Arc de Triomphe and the neighboring shopping central, the Avenue des Champs Elysees (one of those great places to go shopping where everything’s cool to look at, but too expensive to buy, so you won’t actually spend any money), Notre Dame, and (my favorite) the D’Orsay Museum. There’s something really cool about being able to stand feet away from paintings and other artwork that you’ve seen and loved in textbooks for years, and the D’Orsay happens to house an impressive collection of my favorite genres of art–impressionism and post-impressionism. Although it may not host the most realistic looking works, I’ve always been drawn to the pieces of artists like Van Gogh and Seurat as they go beyond portraying images to portraying feelings, and it is this emotive quality that makes these works of art, well… art. And powerful.

So Paris–it’s a powerful city. Kind of like the art contained in it, the allure that it has didn’t seem to be as much from the individual components of the city themselves, but the attitude and feeling that the city encompassed. The architecture was beautiful as was the Seine, and the food… it’s divine (no–sorry, I didn’t try the snails; I thought I might, but then when the lady at the table next to us got them, they looked difficult to eat and bore an uncanny resemblance to mucus, so I decided to go for a salmon instead). But what makes Paris that city that people fall in love is the atmosphere of elegance and sophistication mixed with the cool hip freshness that permeates the heart of the place and the people, not just the buildings and the galleries. All in all, a very cool place to visit, and perhaps one day I’ll return (never got to see the Louvre, or the catacombs, or the Shakespeare and Company bookshop, so that’s at least one more visit).

Amanda

: Figures the first thing I find is a Japanese Museum…

: Our first view of the Seine, and of one of the many decorative bridges we’ll see over the course of the weekend.

: The Eiffel Tower! There it is!

: The sun comes out, and the people follow suit not long after. Further along down the river, we saw many people out enjoying the sun, sitting by the river, just talking, drinking, or doing other such things.

: I swear–everywhere I go, I find a building that looks like this… This happens to be the National Assembly.

: The D’Orsay. We’ll return here the next day to go inside.

: The Louvre, where we think we’ll return, but we don’t end up being able to do so. And, just in case anybody else was confused like I was–the iconic glass pyramid part of the Louvre which was originally really controversial when built is on the other side of this building, in a courtyard-type thing (or so I’m told; like I said, we didn’t make it inside here).

: Notre Dame, which was more incredible in person than I would have otherwise imagined. When we rounded the corner of the river and it stood there majestically, it gave me feelings.

: How beautiful is this? (Answer–very beautiful)

: Hmmm…. lots of people OUTSIDE the church, but not inside. The first hint that our plans to go to a service might not turn out the way we planned.

: Going to church. Can’t wait to try out my favorite hymns in French…

: Hotel de Ville (the second… the first was burned down and had to be rebuilt)

: Eiffel tower, here we come! (this is before we realize it’s going to be a three hour wait…)

: View from the second level of the Eiffel Tower. Not bad, right?

: Waiting to get inside the D’Orsay

: Inside the D’Orsay, which seems a lot like inside a train station…

: A Seurat painting I particularly liked…

: An owl I thought was really cool, but apparently wasn’t supposed to take a picture of because after I took it I saw a “No photos” sign about four feet away.

: Notre Dame up close.

: In the words of my friend, John Johnson “This is Amanda being a tourist.”

: The English love to complain about the French, but the French must not mind the English if they have an entire bookstore dedicated to Britain.

: Place de la Concorde

: Obelisk gifted France from Egypt. London also has an obelisk; I wonder if it was also a gift.

: Avenue des Champs Elysees

: Arc de Triomphe

: Inside of the Arc

: A flame which, in theory, should be from 1806. I have my doubts. I have my doubts about the Olympic flame, too, for that matter…

: Delicious French salmon. Funny story about this: take a close look at the eating utensils. They aren’t your everyday fork and knife, but a special fork and knife for salmon. I wasn’t aware that these existed, until my food arrived and I picked up my fork and pried off a piece of salmon and the waiter came rushing over, saying “No! Don’t use that!” He literally took the fork out of my hand, scraped the salmon off and back onto the plate, then gave me the new utensils and walked away with the old ones. I couldn’t have used the wrong silver if I had wanted to.