Friday, April 3, 2009

Je ne comprend pas.

     After spending around 30 hours in airports or on planes, we finally emerged from a metro station and surfaced in Paris. It was no fun at all dragging my huge suitcase through the metro.  Anyway, we had a little trouble finding our apartment, but some kind French ladies let me use their cell phone and we got there without much difficulty after that. It was in a fifteenth century building that I understand used to be a brothel. The stairs were extremely steep and narrow and the place was tiny, but it was home in Paris and we came to really like it. It was within walking distance of nearly all of the major attractions in a really colorful pedestrian neighborhood called Le Quartier Montorgueil.

 

     Here's the breakdown of our time in Paris.  I'm just going to copy what I wrote in my travel journal.

 

Day 1

 

     Today we visited the Louvre and Notre Dame. The Louvre was enormous and overwhelming. Most of the signs explaining what each item was were in French, which was frustrating. It's hard to be interested in something when you don't know what you're looking at.  I did get to see the Mona Lisa.  I also found the part of the Louvre where you can walk around in what used to be the moat and see the palace's original foundations quite interesting.Dave and Will were like kids in a candy store.  My favorite part of the Louvre came right after we left and I bought a "pain chocolate" and ate it in the Tuileries Gardens outside. 
 

     Notre Dame was amazing, but I think I liked St. Eustache even more.  St. Eustache is a cathedral really close to our apartment that we wandered into yesterday after getting settled in at our apartment.  The ceiling seemed higher, the carving more intricate and the organ bigger. While we were there I got scolded by a French man for looking through a prayer book that I thought was a guest book. All of the writing was in French! I didn't know.

 

     After Notre Dame we headed back to our neighborhood and shopped for our dinner. Most everything in the markets here is sold in very small quantities because people here shop for their dinner every day. Well, time to eat!

 

Day 2

 

     Today we visited Versailles. My favorite parts were the Hall of Mirrors, the Royal Chapel, and the gardens. Marie Antoinette's apartments were also interesting. The food in Paris is amazing. There are patisseries with the most delectable pastries around every corner and the bread is second to none.  Interestingly, people here really do walk around just munching on big, long baguettes.  Will and I are determined to get crepes from one of the crepe stands. They look heavenly. Paris is much different than Edinburgh or any other city I've visited. It is more work to communicate and frustrating at times, but it is a truly amazing city.  I've gotten pretty good at saying "Je ne parle pas Francais" (I don't speak French), "Je ne comprend pas" (I don't understand) and "Parlez vous anglais?" (Do you speak English?).  It is hard to be somewhere that we are so obviously out of place, but I think it's good for us.

 

Day 3

 

     Today we started out visiting the Musée Carnavalet, a museum about the history of Paris. It was something Will wanted to do. I was pretty bored there, but that's ok. Then we wandered around for a long time trying to find lunch. We ended up buying some pork chops from a market we passed and sat on a bench and ate them. After that we headed to the Ile St. Louis and walked around.  Dave and Will got some ice cream from Berthillon while we were there. 

 

     We finally made it to the Eiffel Tower this evening. It really was beautiful. I didn't really expect it to be that impressive, but I was kind of enchanted by it.  Maybe it was just because it meant, "Wow. I am in Paris eating a crepe and gazing at the Eiffel Tower." It was also great for people watching.  We ate hot dogs on the Champs de Mars and waited for the Tower to light up.  Not just any hot dogs either.  These had baguettes for buns and cheese melted all over them.  I also finally got a chocolate crepe, which was as tasty as it looked.

 

     One thing I have learned quickly is that it is all go all the time on the streets of Paris. Even if you don't know what you're doing you learn to walk fast and act like you do.

 

Day 4

 

     Today we took the 9:45 a.m. train to Provins (that we nearly missed). It was a really fun day. The town, located about an hour outside Paris, was very medieval.  We climbed on top of the ramparts that used to surround the city. We also visited the Tour Caesar which used to be the home of the Counts of Champagne. It was scary how narrow some of the staircases were. Definitely not somewhere I would recommend to claustrophobics.  Oh! And I accidentally jumped out and scared someone while we were in the Tour Caesar thinking that it was Dave and Will. Luckily she laughed about it. We had a hearty lunch of "saucisses frites" (sausages and french fries) with English mustard, which about killed us.  That stuff is strong, and I mean strong.  It was a great day and a welcome break from the constant hustle and bustle of Paris.

 

Day 5

 

     Today was our last full day in Paris. We take the train to London tomorrow. We started the day by going back to St. Eustache because we hadn't gotten any pictures of it yet. We also decided that we should go see the Arc De Triomphe so we headed in that direction on foot. We walked for a LONG time to get to it - much longer than Dave had guesstimated. Luckily Dave and Will were both very impressed with it and kept saying how "epic" it was.  I got a "crêpe sucrée" (sugar crêpe) on the way so I was satisfied. We also visited the Forum Les Halles today. I think it's supposed to be France's largest mall. We spent a little time poking around in souvenir shops on the way to the Arc. We ended the day by going to a historic restaurant called Chartier. It was a great experience. The restaurant was in a beautiful old room that reminded me of the inside of the Titanic and the food was good, simple, and reasonably priced. And the waiter was really nice and helped us translate the menu. Chartier was definitely our style and it was the perfect way to wrap up our time in the City of Light.

 

     Paris was an incredible city.  Just to walk around was fascinating, but I have never been anywhere that made me feel so frumpy and uncool.  The people there are so fashionable and very few of the women are overweight.  I did notice a lot more bad breath and body odor than I am accustomed to, however, and smoking is apparently still hip in Paris because we saw a lot of it.  Anyway, tomorrow it's on to London!

 

 

   

2 comments:

Sara K. said...

I love reading about your days in Europe! Brings back so many memories! And that is a really, really great picture of you and Dave!

Amanda said...

Thanks! The London blog is forthcoming.

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