Paris, France - (Week 2)
Hello Family and Friends,
We made it to Paris! It’s iconically French in every way. Including the gutteral huff/sigh you receive upon asking a question. Brett heard a joke that the difference between Parisians and New Yorkers is that Parisians hate every one who is not from Paris and New Yorkers just hate everyone. Yet, I think Parisians are far ruder than New Yorkers. New Yorkers don’t make time for you, which some people feel is rude. I, on the other hand, find it freeing. I get to do me knowing that absolutely no one cares what that is or what it looks like. That's why I love New York City. On the other hand, Parisians are actually rude.
Our very first quintessentially Parisian interaction was while riding an elevator. Sarah was asking us if English was the second language in France and the lady who was riding in the elevator with us says, in perfect English no less, that Parisians "speak French!" and don’t like to speak English. Sarah then took the opportunity to ask her how to say all the niceties in French such as “Hello” – Bonjour, “Thanks”- Merci. I of course need to know how to say “Excuse me” in every language because I have a two-year-old who doesn’t understand that other people have personal space. If there was a New Yorker on that elevator instead of a Parisian, they would have just completely ignored our conversation as if they didn't know we were having it. Not interject about how much they hate speaking our language.
But, you know what, Parisians can be as rude as they want to be, the history and the architecture more than makes up for the rudeness. Around the corner from our hotel, there were so many adorable cafes. When sitting outside at cafes people look out towards the street and not towards the restaurant or each other. I say it’s so that Parisians can judge you as you pass. Sarah says or maybe it’s because the streets are so cute with the architecture. And she isn’t lying. We were walking along the Seine river and I kept asking Brett if we could walk this way and that way and he said, “Let me guess, you want to walk that way because it’s cute.” Exactly. Even Brett got in the mood humming in French...yes you can tell.
Our first planned excursion was the Arc de Triomphe. It’s located in the middle of a major traffic circle: there are twelve streets going away from the Arc de Triomphe. I think an ariel view would be perfect. To see the arc with the twelve roads leading away would make for quite an image.
The next stop was the Eiffel Tower!
Something interesting that I learned about the Eiffel Tower is that designer Gustave Eiffel had a secret apartment for years at the top of the tower and had notable guest such as Thomas Edison.
You can really see the lay out of the city from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Even so I was not able to get my birds eye view of the Arc de Triomphe, Honestly, I’m not all that enamored with the Eiffel Tower. It's just so impersonal and everything I can see from it is also impersonal. I guess the thing that makes it so iconically Paris is that it is one of those landmarks you can see from everywhere. You literally can’t miss it.
The following day we went to Notre Dame. This was probably one of the highlights from Paris.
There are just so many intricate and detailed scenes both on the outside of the building and the inside. I love the story telling. For example, the main vestibule that you enter under represents the judgement of man. It symbolizes that as you have been judged you can enter into the church, which represents the new world, as a new person.
While we were touring Notre Dame a service started. The bells rang, they lit incense, the priest led a procession and the organ started.
Notre Dame is an absolutely beautiful building with absolutely stunning architecture. While we were visiting the Eiffel Tower, I purchased a magnet with the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame all on one magnet. After visiting Notre Dame, I decided it was worthy of it’s own magnet because it was just that grand. There is a reason it is located on it’s own little island.
After visiting Notre Dame, we took a little cruise down the Seine and this time, Atlas was awake!
The following day we visited the Palace of Versailles. That place is huge. The palace plus the gardens are bigger than the adjacent town of Versailles, which is at least one reason for the French Revolution.
Versailles is so large that there is one hall named “The War Hall”. Brett calculated that the square footage of this single hall is bigger than all of my families' houses combined: that includes both parents, siblings and aunt & uncles on both sides of the family.
Most of what you can tour on the inside of the palace is art. One of the King Louis (there were quite a few) didn’t have any children and felt like conquering lands wasn’t enough of a legacy. He invested into the arts and sciences. The art on the wall is mostly of the various occupants of the palace. They always tell you to look up when you're visiting Europe. And this is one of those cases. The best art was on the ceiling. It was paintings of various Greek gods.
Just a little history on this particular Queen, Marie Antoinette. She is famous for saying “If they have no bread, let them eat cake”. This phrase, “Let them eat cake” is now used when speaking of the ultra-wealthy being so far removed from the needs of the average person.
That’s just the inside of the house. The Gardens of Versailles is battling for my favorite place in Paris along with the Notre Dame.
Everything about Palace de Versailles is over the top, even the train that takes you there, and I’m here for it.
So many full days, because there’s so much to see in Paris. I completely understand why people go back to Paris repeatedly. We were there for five days and saw a lot, but also left a lot unseen. Even though Paris is not really on our list of places to live, Lyon, France is. I’m very much looking forward to taking advantage of being close to Paris and having more time to explore such a historic and iconic place.
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