First of all, I must clarify that the only time I acted like an obnoxious American in Paris was while I was taking this picture. The rest of the time I assimilated perfectly, and I looked more like this:
In addition to outclassing the French with my wardrobe and love for art, I actually learned a little bit of the language as well. Which isn't bad when you consider that getting on the plane I knew about as much French as a sassy group of Irish girls who think it's okay to use asterisks in the middle of words. We arrived in Paris Thursday night, and by the time we made it from the airport to our hostel, checked in, and took care of all that nonsense the city was already beckoning us to come take part in its crazy world of berets, mustaches, and haughty laughter. What better way to get started than to head for the Eiffel Tower? We approached the golden tower from the park, walked under it, and crossed the Seine River on our way to find a nice viewing area. 2009 marks the 120 year anniversary of the tower and so every night there is a spectacular light show on the hour from seven to midnight until the end of the year. Like you didn't see that one coming. Anyway, we posted up on top of some museum across the river, oohed and aahed at the changing colors, and I ate the bocadillo that Lola packed me.
After we were able to stop staring at the Eiffel Tower we went for a stroll around the city, getting to know her, and taking in how dolled up she looked at night. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, walked down Champs-Élysées, and stopped at the Élysée Palace, the Place de la Concorde, the Madeline, and the Louvre. By the time we got to the Louvre it was just Bryant and I left and we got so wrapped up in the romantic mood that we had to run back to the hostel to make it in time for our 2 a.m. curfew.
Friday morning we went to a bakery down the road for a nice French breakfast of quiche and croissants. It was so good that we ended up going back there Saturday and Sunday. I'd spend the time to explain each of our visits but they all went exactly the same way, we always ordered the same things, and it always turned out like this. After breakfast we decided to climb the Eiffel Tower since it was a clear morning and we weren't sure what the weather would be like for the rest of the weekend. We took the stairs as far as we could but ended up having to take the elevator for the last part of the climb. That elevator was nothing to sneeze at though because it was packed and I was pressed up against the glass door, and as I stared down at the ground quickly dropping further away from me I hoped that the doors didn't open. To make a short story short, they didn't and we all had a good time enjoying the views from the top of the tower.
Once our shoes hit the ground we went on a search for the cheapest lunch Paris had to offer. We found it at a gyro place, and we all ordered gyros and French fries, or “fries” as they called them. After a little lunch on the river we walked down to the Notre Dame cathedral. This was where I encountered one of the biggest surprises of the trip: how most of the major tourist attractions in the city are free for students. Once we walked around the cathedral and we felt that we had gotten our money's worth we grabbed an espresso and continued on to the Louvre. The Louvre also happened to be free for students under 26, but since I was dressed like a professor and didn't have anything with my birthday on it, the lady couldn't fathom how someone under 26 could have such chiseled features and made me buy a ticket. I couldn't blame her too much, I mean I have walked by a mirror. Well it turned out that luck would smile on me once again because when I paid for my ticket with a 10 she gave me change for a 20. Now I don't know if she did this on purpose but I didn't stay to find out, and instead I proceeded to peruse the Louvre while essentially getting paid 4€. About as far from shabby as you can get. I really enjoyed the almost four hours we were in the Louvre, we saw a lot of stuff, a lot of famous pieces, and I was able to see works by all four of the ninja turtles, so I was happy.
For dinner we went to a restaurant in the Latin Quarter where I enjoyed some delicious duck, some fine French wine, and some excellent conversation. I feel like now is a good time to point out how surprised I was to find out how friendly the French people were to us. Based on everything I'd heard, I was expecting to get disrespected worse than the only bathroom at a Chinese buffet. However, this was not the case. Pretty much all the people we encountered were very nice, helpful, and not at all rude as they listened to us slowly butcher their language. Friday night's waiter was no exception, and I would say that I probably learned most of my French from him. After dinner we got more wine and walked to the Pantheon and ended up sitting outside the Luxembourg gardens and palace. One complaint I did have about the city though was the nightlife. I walked around a good amount of that city and I stumbled upon very few places where a boy like myself can go when he's looking for a good time. I'm not saying that they don't exist, it just shouldn't be that hard.
Saturday we woke up and got ready to spend the whole day at Versailles. This is the part of the trip I was most pumped about: so much history, so much gold, and the possibility of a hedge maze. The palace was huge, the garden was huge, and I spent the whole day pretending I was Ben Franklin negotiating on behalf of the new American nation (I really enjoyed that book). It was a great, full day, and even better because it was all free. When we got back to Paris we were all hungry and it was raining so we stopped in some place for an early dinner. I ate some beef with Brie, it was yummy, but it was a good thing everything else was free because I spent most of my money on food and wine. After dinner we walked back to the Place de la Concorde to show the rest of the group. From the old obelisk in the center you can see the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Madeline, and if you squint really hard you can see the Louvre, so it's a nice spot at night. A girl we met up with wasn't there Thursday night when we were at the Arc so we decided to start walking in that direction. We started to see all these cops hanging around and a lot of them were wearing riot gear. We were wondering what was going on when we starting seeing cars drive by honking their horns, with people halfway out of them, waving Algerian flags and yelling in Arabic. Obviously this looked like a good time so we followed the cars down Champs-Élysées, where things were getting a little more crazy. People were going nuts all up and down the street, screaming, hanging out of cars, throwing fireworks, flares, and whatever they could get their hands on. Eventually we decided that this was a celebratory scene and that it was soccer related. We found out that Algeria had played Egypt earlier in the so-called hate match, so we assumed that they won. What I still don't understand is that Algeria actually lost 2-0, but it seemed like they just figured, “Hey, we already bought all these flares and flags so we might as well use them,” and took to the streets anyway. Whatever the reason, it was a pretty tense situation, and though we didn't see anything bad happen, we could tell that it was the type of situation that could turn in an instant. Of course, these colors don't run, but I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I would've traded my sweater/blazer combo for my American flag shirt for anything less than $20. Make that euro. Check out the video.
After the riot scene had been pretty much exhausted we trekked back to the Eiffel Tower to catch another light show. We grabbed some more wine and hung out for a little while longer looking at pretty buildings then retired to the hostel for some pillow talk.
Sunday we woke up took some more pictures of that darn tower, and then, at my request, tried to find the miniature Lady Liberty that is somewhere in the Seine. Apparently it is very miniature because I never saw it. After that we went to the Musée d'Orsay, which holds a lot of impressionist works. Even though we had to pay for this museum, it was alright because I really enjoyed all the art in there, even more so than the Louvre. After a quick lunch it was time to rush frantically to the airport and say au revoir to the City of Love.
In the end (from the start) Paris won me over with its charm and although I represented well, I did not end up having to put a boot in anyone's ass. In all honestly though, I loved Paris and had a great time. Although, when I think about it, having a bad time in Paris would be harder than naming two B*Witched songs.
Besitos,
Jim
