Okey dokey. So Friday afternoon, Tom and I packed up, and headed for the train station. (I left my laptop, which is why I didn't post things for you over the weekend. I'm sorry. The laptop is heavy. And I didn't have a French outlet converter.) Train-->Bus-->Bristol airport-->....delayed flight. No problem. We had some dinner and a drink at the airport bar....-->Paris airport-->Zut! Je ne remember le francais pas!-->tourist information booth-->bus into the city-->Paris metro adventure-->hotel. Whew. That was exhausting! At this point, it's 11:00 pm, Paris time, so we headed to a restaurant on the corner for a drink (hot chocolate for me, because I was freezing, a and a beer for Tom, who was not), and then headed back and went to bed. Exciting first day, huh?
Saturday was considerably more exciting. We got up and headed for a crepe place down the block, and I had a delicious nutella-and-pear crepe for breakfast. Mmmm. We decided that we would start off our trip by taking a free walking tour (offered in English, thank goodness), which started at 11, so we took another metro adventure and found our way to the city center. We emerged from the metro at St. Michael's Fountain, and lo and behold, it was SNOWING! Beautiful, huge snowflakes falling all around the gorgeous city-- it was enough to make a romantic out of anyone, I'm convinced.
Saint Michelle Fountain, with tour groups assembling under it, and big flakes of snow. This fountain was built to celebrate Napoleon's victory over somebody... and today, whenever an international football (soccer) team wins a game in Paris, they put their flag around
the angel's shoulders as a cape.
Il fait neige! (It's snowing!) And piling up quickly.
Right. So we went on this tour. Now, our tour guide, Bryan, was possibly one of the coolest people that I've encountered, ever. He was hilarious, brilliant, energetic, and gorgeous, with, I'm pretty sure, an affection for Star Wars and Casablanca. To give you an idea, if I hadn't been fairly convinced that he was gay, I would have possibly proposed to him on the spot. Yeah. Oh, and the best part? He's from Holland, PA-- ten minutes from where I live. A match made in heaven. But alas...
Ahem. Sorry. You wanted to hear about the tour. Not the tour guide. I'll try to remember what he was actually talking about while I was watching him talk...
Ok. So we started to walk around in the snow. And it was glorious. First, we stopped by the Police Headquarters (which he told us to avoid visiting the inside, as this would require being arrested). Historical relevance: this is where the Germans holed up during WWII when they took Paris, and so the facade is covered in bullet holes from resistance fighters. Amazingly, this is one of very few buildings in Paris that shows evidence of the occupation during the war, even though the city was actually supposed to be leveled when the Germans retreated. Otherwise, the building is not especially impressive.
Meh. Not interesting. The view from their windows, however--gorgeous.
Next stop: walking along the river, under a bridge. It was pretty. We learned historical things about Paris. I don't remember them specifically...sorry. But there was a very cool story about the sculptures adorning the bridge! Some King at some point decided that it would be an awesome idea to have a huge party. And as he really liked sketches, he ordered a sketch artist for his party to draw all of his friends. Now, most of these friends had had a little too much to drink, so they were not exactly at their best when they were sketched. But then after the party, the King decided to have the sketches made into sculptures to adorn the bridge that he was building-- the first stone bridge in Paris. And now the poor decisions of those nobles that night are immortalized, literally, in stone. And the punchline?...
It's the original facebook! (Ba dum, chhh!)
Moving on. We then walked past a spot that no Parisian will step on, because it was cursed by some dude who was burned at the stake there, and then we saw a statue of Henry IV (of France, not England... I had to continually remind myself of this), who was very well-liked, despite the fact that he was a Protestant (*gasp*). Yes, Paris had the same Catholic-Protestant issues as the rest of Europe. Paris was Catholic, and had a nasty tendency to massacre lots of Protestants at a time. Which is what happened right before Henry IV ascended the throne (as the chosen King of the Catholic Queen). Thankfully though, Henry IV escaped, and came back into town to claim the throne. The first thing he did though? Walked into Notre Dame Cathedral, and to the shock and awe of all, pronounced "Paris is worth a Mass". He was then beloved by the people of France from then on.
King Henry IV. Fun Fact: the statue's sword used to light up at night. I.e., he carried a lightsaber. Win.
Then we walked around and saw other things....which I can't remember.... and then we wound up in front of the Academie du Francais-- where official things about the French language are decided, like naming new things with non-Anglicized names (which are only sometimes accepted by the public), and deciding whether or not they are masculine or feminine.
The best story about the Academie involved the iPod; they couldn't really change the name of the iPod--because, let's face it, what else are you going to call it?--but they could still decide whether it would be masculine or feminine. So they're looking at it, playing with it, listing its attributes: constantly changing, lots of games to play on it, turns on easily at the slightest touch..... yep, definitely masculine. Hahaha. Oh Bryan, how I love you.
Then we crossed another bridge-- the Pont des Arts-- also known as "the lover's bridge". This is where newlywed couples traditionally go and attach a lock to the bridge and throw the key into the river, thus immortalizing their bond.
You really have to wonder though about the people who put combination locks on the fence...
When we crossed the bridge, we arrived at the Louvre!!! We came in through a sort of back entrance, so we didn't really get the full overwhelming effect right away, but we certainly began to appreciate just how ridiculously huge the Louvre is. It was originally built as a palace, then the Revolution happened, and all of the art stolen from the nobility was stored in there, then Napoleon came along and added some more wings, and then it was an even bigger palace, and then eventually, it was opened to the public as an art museum (and oh, need I mention that it is basically the largest and most incredible art museum in the world? And that there are two more Louvres in France, plus one opening in Abu Dabbi, and there is still art in their collection that isn't on display. Insane), and then at the turn of the millennium the president of France added the big ugly glass pyramid thing to the front, and then it was immortalized in The DaVinci Code. And that, dear readers, is a brief history of the Louvre. The end.
This is like, 1/6th of the back section of the old wings, which is maybe 1/4th of the whole structure.
The Louvre in the snow!
The Parisians hate new architecture. Every time something new goes up, they say "Ugh! It iz 'orrible! Tear it down!". The pyramid in front of the Louvre is no exception. And for once, I agree with the Parisians-- it just doesn't work.
Napoleon's first triumphal arch-- not the Arc de Triomphe (that was built after his death), but the one that he had built so that he could march his armies through it.
So, by this point, we've been outside in the snow for like two and a half hours, and I can't feel any of my extremities. Thankfully, we had a scheduled cafe break at this point. So we flocked into Starbucks and thawed out with the assistance of hazelnut mochas and lattes. So necessary. I also took this opportunity to chat with Bryan for a while about what it's like to be in grad school in France, as well as some other things...yeah. Very enjoyable.
Once we got outside again, the snow had finally stopped, and it was a wee bit warmer, which was very welcome. We carried on around the back end of the Louvre, to the Tuilleries Gardens, which were covered in snow, but still very pretty (though the snow might have actually contributed to the prettiness).
And then we got to this big plaza thing with an incredible view. We could see:
Napoleon's Egyptian Obelisk that he got as a 'gift' from the Egyptians.
A pretty fountain and the Grand Palais in the background.
Oh yeah, and this little thing called the Eiffel Tower.
So, uh, yeah-- that was pretty cool. And then we walked through the Paris Christmas Market (which is not nearly as classy as the Bath Christmas Markets, I must say), and on to the Grand and Petit Palaises, which are now museums.
Here the tour officially ended, but we could stay with Bryan for an extended tour and late lunch at a cafe. As I would have followed Bryan to the end of the earth, I of course chose to do this. So we continued on to Invalides (Louis XIV's veteran's hospital) via a pretty bridge:
As well as the monument that Napoleon had built for his tomb:
Pretty pretentious. But also kind of cool.
Oh, by the way, by this point it was hailing and very cold again. This was icky. However, we finally made it to the cafe (at like 4pm), where we had hot wine and french onion soup and chatted with the other students who were on the tour-- a nice end to the whole 5 hour epic grand tour.
We headed back to the hotel after that, because I was cold and wet and miserable, in order to warm up for an hour or so. Then we headed out again to explore our neighborhood and find some dinner. We were staying in Montmarte, right by....
The Moulin Rouge. Self-explanatory.
So our neighborhood was... funky... and well, also a tad creepy. But you know, it was a cultural experience. No worries.
We found dinner in a local artist-y cafe thing, and then headed up to Sacre-Coeur, a Cathedral on top of a hill.
It was beautiful-- outside and in. The inside was full of gorgeous colorful frescoes and mosaics.
And the view-- like you wouldn't believe. The pictures just don't do it justice.
Oy. Blurry. But quite stunning in real life.
Then we climbed back down the hill and wandered through some more streets for a while, before getting a drink before going back to the hotel. I fell asleep immediately for the first time in, oh, three weeks? So yep-- long day. Exhausting, but wonderful.
Ok. Since I'm obviously inept at getting things posted on time, I'll put this up now so that you have something to read, and I'll try to get the next few days up as soon as humanely possible. So keep an eye out! Au revoir!
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