KK goes to France: Chapitre 6: "And he's walking - you say he's walking to gay Par-ee?"

The title of this post comes from the book Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien, and I think of it everytime I think of Paris, although I don't think anyone in the book ever makes it to Paris. Nevertheless, a good read and I did indeed make it all the way to gay ol' Paris, which was rainy, kind of cold, exhausting and wonderful.

After learning about Paris, talking about Paris, acting out scenes that take place in Paris for 6 years of french classes, it was really exciting to be there finally. We took the TGV (train de grande vitesse... this acronym always reminds me of the R.O.U.S. from the Princess Bride for some reason) from Grenoble straight to the Gare de Lyon à Paris. As I was planning out the places I wanted to go and everything I wanted to see, I found myself mentally referring to 10th grade French class project where we had to make a map of Paris with 10 destinations and a certain number of roads and arrondisements. I realize that, as great as I'm sure my map was, it was probably not so accurate, but it still came in handy when I was trying to visualize where the Sacre Coeur was. So that's the mindset that I went to Paris with, a 10th grade idea of things that looked cool when I googled Paris. Along these lines, when asked what my goals were for the weekend, I said, "To eat a crepe by the Eiffel tower. To eat crepes all weekend." And Paris did not disappoint. I was overwhelmed by the very Parisianness of it all, and I must say, it was remarkably similar to my 10th grade map in the best sense possible. Oh, where to begin...

I suppose le Tour Eiffel is as good a place as any, since as my host father said today, "When you say France to an American, they think Paris, and when you say Paris, they think Eiffel Tower." On Thursday night we arrived to a somewhat damp, cloudy Paris and I could just see the tip of the Eiffel tower in the distance. After getting dinner in the Latin Quarter, fairly close to our hotel, at a Greek restaurant where we were literally dragged to the dancefloor and where practical jokes abounded, we decided to stroll down to the Eiffel tower. Now, many of you are probably not familiar with the layout of Paris, but as it turns out, the Latin Quarter is VERY FAR AWAY from the Eiffel Tower, but we were lulled into following the searchlight from the top of the tower, like a moth to the flame. So as we strolled along the Seine, saying at every new block "almost there now!", it started to rain. And then the steady rain, which was doing a pretty good job of getting us soaked as we walked miles and miles, turned into a veritable deluge, which is to say, it POURED on us. At this point every one of us looked like a drowned rat, completely soaked, which left us nothing to do but laugh and keep on walking. So that's what we did, just laughed as we strolled through arrondissement après arrondissement until the rain let up just as we walked around a corner to see le tour Eiffel in all her shining glory. I know its 'touristy' and 'uncool', but I was really impressed by the Eiffel tower. We didn't get the chance to go up because of the weather, but I did get to eat a chocolate crepe at the foot of the Eiffel tower, so I met my goal for the weekend. I actually met this goals twice, when we returned to the Eiffel Tower Friday night to see if it was open, alas it was not. The crepes were delicious in any case.

The other major attractions I saw were the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, and the Pompidou Center. From this list, my two favorites were the Sacre Coeur and the Pompidou Center. Sacre Coeur was simply beautiful. While I found Notre Dame very impressive, Sacre Coeur was more pure and, simply put, more beautiful to me. The Pompidou Centre was fantastic. It is the national musuem of Modern art (from the beginning of the 20th century til now) so it housed some really impressive pieces by Picasso, Miro, Pollack and others. There was also a really interesting exhibit by female artists that was great. I guess I prefer more modern art... as cool as it was to see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and other great works in the Louvre, I'm not at all interested by them. I'd much rather look at some crazy optical illusion paintings in a building that looks like a hamster cage. And although the Pompidou Center is huge, the Louvre is just too big. I was drained after our 2.5 hours there, and we didn't make it to the 2nd floor at all nor to all of the wings.

I also ate lunch at the oldest cafe in France, home to the desk of Voltaire himself and the room where Marat wrote L'Ami du Peuple. Sure, it was overpriced, but it was a lot of fun. We read the quotes from all the famous french philosophers and writers on the wall and even pulled out our dictionaries to better understand them, we asked the waitstaff to take our pictures with the desk, we got the crumbs brushed off our table in between the main meal and dessert. It was AWESOME! Plus, our waiter was the epitome of a Parisian stereotype. His voice sounded just like Michel from Gilmore Girls and he had the perfect air of snootiness, although he was actually very nice and obliging. After he checked to make sure we spoke french, he asked us if we were Parisian, even though every person in the restuarant knew the answer to that question. It was a nice bit of fake flattery though and I appreciated his efforts nonetheless.

A summary of Paris:

I loved it, and, at the same time, I can't tell you how glad I am to not live there
It is impossible to do everything there.
Paris was cold and gray, but that seems to be the general theme of France in November
Notre Dame = big and dark; Sacre Coeur = big, light and beautiful
Louvre = too big, too tiring, too old; Centre Pompidou = just right.
Eiffel Tower > Arc de Triomphe
Crepes in Paris = delicious; crepes in general = also delicious
I'm glad to be safe back in my little mountain city for my last month in France.

One last note on Paris: there were Starbucks, McDonald's and other American things all over the place, which made me a little sad in thinking about global commercialization, but was kind of nice to see as well, a little taste of home. It was this latter mindset that prompted me to get a McFlurry at McDonald's on the Champs-Elysees. The McDo's was massive and absolutely packed; there were at least 8 registers open with lines at every one of them. If it makes anyone feel better about me going to McDonalds in Paris, let me just say that I found my McFlurry disappointing. I think what I was really hoping for was more along the lines of a Dairy Joy M&M mix in, but that will have to wait for spring time at home I suppose.