When Austin and I left Fontainebleau we went to Paris. We
got to our hotel on July 4. Happy Independence Day! It’s all right to be here
because the French helped us out against the British, it’s all good. The hotel
room was very small. There was barely enough room for the bed. There was also
only one power outlet in the room. Other than the size it was a nice place. It
wasn’t spectacular but it was definitely all right for a couple of college guys
on a budget. We spent a little bit of time in the room settling in, but not too
much, cause we were in Paris. We headed out to dinner and stopped at an Italian
place. And I’m pretty sure we were the only ones in there that spoke English.
We played a really fun game with the waiter called “point at what you want on
the menu.” I just got a pizza because I knew what that was. It wasn’t a bad time;
it was just our first eating-out experience with the language barrier. We went
to the market after that and got some bread and chocolate to eat later. It was
a fairly uneventful first night.
The next day we decided to be proper tourists. We got a
fairly late start, hopped on the metro (the subway) and headed downtown. Our
first stop was The Louvre. It was very exciting being there, but not as exciting
as I thought it would. We saw quite a lot of Egyptian antiquities and some
Greek and Roman antiquities also. I liked those two sections best out of all
that we saw. We also checked out some paintings, including the Mona Lisa. The
Mona Lisa was the smallest painting in the room; it was also the most viewed
painting in the room. I recognized fewer paintings at the Louvre than at any of
the other museums I’ve visited in the past month. That part was sad but being
there and seeing a lot of the historical pieces and sculptures was really cool.
When we were walking through the Egyptian section I kept expecting a Goa’uld to
pop out of one of the sarcophagi, but that didn’t happen. Our second big stop
was the Eiffel Tower. We had planned on seeing it at night but I wanted to see
it during the day as well. It was absolutely packed out with people. The lines
to go up in the thing were ridiculously long. It was fine for us cause we hadn’t
planned on going up yet. We sat on the lawn by the tower for quite a while,
resting and looking at it. We were also still tired from traveling so the rest
was good. I went and got some ice cream. The ice cream over here is more like
gelato than ice cream. It’s soooooo good! It was a warm day so it made the ice
cream even better. France has been very warm thus far, which wouldn’t be bad
except that none of the buildings have air conditioning, but it’s really not
that bad. I have definitely experienced more intense heat than I’ve experienced
here. After the Eiffel Tower we went to see the Arc De Triomphe. It was exceptionally
cool to see that. The first full day in Paris was a success!
The next day I woke up a little earlier and headed off to
have a quiet breakfast alone. I had wanted to have some time to myself for the
past month and had never really gotten it, so I decided it was time. I found a
nice little café on the street and decided to eat my breakfast there. After
getting help from two other customers I finally ordered my food. I sat down in
front of the café and waited for my food. The great thing about café’s in
Europe are that there are usually tables set up out in front of the restaurant.
I loved sitting out there for breakfast. I ate my croissant first, which was
impeccably delicious. I also had a large glass of orange juice and a cup of
coffee. I sat there for about an hour just watching people walk by and
listening to the conversations around me. I could not understand what people
were saying, but that did not detract from the experience at all. In fact, in a
way, it added to the experience. After breakfast Austin and I had to check out
of our hotel room because we only booked two nights. For our last two nights we
stayed with Austin’s friend Maxence. Since we checked out of the hotel we had
our packs with us all day. They were heavy indeed. We spent most of the day at
Montmartre. It is a cathedral that is on a hill that overlooks the city of
Paris. It was another hot day and we spent several hours sitting on a bench in
the shade. This doesn’t really sound like a very exciting time, but we enjoyed
watching the locals. We sat by a large fountain, most of the visitors made it
into a pool. The security guards came by several times and made everyone get
out of the fountain. We also saw a group get kicked off the premises for trying
to smoke weed. And we saw a guy running away from the security guards. Austin
and I were walking up some stairs and this guy ran past us very fast, about ten
seconds later five security guards ran past us after him. It was an eventful
afternoon to say the least. After that we headed to Maxence’s apartment, Austin’s
friend. When Maxence’s mother was young she stayed with Austin’s grandparents
in the U.S. on a foreign exchange program. When Maxence was younger she also
stayed with Austin’s grandparents for a time. So Austin’s family has multiple
ties with Maxence’s family. That night we stayed up and talked with Maxence and
her two roommates. We talked and exchanged stories and tried to figure out the
correct pronunciations for words. Austin and I learned that a lot of French
words sound the same to us; I have been learning that the ear is as important
as the tongue when it comes to languages.
On our last day in Paris we decided to visit the art
district. I can’t remember the name of the area we went to, sorry, but I can
tell you there were a lot of gay people there. When I commented on this to
Austin, his explanation was, “it’s the art district.” Not really sure how I feel
about that, anyways. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of cool buildings
around there. The streets were also very cool. There were a lot of small shops
around that were fun to look through, we even looked through a pet store for
Austin, and it had some unusual pet clothing. That night we went back to the
apartment for dinner. Maxence made crepes. First we had salted crepes, they
weren’t actually salted, they just had ham and caramelized onions and cheese
and cream. Apparently crepes aren’t just for dessert; who would have guessed? We
had crepes for the main course and then crepes for dessert. My first dessert
crepe had honey and my second had melted chocolate. The crepes were delicious. That
night we headed back into town to go up in the Eiffel Tower at night. The lines
were a lot shorter at night, and it also helped that we didn’t get tickets for
the elevator, we got tickets for the stairs. We only went up to the second
floor. There are two floors and then the top at the tower. We were a little
crunched on time so we ran up the stairs. We got some photos and chilled for a
little bit, then I headed back down because I wanted to get a picture of the
tower sparkling. The lights come on and sparkle for about five minutes every hour
starting at eleven at night. On my way running down the stairs I could see the lights
come on and I could hear the crowd cheering and clapping. I ran down the rest
of the stairs and ran out to the large lawn to try and get a photo before the
lights shut off. I got two photos in before they turned off. Not as much time
as I wanted but I’m glad I got down in time to catch it. I’m just sad I didn’t
get any video. It was absolutely wonderful! I honestly didn’t get the whole;
France is the city of lovers, until I saw the sparkling Eiffel Tower at night. It
was a Disney-esque romantic moment indeed. I don’t really have a wish for a “significant
other” in my life right now, but at that moment it would have been nice. It was
quite the moment indeed. Also, I got more ice cream.
After the Eiffel Tower we hurried back to the apartment,
avoided getting mugged, and got to bed. Everyone else was already asleep, so
there were no French lessons that night. We got three hours of sleep, then made
all three of our trains and were on our way to Bordeaux the next morning.
