The City of Lights

Ah, gay ol' Paris.


I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the City of Lights. I wanted to remove it altogether from the itinerary of our trip. However I approached this proud city with an open mind and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the epicenter of the 'finer things.' Nice clothes, manners, food, art, architecture.

Paris is dainty. It is one of the most feminine city's I've ever been to, which is an odd observation because I've never really thought of a city in terms of persona and gender. Dublin would have to be a guy. Rome is a woman. Paris is a young, spoiled girl. She wants everything just so and expects nothing less than perfection, but that perfection is a treat for visitors.

We had a 6am flight out of Dublin so we arrived exhausted. We thought we were having mental issues when we could not open the door of our hotel in Paris. We got in alright, we just couldn't get out. Seriously. 3 college graduates got locked into a room. We called the front desk and the maid came. After she explained how to open it (in French, so I had no idea what she said) she tried to open it - but it would not budge. So we had a little party in our tiny hotel room with the maid while we waited for someone else to come. Turns out the door was broken, so I feel a lot better.

We stopped to get some food and I realized I really can't speak French. Like morons we resorted to pointing to things on the menu. I tried to pronounce everything correctly, but the Parisians seem to be deaf to imperfect French. I can understand bits of conversations (thanks to my Italian), but those few years of French in gradeschool did not seem to do me much good. I know how to say hello, thanks, bye, and 'I like grapefruit.'

Since we are poor kids, we rode a public bus around instead of taking a tour. Bus 69 took us to the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, the Bastille, Notre Dame, and around some interesting neighborhoods we probably would not have seen. Kate took a nap on the bus, so we decided to check out Notre Dame to keep things interesting. Notre Dame is definitely in my top five favorite churches, which is saying something since I'm living in Italy. It has a gothic beauty nothing like the Renaissance or Baroque churches in Italy. Unlike Italian churches, the cathedral has very little interior decoration besides the stained glass windows. The ascetic pleasure comes from the architecture rather than paintings or statues. It is tall, dark, and slender.

We decided a walk to the Eiffel Tower would be fun, so we strolled across the city for about an hour. We ended up in the grass in front of that massive structure, and took a nap in front of a guy practicing bartending. Eventually we climbed the tower and took in the impressive views. The sun set while we were there, and it was stunning.

On Wednesday we went to the Musee d'Orsay, a museum full of French Impressionist paintings (Monet, Degas, Renoir, Chezanne, Van Gough). I am usually not a huge fan of Impressionism, but I've really come to appreciate it from this museum. I've always thought of them as beautiful, but I did not regard them as artistically challenging. I blame this attitude on my ignorance of the subject, which the Musee d'Orsay removed. It was a new and different way of portraying an image, using a multitude of colors and layers to achieve a similar effect of blending colors before they are on the canvas, but with a much different result. Renoir is one of my favorites - he uses human emotion as well as pretty landscapes. Van Gough just makes me sad, since he was so completely miserable and poor during life and now his works are revered and priceless. After the museum we hung out in a park, watched an old man work out for a while, and walked down the Champs and to the Arc d'Triomphe. Then off to FIFA FAN FEST!!!! to watch Germany and Spain. It was my third Fifa Fan Fest during this world cup (Berlin, Rome, Paris) and I was pumped. I am so loving this. Maggie was nervous because people were going nuts. I wanted Spain to win so badly, because we would be in Madrid for the finals. They beat Germany and everyone went nuts, then we wandered around, got some crepes filled with nutella and banana's, and drank a bottle of wine. Good day.

The last full day in Paris we tackled the cultural mountain that is the Louvre. I got jacked up on coffee so I could educated myself for hours. I love this stuff. I've been wanting to go back to the Louvre for a long time, now that I am older and have had some higher education in art. The museum is so impressive. I went nuts in the Italian Masters Grand Gallery. Every painting was something noteabe. The Mona Lisa was impressive, but Maggie and Kate were underwhelmed. It's understandable; there is all this build up, then it is just a small painting dwarfed in a massive room. You hear a lot of people saying "what's the big deal? I don't get it." I really liked the Venus di Milo. It's hot.

After the Louvre we went to the Rodin scultpure garden and saw "The Thinker," then napped in the Luxemburg gardens. This nappingin parks seems to be a consistent thing, and I really can't judge the bums who do it all the time. It's quite pleasant. We actually went to dinner for the first time since we've been together in Europe (since we are poor). Everything was in French, so we just picked something on the menu. I ended up with a tomato, zucchini and pepper with meatballs inside. It was actually delicious. Maggie wouldn't touch her food, which was frustrating. Trying new things is a big part of travelling and learning about a new culture. Overall Paris was fun, but it seems like you jump from site to site and besides that it is just a big city. Also it is SO expensive.

I doubt anyone read all that. Summary: Paris was fun.