Paris, France

Getting out of France was difficult, and unfortunately so was getting back into the country. We were able to take a direct train from Barcelona to Montpellier, but from there all the seats for Paris trains were booked until late at night. We had to decide whether to wait ten hours at the station to catch a train for which we had seat reservations or to risk it and take the next one we could board. On an earlier train through France we were informed by another passenger that since the strikes were causing all sorts of problems, it wasn’t worth getting seat reservations for the trains and to just sit where there were open spots. We pressed our luck and it paid off; we didn’t have to move once during the trip to Paris and we arrived at a decent time.


Our first night in Paris didn’t amount to much. We found our hotel, which was thankfully close to the train station, then got some food and called it a night. We were really excited for the following days because we had plans to stay with friends who we met through Couchsurfing. Alexis and Virginie stayed with us for a night while they traveled through California, and they were gracious enough to let us stay with them for three nights. When we arrived at their place, they had lunch already prepared. It was so wonderful to be back in a home setting and refreshing to be able to spend time with other people. After we ate they took us out into the city to places that we probably would not have thought to wander through. We stopped by a notably large church and then onto the courtyard of the Place des Voges. Then we made our way through various neighborhoods toward Notre Dame. We are all familiar with what the church looks like from the front, but I was unaware that the back was so spectacular. There are buttresses everywhere! The inside of Notre Dame is impressive, especially the stained glass windows when they are lit up by the sun. The cathedral is located on an island which was where Paris was originally settled and became a city. Our evening ended with dinner at a Chinese restaurant known for its hand-made noodles, which turned out to be one of the best dinners we’d had on this whole trip. After having our walking tour with Alexis and Virginie, we were really excited to see more of the city the following day.


The forecast called for grey skies with a high chance of rain, so we were out early to the Eiffel Tower to avoid bad weather while outdoors. The tower has become so iconic to the city that I can’t imagine Paris without it. It’s funny to think that most Parisians are indifferent to it, and they were even moreso when the tower was being constructed. We marched up the stairs to the first and then second floor of the tower, a total of six hundred and sixty-nine steps. On the advice of our friends, we didn’t go to the very top as the second floor provides the best views of the city. Paris has a beautiful cityscape with a uniquely cohesive architectural style that is all its own. When we were done walking around the tower, we headed toward the St. Michel square to join a New Europe tour. The fountain at St. Michel square is a popular meeting place amongst the locals and is surrounded by alleys filled with restaurants and souvenir shops. Our tour took us past Notre Dame again, then a building with a few bullet holes that apparently is the only sign of destruction in Paris during WW2, and then along the walkways by the River Seine. We passed under the Pont Neuf, or the New Bridge, which is actually over four hundred years old. Along the sides of the bridge are funny faces that were said to be high-profile drunken attendees of a royal party. The story, which I’m sure is a fable, goes that during the party, the king at the time had a painter record all the members of the party as they were. When he reviewed the paintings, he realized how ridiculous everyone looked and wanted to display these images for everyone to see. He had the faces carved as a part of the bridge to show the city that even the most dignified people were not above foolishness. Our tour continued on toward the Luxor Obelisk, a towering column gifted to France from Egypt, located on the site where a guillotine once stood. We ended the tour at Les Invalides, a residence for veterans with a military museum and the burial site of Napoleon Bonaparte, where we learned how the fate of Paris during the last days of WW2 rested in one Nazi general’s hands. General von Choltitz was ordered by Hilter to destroy the city; to turn all the canons inward and blow it up. Knowing that the war was lost, the general had to decide whether he wanted to be remembered as a destroyer or as a savior. With the encouragement of a Swedish diplomat, he decided to stay the city’s execution. There’s no doubt that there were many cities that wished they had the same fate. After the tour, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe and then down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a renowned shopping district. Our gracious hosts had arranged a get together with a few of their friends for dinner and drinks. We had a really great time conversing with everyone and getting a chance to understand French culture and everyday life. And we had a chance to discuss the virtues of The States and explain why Thanksgiving is the best American holiday.


By our third full day in Paris, we were feeling as though we didn’t schedule enough time to really enjoy the city. There is just so much to see and do, and we had to unfortunately drop some of the things we were planning on doing. Or first stop of the day was the Louvre, quite possibly the world’s most famous art museum. There is no way to see everything in the Louvre without dedicating an entire week, open to close, to walk every exhibit. We were given the recommendation to grab a map and pick one floor to visit; otherwise we would get burned out. Our first stop was assuredly the first stop on most visitors’ lists: Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. As expected, there was a rather large crowd gathered behind the velvet rope to peer at the lady with the mystic smile who sits behind bulletproof glass. We stopped, stared at her for a bit and then moved on. I was told that the painting was incredibly small, so I was anticipating something the size of a postcard. I was actually surprised that she was of a normal portrait size, about what I was hoping it would be. Maybe others wish her to be as large as an entire wall; the Louvre had many in that size. Next on our list to see was the Venus de Milo. The armless statue is estimated to have been created between 130 and 100 BC by an unknown sculptor. We carried on into the hall of ancient Egypt to find Hammurabi’s Code, dated around 1700 BC. After about three hours of zigzagging through the Louvre, we were ready to press on. Our next stop was the Paris Catacombs, also known as the l'Ossuaire Municipal. After descending sixty-two feet below the surface and ducking through shallow pathways, we made it to the bones. Unlike the catacombs in Rome, all the skeletons here were moved from a previous mass burial site on the outskirts of the city. Prior to the tenth century, it was common practice to place the bodies above ground in one location. When the city began to expand and Christian burials became more popular, it was ordered that the remains be move underground. And then the city thought, how can we profit from these bones? Then * ta-da!* you have the delicately arranged Catacombs, opened to the public in 1867. It was a bit creepy, at least to think that these bones belonged to a person. Well, all bones belonged to someone, but they were so neatly organized it almost seemed like they weren’t real. But they are, and it’s weird. When we were above ground again, we headed out toward Montemartre, also known as the artist’s quarter, to climb the hill towards the cathedral Sacre Coeur. Of all the churches in Paris, it wasn’t the most spectacular, but it did provide great views of the city from above. As we strolled through the narrow streets below the hill, we found another videogame-related mosaic. We have seen mosaics placed on the sides of walls, canals and anywhere else that will hold them featuring classic videogame characters like Space Invaders, Q-bert or Pac Man. The 8-bit artist is from Paris but has spread his tiles all over the world. Our direction was toward the renowned Moulin Rouge cabaret in the red light district. We were only interested in seeing the outside of the iconic structure with no intentions of catching a generally expensive show inside. Dusk was upon us and we wanted to get a few night shots of the Eiffel Tower before we left. It was just our luck that the weather had cleared and there was no fog surrounding the tower like in previous nights. Every hour on the hour after dark, the tower sparkles for a good five minutes. It was a lovely display and a good end to our visit to Paris.


Our time in the City of Lights would not have been the same without Alexis and Virginie. Paris is such a wonderfully unique city that has so much to offer. We really didn’t think that we would leave loving it so much. We have an ongoing list of the places that we would absolutely return to in the future, and Paris is on the top of the list. In fact, our whole France experience has been so positive that we’ve decided to start planning a future trip: touring on bicycles through the country, from Paris down to the Riviera along the western coast. Although that won’t be scheduled for at least five more years, we are seriously looking forward to it.


Heading north to: Brussels and Bruges, Belgium