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Published: January 15th 2005
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At the Bois de Boulogne
Tyler thought this bridge looked cool. Sorry, none of our New Years Eve pictures turned out. New Years- We decided to join the crowds at the Arc de Triomph for the New Years Eve celebration. It was Crazy. The city organized a fireworks display on the Champs Elysees down towards the Place de la Concorde. The Ferris wheel was decked out with a huge Paris 2012 sign, and was the center of the display (Paris is in the candidature to host the Olympic Games). But, it is in reality March, I can tell you about the strategically placed complete shut down strike of the French transport system on the 9th of March- during the International Olympic Committee’s visit (in French- la greve, which means to strike, is practically a national past time. In fact I heard that some of that days protests were veritable street parties with food vendors and wine and all that jazz) Anyways, back to New Years. The city rigged the Ferris wheel so that showers of multicolored sparks would stream out of the end of each spoke during the show. It was really amazing; I wish that some of our pictures had turned out. Even though the fireworks were really cool and beautiful, the real crazy part about the evening was the people.
Suicidal Child
This is the kid who I tried to keep from climbing over this very narrow and steep bridge while his dad went to get their bikes. The Champs Elysees was packed. This is truly such an international city. There were plenty of French people, but there were so many other nationalities too. There were a bunch of American students, and I saw a really cute Chinese couple (he was lifting her up so that she could see over the crowd down to the end of the street to take a picture), there were also what seemed like loads of Italians, who were just absolutely insane. They spent the entire evening throwing lit firecrackers into the crowd. We even came across a group of older English couples who were singing “Auld Lang Syne” some of the French people near them thought it was so cute that they joined in. It was a great party. And, of course, it seemed that everyone but us had the good sense to bring a bottle of champagne. It was really a unique experience, especially since I am used to the Santee fireworks and celebration. Tyler and I were just shocked by the sheer number of people who had flocked to the Champs Elysees. It was like the entire street was boiling, it was packed from one end to the other.
The
real challenge came when it was time to come home. Tyler and I had taken the Metro out to the Arc de Triomph, but it was soon very apparent that we would not be returning home that way. So, we started to make our way to the Seine, figuring that we could try and catch the line six over by the Trocadero. Even just walking out of the area took us a long time. Parisians are ruthless in a crowd! By the time we got to the Trocadero, it was also clear that we were not going to be getting on a metro there either. The Trocadero is a plaza/ theater/beautiful fountain that is opposite the Eiffel Tower. Rather than wait around for an hour trying to get on the metro, we figured we could just walk along the line six until we came along a metro stop that was not jam packed. In fact they were all like that, and the RATP (metro personnel) were only letting a very controlled number of people onto the platforms. So we just walked home. It took about three hours, but we got to see a lot of interesting sights.
Our first really
surprising encounter occurred as we were crossing the bridge over the seine towards the Eiffel Tower. There was an army of Police officers with full crowd control gear, the streets were lined with paddy wagons, and they even had one of those water tanker trucks that they use sometimes to subdue rioters and what not. They were just standing by waiting to see that everyone behaved. The Gendarmes (French National Police force) always freak me out, because that have such scary equipment; I have even seen officers with machine guns in the past. In addition, they always walk around in menacing packs of three or four. It is definitely different than in the States.
On the way home we also came along an American family with two entirely pooped out little girls. They were trying to ask their waiter how to get to their hotel. We tried to help, but they wanted to take a bus or the metro, all we could do was tell them to hang out for a while. It really wasn’t that far to their hotel, but with their kids, walking was not an option. I hope they got a taxi or something. Anyways when we finally got home, we were pretty exhausted as well; I think we probably slept until noon the next day.
Bois de Boulogne- The weather in January was progressively getting worse. So, whenever we got a clear day, we felt the need to get out side. Quite honestly, being accustomed to Southern California whether, and confined in this small apartment, we were starting to go stir-crazy. So, one day when I got out of class over at Dauphine and realized what a beautiful day it was, I decided I would like for Tyler to come explore the Bois de Boulogne (a huge park by the 16th that was once used for the kings hunting grounds until Napoleon III had it fixed up and opened to the public) with me. We didn’t get over there until that weekend, but I’m glad we waited until the weekend. There were so many people out enjoying the day. It seems that everyone in Paris who has a big dog goes over there to let them run around like crazy. Tyler and I sat down at one of the little cafes and went “dog watching”. All of the puppies were so cute. We miss our dogs so much that we were happy to live vicariously through those people who had their dogs with them.
Parisians have such a great attitude about dogs. There was this guy reading his newspaper and drinking his coffee when someone’s huge puppy (it think it was a lab), practically jumped in his lap. He shouted, but then explained to the owners that it was fine, he only shouted because he was startled. He even chuckled to himself when the big doof of a dog put its front paws up on the café counter, and had a good conversation with its owners.
Having finished our coffees, Tyler and I set off for a nice stroll around the park; although I don’t think we saw the half of it (it spans the length of the 16th district). Actually, we came along this family (see picture) that I helped out a little. It was a father with his three sons who was trying to transport their bicycles across a little stone bridge. Unfortunately, the youngest didn’t want to be away from dad, so he was trying to walk back over the bridge, so I tried to keep him from falling. I think though that I just scared him, and I’m sure that my accent was strange for him. After a while we came upon one of the lakes that dot the park where there were a bunch of Parisians who had remote control racing boats and were holding a competition of sorts. It was really entertaining, they went so fast. Then I heard a passing couple say that the speed boats cost like 3,000 Euros! I couldn’t believe it.
Well that’s it for the beginning of January. In fact, the majority of my time was consumed with finals and final papers, but after about the 18th I had a short break before the second semester started. More about that in the next journal...
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a word of encouragement
Greetings from Iowa - I searched for "travel blog" on google and after a few click-throughs, I ended up reading your adventures. I just wanted to encourage you to keep it up. Your stories about Paris are bringing back pleasant memories. My daughter spent three years there attending the American University of Paris, graduating last May, and my wife and I were able to travel to see her twice over spring breaks. What a great experience for the two of you to be able to share at your ages! You'll look back on this time fondly for the rest of your lives - be sure and enjoy it to the fullest. It sounds like you're doing your best toward that end. - Ken (ken511208@yahoo.com) - Ken