Paris

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I wasn’t sure what to expect in Paris, but I think it was everything I thought and more. It’s definitely a different culture than here in Rouen, but that’s like saying New York City is different than Ithaca. There is tons to do and see, you could spend two weeks there and never run out of things to do. It’s big, but very manageable. The metro is fast and efficient. From the center, you can be anywhere of interest in less than 10 minutes.

The low buildings of city center makes it less intimidating, you’re not constantly walking among skyscrapers. All the apartment buildings give off a historical ambience. And about every block there is some grand, historic building. Church, palace, government building. And the many parks scattered around make it easy to get off the street.

The weather was almost perfect, we had a little rain shower Sunday afternoon. We took the 8:45 train to Paris, arrived in less than an hour (direct). Went straight to our hostel, but they didn’t have our reservation, which was made on Wednesday. You can take the reservation, but you can’t hold the reservation, which is the most important part. But they found us a place a few blocks away at another hotel. We didn’t have to pay any more, we had two rooms of two and one room of three; 7 people. It’s very helpful when people in our group speak very good French. Evalina, one of the Swedes, speaks perfect English (they all do), almost perfect French and of course Swedish.

So we lost about an hour with the mixup. But we headed to the city center, had lunch and split up. I checked out Notre Dame and the holocaust memorial, then we headed to the l'arc de triomphe, walked down the Champs-Élysées. Saw some 3500 euro dresses and clothes. Decided not to pull the trigger. I had a croque madame for dinner, always wanted to try one. Went to the Eiffel Tower, about an hour wait to get up, then another 30 minutes to the top. Pretty impressive, it was dark so it was nice to see the lights of the city of light.

Sunday, Ericka (one of the girls from UNL) and I got up early to head to the Louvre. For the Swedes it was like their 5th time in paris, so they’ve seen just about everything. The Louvre is huge, we walked through most of it. Saw the Mona Lisa. I was prepared to be disappointed, so it was ok. Definitely need a plan before you go in and concentrate on a few things, it was easy to be overwhelmed. We had lunch then headed to the d’Orsay. It was packed so we went to the Rodin, a sculpture museum of Rodin. He did the Thinker, Gates of Hell, the Kiss, among others. It’s set in large garden and his house/hotel. I liked that one a lot, great day to wander the garden too.

We tried the Orsay again, but it was packed. (Museums are free the first sunday of the month, so everyone is out). So we headed to Montmarte, saw Sacre crue, and wandered. It was a nice area, good view of Paris, lots of little shops and restaurants, artists painting.

The majority of the people at the museums were French. It was free, to get them to come out, but still, it’s different than Americans. The Sheldon and natural history museum in Lincoln are free for me, but I’ve never been. And I don’t think it’s a certain demographic of locals, even the (I’ll stereotype) Parisian chic girls all dressed up are there along with people from towns throughout France. A lot of the people we work with will go in to check out museums or special exhibits. Obviously France subsidizes a large part of the arts, but I think it accomplishes that goal of getting people out and participating in the high culture.

Sorry for the book.

Photos have been added to the previous posts; so you can check them out.

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Comments

[Eric]

ham and cheese sandwhich
I had to google a 'croque madame' Looks like a hot ham and cheese sandwhich with a fried egg on top, sounds tasty . . . . . You know what's better than one croque madame? Two croque madame. Too bad on the d'Orsay. Maybe if you get back to Paris you can check it out. Montmarte's neat and so was the Sacre Coure we thought. Too good on having someone that speaks French. Beats having to say 'parle vous einglies" all the time. Glad you went to the top of the Eiffel tower. Looks like you got some pre night photos and then after dark photos. The arc de triumph lit up in that night time pic is pretty neat. As you've discovered lots of things to see and do in Paris. Hopefully you'll get a chance to get back there.

[Charitos]

Yes, that is exactly right. Seems uninspiring, but it's good ham, some weird cheese, and an egg with some expresso to wash it down. I do plan to get back to paris for another weekend, maybe do Verseille, and see what I missed in Paris (orsay, st. chappelle, latin quarter). Hopefully the night pictures turned out ok. I may try and go up montparnarse during the day to get some views of the city.

[Brian]

Those are some pretty good pics. Sounds like you're seeing a lot stuff, that's too good! Well, let's see, I've got a ten kroner, a five kroner, a twenty kroner. No wait, that's another ten kroner. A fimty kroner? How much is that?