Paris...Part Duex

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Hey y’all! Are you ready for part duex? If any of you have ever seen “I Love the 90’s,” which is one of my favorite shows ever, you know that my second favorite show ever is “I Love the 90’s…Part Duex” and “duex” means “two” in French, so I’m pretty excited that it is so fitting as a title for my blog!

As we were falling asleep Wednesday night Evan asked if 7 am sounded good for a run. I have to admit, I didn’t really bring warm running clothes; not even a long sleeve t-shirt, just shorts and a tank top, so I was a little scared I’d be too cold, especially before the sun came up.

It was a little brisk, but really not too bad! I think the clouds hold in some of the warmth. Before I came to Paris I asked Evan if there was anything I should see there that isn’t the “normal” thing to see, he said Parc des Buttes Chaumont. At the time I had no idea what that was and had actually forgotten about it a little bit, but once he mentioned it I remembered that that’s where he said he went to go running. Evan ran with Conor at Wesleyan, and he’s a guy, and he’s got long legs…I was pretty worried that the run was going to be pretty miserable on my part, but it actually wasn’t! Oh, don’t get me wrong, it was a pace faster than I usually go lolly-gagging along my beach in Cádiz but it was nice to be running with someone. At first it was a tough pace, but once you settle in its not too bad. Thankfully for me, Evan is having issues with a sore calf that he injured dancing at a wedding, so he was trying to take it easy.

We ran through the streets for 13 minutes until we arrived at Butte Chaumont. There are a lot more people on the streets of Paris at 7 am than there are in Cádiz which isn’t hard to believe considering that there are more people in 2 square miles of Paris than there are in all of Cádiz. Evan likes numbers and random little tidbits and he said that in New York City there are 28,000 people per square mile; in Paris there are 55,000 people per square mile.

One particular inhabitant of the early morning Parisian streets is this little Asian man who jogs everywhere he goes. Evan said he sees him all the time and he is always jogging. Well, it’s sort of a jog, shuffle thing, or maybe it’s more of a fast walk while lifting the feet a little…like a trot! Not sure, but he just jogs about the 11th every day.

When we finally arrived at Butte Chaumont, the sun was lighting things up a bit, but there was still a bit of cloud-cover, mist, and fog-ness. We jogged over a suspended bridge over a small lake, then up a super steep hill (well, it seems really long and steep at the time) but at the top was a view that was completely worth it. Butte Chaumont lies near the tallest point in Paris, and one of the routes to get to the park (the route we thankfully didn’t take…that morning at least) goes up the tallest hill in Paris. From the top of the steep hill we ran up you can see the other tallest point of Paris, and just a really neat view of the city. You can’t see the Eiffel Tower or anything but it just looked so cool with the eerie mist and cloud cover.

Butte Chaumont is not what you would think of when you think of a beautiful park, it’s a little different. It has more of a dark, gothic feel to it. The rock is dark, almost black, and with the misty morning it was even eerier. The park is even home to what is apparently the scariest tunnel in Paris. Evan and I ran by the tunnel and suddenly a large group of grade school boys ran out of the tunnel screaming. He said that he’ll hear kids all the time daring each other to go into the tunnel and saying that they can’t because they are too scared…we did not venture into the tunnel. However, after descending from the steep hill we took a hairpin turn and I could hear water rushing as if from a waterfall. We had entered into a small cave in the park that is home to stalactites (remember which ones those are?), bats, and a waterfall. It was still pretty dark, but it just made the aesthetic better in the cave.

We took a few more turns in the park and then headed home for some delicious breakfast including our Chèvre, and moldy cheese that we had bought the night before, a fresh baguette and Evan’s 1Kg jar of Nutella. I started with the cheese, but then went for a bit of Nutella. Pepa buys the store brand version of Nutella, and I have it sometimes but not that often, and as far as I could tell they are pretty much the same. Nope. Nope, they aren’t the same. It took eating some real Nutella to realize that there is nothing that is the same as Nutella, there just is not. Nutella is everywhere in Paris too. I mean crepes are really popular and Nutella crepes are the most popular of the popular crepes and so you walk by the stands with (not kidding) like 15 jars of Nutella; and that’s just the jars you can see. There is so much Nutella! Uh, reason number 5 million why Paris is awesome.

Evan had class, but he gave me this super-duper really awesome map-book of Paris so that I could go explore the city while he was in class and then we would meet up to visit the Louvre together. We set up a plan of what I should try and see and then I set out shortly after Evan. I used the metro to get to Arc de Triomphe. The Arc sits in the middle of a roundabout where twelve major avenues converge. In order to get to the Arc de Triomphe you actually have to use a tunnel that goes under the roundabout that comes up in the middle of the island where the Arc sits. Evan said that his first bike ride through Paris he rode through the Place Charles de Gaulle (the roundabout), scary but fun was the gist of his experience. I used the tunnel and I was amazed when I surfaced under the Arc. It is so impressive. Under the Arc is also the tomb of the unknown soldier, which I actually had no idea was at the Arc. Actually, I had no idea what to expect of the Arc, but I really found it amazing. I thought about going up to the top, but it cost 9,50 euros…I know, you never know when you’ll be back in Paris, but Paris is big and I had a lot to go see!

After a bit at the Arc I headed down Avenue des Champ de Élysées. Take a moment and pronounce that how you think it is pronounced. Have you said it? Out loud, come on now, try and pronounce it. Ok, ready? It is pronounced like “Sean-de-lee-says,” all run together like one word. It took me four days just to get it right and commit it to memory. When Evan asked me what I thought of the street it took me like three times for him to say it, and then he had to say “The big street you went down after the Arc de Triomphe,” before I knew what he was talking about. French is an incredibly beautiful language, and I just loved listening to people speak, but there is no such thing as “sounding it out” in French because things are not pronounced like the look. Spanish you can actually sound out a little bit, but in French that is pretty much a “no-go.”

Champ de Élysées was really neat though. It is one of the biggest streets in Paris and it has a lot of the famous stores, like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Nike Town! Somehow though, a foul beast in the fashion world named Abercrombie and Fitch penetrated its Parisian classiness. I recognized the smell of the store before I even saw the store, you know that knock you over cologne smell Abercrombie has that you can smell from across the mall? Actually, you can’t even see the store from the street, just its gate, and I could still smell it! I’m not even mad, that’s amazing.

Next stop was Place de la Concorde. It lies on the opposite end of Champ de Élysées than the Arc de Triomphe. La Concorde has the oldest monument in Paris, which is sort of shaped like the Washington Monument, but it is a gift from the Egyptians, (?) I believe and is covered in hieroglyphics. Continuing from La Concorde is the Jardin des Tuileries which continues all the way to the entrance of the Louvre. Here, I ate lunch, which I ordered myself – in French (tuna sandwich, is anyone actually surprised?), overlooking a garden full of trees with changing leaves, a fountain and a sleeping Frenchman next to the fountain. Not a homeless Frenchman, just a Frenchman in his suit, taking a quick nap in the garden chair by a fountain, no big deal.

As I walked through the gardens, there was a dog obedience class being taught in a grassy knoll near the Louvre. As watched all the cute dogs (including a golden retriever!) playing fetch and frolicking, a thought came to me. You think because Gus is French Canadian he would be less likely to eat all of the baked goods I make if we disciplined him in French? Maybe all this time Gus is a French speaker and we just didn’t know it. It’s possible; I think we should look into it, because after a chewed up pair of high-heels, a chewed up Grimm’s Most Beautiful Fairytales anthology, a breakfast pastry ring, a massacre of Fritos, a destroyed baguette and let’s not forget the bread pudding incident, I think possibly we just aren’t conveying our message to Gus properly. We should consider the French lessons.

Evan met me in front of the Louvre and with a Pain au Chocolate (pastry filled with chocolate, say no more). The Louvre was the thing that I wanted to see most in Paris, but as far as what I wanted to see in the Louvre, I had no idea. The Mona Lisa, I guess? To be real honest I wasn’t really sure all that was in the Louvre to go see, I just wanted to see it. Evan however had some exhibits in mind to show me, and we were equipped with a map, so we were ready to go. I didn’t really know what Evan’s plan was, so I figured we’d be in the Louvre for an hour, hour and a half? We were there for nearly four hours and I was never bored. There is a plethora of things to see, and never enough time. Evan said he saw a statistic that if you went to the Louvre and looked at every work for just 20 seconds it would take 9 months to get through the entire museum…that’s a lot of museum time. Enough that you could die of hunger if you got lost in there…or thirst because a small bottle of water is like 3 euros…that’s like 5 bucks. Ridiculous, no? Oh, and you can’t have bike helmets in the Louvre either…in case you were wondering.

We headed towards the Greek/Roman antiquities. One of the first things we saw as we walked into a gallery was Venus de Milo. Yep, Venus de Milo, right there in front of me, the real thing. The Venus de Milo is thought to be of Aphrodite, but because she is missing certain identifiable characteristics her identity will forever remain a mystery. I think that the Greek/Roman sculptures are very interesting because you can’t recognize them by their faces, but by what they are wearing or holding, etc. Personally I really liked the statues of Hermes, every time we saw one I just took a photo of his winged feet.
Evan said that whenever you see a man with a club and/or a lion’s skin, it’s Hercules as a representation of one of his 12 labors. There were lots of Hercules status, but it took us forever to find Julius Cesar. We kept coming up to statues and guessing who they were before we looked. “I think this one is Cesar.” Nope, someone else. “Ok, then this one must be Cesar.” Nope. Finally, like 2 hours and 45 minutes later we found Julius Cesar in the Cour Puget, which is like a courtyard covered with a glass roof. Also in the Cour Puget was another statue of Hercules! This one however has an uncanny resemblance to my friend Brent from school…really. I saw it and I immediately thought of Brent! And it’s perfect because Brent is a really big, strong guy like Hercules, he just needs a flying horse and he is there.

My favorite piece in the Cour Puget though was the statue of Phidipiddies dying after running the first ever marathon to deliver a message. May sound depressing, but runners can relate. Evan said that the first time he came to the Louvre was two days after he ran the Paris marathon with two of his friends. He said they had been walking around the Louvre for forever and were at the brink of despair when they happened upon the statue of Phidipiddies; some things are just fate, I suppose. Haha! The plaque on the sculpture doesn’t actually say Phidipiddies, but it the name of the sculpture is along the lines of “Death of the Marathon Runner” or something of that sort, so I’m assuming its Phidipiddies.

Evan’s favorite exhibit in the Louvre is The Nike of Samothrace, or The Winged Victory of Samothrace. It is pretty impressive. Probably one of my favorites up there with the statue of Brent/Hercules and Phidipiddies. I took a pretty cool picture of him pondering his favorite piece, but I no longer have it (I’ll explain why later). After we hit the high points, including the Mona Lisa, which is protected by about six inches of glass by the way, we just flâner-ed around the Louvre. We happened upon the Code of Hammurabi, which is one of the oldest, deciphered codes of law in the world. It comes from Babylon and was written by Hammurabi, a Babylonian king. The code has 282 laws along with the punishments for breaking said laws, including this law:” If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” An eye for an eye; sound familiar?

Part of the preface of the code was written on the wall next to the actual stone, but it was all interpreted in French, so Evan read it aloud to me in English:
“When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind. the Sublime, who humbles himself before the great gods; successor of Sumula-il; the mighty son of Sin-muballit; the royal scion of Eternity; the mighty monarch, the sun of Babylon, whose rays shed light over the land of Sumer and Akkad; the king, obeyed by the four quarters of the world; Beloved of Ninni, am I. When Marduk sent me to rule over men, to give the protection of right to the land, I did right and righteousness in . . . , and brought about the well-being of the oppressed.”

Kinda long, and that’s just part of it, but we thought it was pretty cool. All of the plaques and signs for the exhibits in the Louvre are written in French, and only French, but Evan was nice enough to read them to me if I ever wanted to know. Some of them I could pretty much pick out what was going on, but like I said before, French does not sound the way it looks, so I was never really sure.

After the hours of meandering through the halls, Evan eventually had to go to class. The Louvre was definitely a worthwhile experience, and it was awesome to just wander around, happen upon things, and not be rushed. We stood for a few minutes and listened to an art class going on right in the middle of a hallway. Obviously I didn’t understand what the professor was saying, but Evan told me later. How neat is that? To go to class at the Louvre? Many of the museums in Paris (actually, possibly all of them, including Versailles) are free to art/history students studying in Paris/France. So, want to see some awesome history and museums for free? Go study art in Paris.

Well, another five pages on Microsoft Word and we are still only half-way through day 2. I promise things will speed up. Soon the reason why I am making this blog so detailed will be revealed. There is nothing particularly exciting happening here in Cádiz, so y’all aren’t missing anything 😊

Alrighty-roo! I talk you all tomorrow!
Love always,
Devin 😊

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Photos

Butte Chaumont
This is looking up at the steep hill we ran up to get a view of the city.

Paris
This is the view from the top of the steep hill at Butte Chaumont. The tall point in the left part of the photo is the other tallest point in Paris.

Cave
This is the Cave in the Butte Chaumont, waterfall and bats included!

Boo!
The scariest tunnel in Paris.

Do you SEE all that Nutella?!
Um. Heaven from a hazelnut put into a jar.

Avenue des Champ Élysées
This is where the real Louis Vuitton and Gucci and so much more are! This view is from the top of the Arc, which I didn't go up, but I stole this picture. :)

Place de la Concorde
The monument in the middle is the one given by the Egyptians, and there are really gorgeous fountains on either side of the place (place = plaza in French).

Jarin des Tuileries
Where I ate lunch, day two. No big deal.

Hercules or Brent?
Why not both?

Phidipiddies
I don't know his pain and I'm in no particular hurry...I think Conor can relate though.

The Nike of Samothrace
Just imagine Evan pondering it. It is really impressive though.

Mona Lisa Smile :)
Its hard to get the impression when you are surrounded by lots of people and the bullet proof glass, but there she is!

Code of Hammurabi
This is the Code of Hammurabi, its like as tall as me or a bit taller!