Paris - Day 3-5

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I'm writing this with about 3 hours left in Paris before I'm off to Rome so this entry will be both descriptive and reflective in nature.

On Saturday night, I reconvened with the Aussies and my Kiwi roomates and we decided to hike up to the Sacre Coeur for an evening picnic. We picked up a few bottles of cheap wine (~2.80 Eur), some bread, cheese and homous beforehand at the local supermarket. It was quite a lively environment up at the top of the hill with people randomly singing "La Bamba". The view was absolutely gorgeous despite being overcast for most of the day.

On Sunday morning, I took one of the suburban trains to the Palace of Versailles. The palace itself is huge and the gardens stretch on until what seems like eternity. Both the gardens and the palace itself require admission fees and since I'm not a big fan of gardens, I decided just to walk around the Palace instead. The Palace itself is quite extravagant and one could take several hours just to examine the massive artwork, wall trimmings, ornaments, and furniture. However, I did not particularly enjoy my walkthrough because most the palace was swamped with tourists. In some of the rooms, it was difficult to stand and look at something for any length of time because there was always someone pushing up against you wanting to take video footage of something. I did manage to take some pictures though so look forward to those.

In the evening, I met up with my friend Daniela and her friends down near her place, in the 13th arrondisement. We went to this little jazz-type cafe, which was pretty dead, but was nevertheless nice. Most of the conversation was in French and in spite of my limited cognitive abilities in the language, I was able to pick up the gist of most of the topics. Fortunately, there was one blond woman who had been schooled in Britain with whom I had a lengthy conversation to pass the time. She had a very cute British accent (like the ones you hear in the movies) and she seemed genuinely interested in my impressions about Paris and my views on public health care systems (her boyfriend is in med school). According to French tradition, when someone celebrates a birthday, that someone treats the entire party as opposed to the other way around in North America where the birthday person gets treated. So a free dinner in an authentic part of Paris was a pretty good way to spend the evening, wouldn't you agree?

On Monday morning, I decided to take a trip out to La Défense which is a newer neighbourhood just on the outskirts of Paris. It's essentially a collection of newer high-rises that are home to most of France's biggest companies and some large international ones as well - I guess you could say that the economic heart of France is concentrated in this area. The area also features a large square arch which is on the same line as the L'Arc de Triomphe, the Concorde, and the Louvre Pyramid; you can see the L'Arc de Triomphe from the Square Arch. It was a welcome change to see modern architecture (i.e. glass-windowed buildings) since you don't see much of that in Paris proper.

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Reflections about Paris:
1. Love-Hate relationship with American culture
Obviously, the French are not particularly pleased about the growing arrogance and evangelicalism of the United States, particularly the American government. However, the French are avid consumers of American culture. Rap music is quite popular here (interestingly, stores and restaurants play older hip-hop songs preceded by the announcement of "Remix!" though a few vinyl scratches hardly qualify as a remix) and so are things like McDonald's and Starbucks.(fortunately there are a limited number here and the prices are ridiculous - 4 Eur for a simple latte)

2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
It's a city both of extravagance (monuments, architecture, innovation, controversial) and squalor (high unemployment and stress).

3. Le francais - c'est vraiment important.
I urge anyone who wants to visit to learn to speak the language at a functional level. "Parlez-vous anglais?" will not get you out of all situations. It is true that if you address people in English, you will get a look of indifference and a shrug of the shoulders.

4. There's something about French women
It could be their noses, their dress, their walk, or perhaps more bluntly the way that their breasts (yes, it is actually nice to see natural breasts here) sway when they walk: there is always something about a French woman that can make a guy's heart race.

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Comments

[Phoenix]

There is something about French men too...yummy!