So this entry is going to be about my birthday in Paris as well as some of the funny/interesting facts that I’ve picked up along the way in this great city.
The first thing I did when I got up that morning (after not sleeping) was turn in my art journal containing nearly 100 sketches from various museums, take a music history exam, and put the finishing touches on my 20-page paper describing the influences of Caravaggio on the Spanish Baroque. Yayyy!! Happy Birthday! Well, it recovered quickly after that.
I had a lot to hit today. Up until then, we had missed out on some of the major landmarks in Paris (of which there are MANY) because we spent so much time in museums. At this point, though, we had a chance to catch up. First stop, the Catacombs.
What better way to spend your birthday than to walk in dark tunnels, completely surrounded by the remains of 600,000 dead people that are so close you can literally reach out and pick up their skulls. I know it sounds like I’m being sarcastic, but I really enjoyed it. I badly need photos (which I have) to explain it properly, but basically, Paris was running out of room for bodies and needed to move a lot of them into a fairly small area. They did what any of us would have done and dug subterranean tunnels so that they could stack the bones in neat little rows. So you are walking in the tunnel and about 2 feet away on either side of you there is a WALL of bones. No glass, no cement to contain them, nothing. Bones. Millions of bones. The longer bones usually formed the foundation of these walls (about 4 feet tall and 5-8 feet thick), then they would sort of arrange the skulls on top. Apparently, they have a really big problem with people attempting to steal remains. I’m not sure I would mind if someone stole my remains. It might be kind of cool to ride around in someone’s bookbag for awhile.
Everyone goes to Paris in great anticipation of Notre Dame. After all, an adorable Disney hunchback lives there. I, like many others, made my pilgrimage there to laugh and throw things at him, but found that the 3d rendering really DID do it justice. In all seriousness, it IS worth checking out, but it is also one of the least impressive cathedrals I’ve seen on this trip (which is sort of like saying that the Rockies are little hills, but you catch my drift—it still knocks the socks off of anything I had seen prior to this trip).
Now, that being said, DO go and visit San Chapelle, a church that is only a block away and most people don’t even know it exists. It IS very unique and extremely beautiful. It is almost entirely stained glass and is absolutely amazing.
That evening we went to the Eiffel Tower and had dinner at a great restaurant nearby. I was honestly very pleasantly surprised with the tower. I sort of expected it to let me down given the considerable hype that surrounds it, but it really is impressive and beautiful. For starters, it’s about four times as big as I expected. Also, it’s surrounded by a really pleasant park from which you can enjoy it (not the bustling city streets that I had always thought surrounded it). After dinner we went to the park to enjoy the scenery with Jack and met a Cuban.
Some comments:
- We were stepping into the elevator in our hotel when a French man standing behind us said, “That elevator isn’t going up. It’s going down. You’re on the wrong one.” I quite firmly knew that I was on the right elevator so I stayed on. It quickly became apparent to me that he was attempting to trick us because he and his friends started laughing when another American (my friend Michael) got off the elevator (keep in mind, the French guy is a grown man wearing a suit). At this point, another French man unattached to the aforementioned group stepped onto the elevator. As the doors closed, he rolled his eyes and said, “I’m sorry for French people…they are stupid.” Let the record show that on this 24th Day of June In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Nine, France apologized to the United States.
- The French overcharge for EVERYTHING. If you go to a café for lunch, expect to spend 5 euro if you want a small coke. No free refills, people. We went to a fairly nice restaurant near the Eiffel Tower for my birthday and dropped well over 100 euro as a group, and I still had to pay extra to use their restroom.
- If you speak French, don’t get too excited about visiting Paris. Chances are the locals will laugh at your accent and speak to you only in English. Occasionally, if they are particularly bored, they will simply reply, “Sorry, I don’t speak any English.”
- Despite Paris’ obvious short-coming—the French people who inhabit it— I would like to return there someday. There is simply too much to do in this beautiful city. I explored the city at a vigorous pace for 4 days and have only skimmed the surface.
