It has been hard to find time to write recently, as winding up a semester in a foreign country has a lot more to it than just finals, which, in themselves, are enough to keep me up late every night studying. There are last minute gifts to buy, bags to pack, boxes to ship home (and thus the need to wait 2 hours in the post office), friends to spend time with for maybe the last time, and of course, the ever present desire to get out into the city that has been my home for the last four months, and which I’m going to miss terribly.
But in the midst of all this, I must write about Paris, my favorite travel experience yet. I went there on the Friday after Thanksgiving and stayed through Sunday evening. I flew there alone, but I met up with my best friend, Leigh, who is studying at Grinnell in London this semester. We also met up with Leigh’s friend, Jesse, who is studying at NYU Prague. Our hostel was very nice, probably the nicest hostel I have stayed in, and it was in a fantastic location- just half a block to a metro stop, and within walking distance from all the major sites in Paris.
We got there, threw our bags down, and ventured out into the city. By the second block I had already fallen in love. I think French is the most beautiful language, both spoken and written. Adorable cafes and restaurants and specialty shops lined the streets, labeled with whimsical signs, and nestled in beautiful old stone-faced buildings covered with vines. The city is so majestic; one cannot help but be affected by it. I got this feeling that I could live there, and the more I saw, it became less of a feeling and more of a strong desire. Paris spoke to me in a way like no other place I have seen. Paris also had a head start on Rome with Christmas decorations, which just added to it’s magical appearance.
We didn’t really plan out an exact itinerary, but we all had several places in mind that we wanted to see, and we just mapped out the most logical route to all of them. In 2 and a half days, we went to the Louvre, the Pompadour center, the Orsay Museum, the Eiffel Tower (twice actually, once at night, and once during the day), the Arc de Triumph, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Sacre Cour and the surrounding area, the Jewish quarters, the Bastille, the Left Bank, Notre Dame, and we did it all on foot, so there was a lot of meandering in between. At the end of each night there I felt as if I has just ran a marathon. But it was an incredibly satisfied exhaustion.
At the Louvre, highlights included Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Virgin on the Rocks and Alexandros’ Venus de Milo. The Orsay is famous for it’s impressionist collection, which is my favorite period in painting. It had the largest collection of Monet, Manet, and the likes that I have ever seen. My favorite museum in Paris was the Pompadour Center. It is a contemporary art museum, and as I have never really gotten anything out of modern art, I was a little skeptical going in. However, my friends and I wound up spending three hours in there, and we had to be kicked out because the museum was closing and we did not want to leave. I love the surrealist period in art also, and at this museum, there was room after room of paintings by Dali, Pollock, Miro, Picasso, and Magritte, just to name a few. Also, many of the more modern works were interactive (see the picture of me in a white room with thick black lines on the walls), and very interesting.
After the multi-museum spree, Jesse, Leigh and I all needed a break, so we headed to Angelina’s café, near the Eiffel tower, which is world famous for it’s hot chocolate. The café is a very classy joint, with walls lined with mirrors, and the whole place is lit by crystal chandeliers We waited in line for 30 min or so, and paid 6 euro each for this hot chocolate, but it was so very worth it. Imagine melted Godiva chocolate mixed with crème, served in a bottomless pot, accompanied by a crystal glass full of home-made whipped crème so you can add as much or as little as you like to your little cup of chocolate heaven. We also ordered a dessert to share, called a “Monte Blonc”- a vanilla meringue cookie covered with sweet chocolate and chestnut icing. The hot chocolate was so rich we couldn’t even get to the bottom of our pot, despite our best efforts. I didn’t think I was going to be able to eat again after Angelina’s, because I knew I would never taste anything as delicious again.
The Eiffel tower was, of course, amazing. What else is there to say about it? We took the elevator up to the top at night. The city below was all aglow and seemed boundless. With no apparent concern about appearing cliché, many couples canoodled at the top. When I got off the elevator at the bottom, I felt like my life was a little more complete… “Eiffel Tower? Check.”
Mont Sacre Cour was really beautiful, gleaming and white, up on it’s hill, under a terribly blue sky. A crowd sat on it’s steps being serenaded by the men singing American Pop songs from about two or more years ago on acoustic guitars; Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” was one of them. I loved the area surrounding it. Tiny streets packed with people offered a nice change from the busy, more metropolitan city below. I had a delicious ham and tomato crepe from a street vendor near a park where many artists painted on easels and displayed their work. Crepe vendors were all over in Paris. I also had a crepe with Nutella and Banana. I really think we need creperies in America. People just don’t know what they are missing.
At Pere Lachaise Cemetery, I saw the graves of Gertrude Stein, Max Ernst, Honore de Balzac, Chopin, Jim Morrison, Louis Gay-Lussac, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Georges Seurat, and Oscar Wilde, just to name a few. The picture of the tombstone with the sphinx like creature flying is Wilde’s. It is covered with lipstick stains from where people have kissed it. I don’t know what started this tradition. It may sound a little morbid, but I really enjoyed walking around Pere Lachaise. For lack of a better word, it was very peaceful.
When I needed to go catch my plane, I left Leigh in a popular bookstore called Shakespeare & Co., where I purchased a used copy of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. I didn’t want to leave Paris and I didn’t want to leave Leigh. The best part of this trip was that I was again traveling with one of my best friends. Leigh is the smartest, most intellectual girl I know. Sometimes I feel like when I am with her, I have to ascend to her level, which is above that of most girls my age. Our friendship is like none other I have, and though we have only been friends for four years, I feel like I have known her my whole life, and she knows me better than almost anyone. It is a hard thing to explain, but let me just sum it up by saying that I don’t talk with anyone the way I talk to Leigh. I love her to death, and I am so glad I got to see Paris with her. Also, her 21st birthday was that Sunday, so we celebrated with a bottle of champagne and mussels in a very happening little restaurant called “Au Trappiste”.
