Paris je t'aime

I’ve been reading a bunch of books lately that happen to involve historic Paris – first “A Tale of Two Cities”, when Parisian heads are getting cut off, then “Les Miserables”, when French butt gets kicked by English people at Waterloo and then by French people in the streets of Paris, and most recently “Vanity Fair”, when French politics ruin the main character’s dad. Victor Hugo’s book especially made me excited to visit Paris, since he can’t stop talking about how great it is. So I was the most excited of the three of us when our train arrived at Paris Lyon from Avignon.

Getting there was a big thrill since we nearly missed our train … first I took too long at the market in Isle sur la Sorgue, and then traffic in Avignon was terrible and there wasn’t a gas station to be found (and Hertz charges 240 euros if you don’t return it filled up!), and then we couldn’t find the rental car drop-off!! Finally we did, though, and sprinted into the station … to discover that the trains were on strike and we’d have to wait nearly an hour for another one. Vive la France.

The apartment where we stayed in Paris was right near the Louvre, so the first thing we saw above ground in the City of Light was the giant glass pyramid! We walked down to Les Halles for dinner and then spent the evening people-watching. This is especially entertaining in Paris, where everyone’s either dressed to kill or else looks dead silly.

On our first full day in the city we walked everywhere! The first thing we noticed was that food was more expensive … we paid about 33% more for coffee and a croissant than we had in Provence. We walked past the Louvre this time, taking in how big the Palais Royal actually is. It’s huge. Then we walked down the Seine to Isle de la Cite, where we went into Notre Dame.

After that we spent a few minutes looking around the gardens and then crossed to the other side of the Seine, into the Latin Quarter. Here we found lots of cute little shops and tons of tourists, plus a tiny Orthodox/Catholic church called St Julien le Pauvre, which we kind of liked more than Notre Dame.

After that we took a train over to the Champs Elysees and wore ourselves out window shopping. Mike and I sat down in a bar and Di continued to shop. Then we walked allllll the way down, past Place de la Concorde, through the Tuileries (where we did more first-rate people watching) and then to the Louvre where we met my friend Sawa! She’s living in Paris for a few months.

Together we walked back AGAIN to little Isle St Louis, where we had dinner at a funny little restaurant. Then we took the train to the Eiffel Tower and arrived just in time to see all the lights start twinkling! It was magical, except for the Nigerians who kept trying to sell us whatever they happened to have on hand.

By the time we got back to our little place it was after midnight and we were all exhausted. But there was a band playing in a cafe downstairs, with a girl singing Aretha Franklin … and I wasn’t annoyed at all. It wasn’t like Cowley Road, where we can just hear the beat from the nightclub through our walls. It just felt very Parisian.