Paris: The City of Love

Everyone has told me: There’s only one Paris, and you know what… they’re right. Paris is really unlike any other city I’ve visited. It is very proud of itself, and for good reason. I was in Paris for a couple nights, but even just that taste was enough.

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Paris is the city of love. I spent all day Saturday just walking the streets, and I felt like I was the only one not holding some girl’s hand. All I had in my hands was my camera and some Nutella left over from a crepe.

Friday night when I got in was a little nuts. I arrived at Gare du Nord from Brussels on the high speed train, which was pricey, but cool. (Gare du Nord actually had a riot after I left... riots seem to follow me)The hostel I was to stay at gave their last spot away to the guy ahead of me in line, so I was stranded in a city that speaks French. Luckily the Hotel Metropole du Lafayette took me in, and gave me their Penthouse room (a more apt moniker would be the Attic room) for 46 euro a night. I met up with my friend Jen from high school—after seeing more cops chase a guy into a metro stop than I had seen in all my travels combined. I also saw a man dressed as a French maid flashing his private parts to oncoming traffic, he also fled the cops on foot.

No matter what you say about the French you have to hand it to them for their wine, and cheese and just food in general. It was all quite delicious, both nights. I even had authentic (French) Onion Soup.

My walking tour on Saturday took me from Notre Dame to the Louvre up Champs D’Elysses to the arch at De Gaulle circle to the Eiffel tower. By that point it was pouring rain.

I really enjoyed Notre Dame, you could feel the presence of God in the halls, especially with the immense dark space. I think they may have gone a little overboard with the gargoyles on the outer walls, but if you’re going to celebrate the greatness of God, you should probably go all out. (This is the main altar, from behind)

The collection at the Louvre was just immense. They have something like 35,000 pieces of art. I started by going to find the Mona Lisa. It’s kind of silly how much attention this one little portrait gets in this museum that houses the greatest art of all time; but sure enough when I got there, over a hundred people were clustered around the Mona Lisa, which is not a very large portrait, but is stuck on a giant wall. Surprisingly enough, it was strangely satisfying. I figured that since I’ve seen it thousands of times reproduced and there was such a circus to see the actual one I would be disappointed but I wasn’t. It has a mysterious quality to it. I am not exaggerating when I say that even though I was in the Louvre for over two hours I barely scratched the surface. I enjoyed seeing the bust of my namesake Alexander the Great.

After that it was time for a lunch of Crepes, bread, Brie Cheese and coffee. The only mishap was that while I was trying to point out that I didn’t order a double espresso and didn’t want to pay for it, the waiter suddenly could no longer speak any English, and brought me and charged me 5 Euro for another double espresso, so I was all wired up for the walk. Sac le bleu!

The only thing about some of the sights in Paris, notably the glass pyramid outside the Louvre, and the Eiffel tower—is that they seem a little contrived. They just aren’t very organic in this city that is naturally beautiful on its own. The Eiffel tower was impressive due to its sheer size, but its really just wrought iron. I can understand why they almost tore it down in 1909 after the World’s Fair.

I think a good way to describe Paris is that its kind of girly—if you want to sit in cafés and just people watch all afternoon and be stylish, then Paris is the best place in the world. What also may have contributed to the girly-ishness of Paris is that both nights when I went out I was completely surrounded by girls from Tufts where Jen (pictured) goes. There was no shortage of Estrogen at these dinners, but they were fun.

I was very worried that since I don't speak any French I would be in trouble in Paris, but really it wasn't that bad. I think its because English is the legit second language here, and they get a ton of tourists. Luxembourg and Brussels were harder because since they speak German, French and Flemmish there, English is usually people's 4th or 5th language. Anyways, I was pleased.

I also want to be careful to not extrapolate observations of Paris to France as a whole. If someone went to New York City I don’t think they’d have a good grasp on what America is really like, they would only know New York, which is obviously an outlier in many senses. Boston on the other hand…

But Paris is beautiful, and it is the city of love. I didn't really fall in love with it this time, but I do appreciate it.