Paris, Ah, Paris (part 1)

Night 7 and Day 8:

Paris Weekend Part 1

Our Paris adventure began the night of July 4^th at 11:15 as we set out by charter bus (or coach).  There were 38 total British Studies Program (BSP) students on the trip, and 5 from my specific library science class.  We rode a bus from London to the port city of Dover which took approximately 1.5-2 hours.  The first part of the trip was pretty typically filled with excited chatter, music, and sleep.  Once we arrived in Dover, we passed our passports forward for inspection and waited a few minutes to load onto the ferry.   We had to get off of the bus once on the ferry and head up to the lounge for the 2ish hour ferry ride (that was FREEZING!).  During this time, we attempted to sleep in chairs and on sofas.  Finally, we reached Calais and reboarded the bus for the remainder of our bus trip to Paris.  This final leg was the longest and lasted another few hours.  We arrived at our hostel in Paris Friday morning around 8am not-so-bright-eyed.  The hostel was St. Christopher’s Inns and it was located on the canal in the northeast part of the city.  We quickly dropped off our bags in a storage area, brushed our teeth, changed our shirts, ate the breakfast provided by St. Christopher’s, and headed to the atm and to a local bakery for my first taste of authentic French pastries.  At the bakery, I ordered a pain au chocolat (basically, bread with chocolate)—absolutely delicious!  

Once we had all reconvened back at the hostel, we left for a walking tour of the area to get our bearings and learn a little about the city.  We saw the canal, the Metropolitain (Paris’s subway system), and headed to Place Monge, which was our first stop.  The Paris metro system is similar to Rome’s—crowded, confusing, and not as clean as London’s.  It gets you where you need to go, and it’s easy to use in the sense that one ticket is one ride no matter how many stops you need.  However, there is no sense of personal space at all! On the other hand, you sometimes get surprised with an impromptu trumpet concert on your morning commute!  

View of the canal on our morning walk

Right around the corner from Place Monge, in the middle of the city, there is an ancient Roman ruin that was discovered  in the 1800s.  The area is called Arenes de Lutece and this particular day a group of boys was enjoying a soccer game.  We sat and watched for a few minutes while Dr. Mackaman told us a little more about the history of Paris and about our plans for the weekend.  I enjoyed the juxtaposition of sitting in such an ancient place watching kids do something so normal as play soccer.  I also really wanted to go join the game!

Arenes de Lutece

We continued our walking tour by wandering through an alley that held a few plaques commemorating different parts of Parisian and French history.  We talked about World War II and the Nazi occupation of Paris, Ernest Hemingway’s time in Paris, Rene Descartes theories about existence, and how all of that connected to us as students. 

As lunchtime approached, we headed toward Notre Dame.  We were released to get lunch on our way with instructions to meet at the cathedral later in the afternoon.  Our group found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served paninis, falafels, and crepes.  I ordered a crepe.  I do not speak French, and I only recognize a few words (5 years of Latin can only help me so much in France!!) so I ordered my crepe with fromage (cheese) and jambone (ham).  It was absolutely divine!!!  This was without question, the best thing I ate in France.  We ate our crepes as we walked down to Notre Dame and then headed into the cathedral.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame was beautiful.  The alcoves around the edges that contain statues and paintings are stunning.  I wish that it hadn’t been so crowded when I had been there, but I realize that it was a Friday afternoon.  They have signs everywhere telling visitors to be silent, but people still talked at a normal tone of voice (not even whispering).  They had announcements over loud-speakers telling visitors to be silent and respect those who were there for worship and prayer.  Because of this, I felt bad for those who weren’t there for tourism and who were there to worship.  I definitely enjoyed seeing the statues of the saints, especially Joan of Arc.  The cathedral is celebrating their 850^th anniversary this year, so they have displays about that around, as well. 

Joan of Arc statue

Following the visit to Notre Dame, we were off to the Louvre on a mission to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.  Those two were our “must-sees”, and anything else would be a bonus.  We missed the Mona Lisa’s room the first time, and ended up in the wrong place so we had to back track.  Finally, we found her, though; so we checked one item off of our list!  On our way to see the enigmatic Mona, we also got to see other Leonardo da Vinci paintings, an Athena statue, and many other paintings by Italian artists.  After Mona Lisa, we headed downstairs in search of Venus de Milo.  She was much easier to find and smaller than I had imagined, and on the way we saw a few other Greek pieces, too such as a piece of the Parthenon.  Because we still had time after seeing our two main items, we headed off into the Egyptian area, where we saw the Colossal Statue of Ramesses II.  We even saw part of the Medieval exhibit, which felt like the dungeon of a castle. 

Pyramid at the Louvre Museum

Venus De Milo

At this point, our small group split and three of us headed out of the Louvre to go shopping and get gelato, while the other two stayed behind to see more of the museum.  Ahh, the gelato was delicious!  After walking with our gelato for a little bit, we found a window sill to sit in and rest for a while before dinner.  We sat, talked, and watched a little part of the city go by. 

Dinner was a large group affair.  The entire BSP group met at a restaurant to eat in the basement.  We had ordered our meal earlier in the day, and we were supposed to go on a boat trip on the Seine afterwards to see the sights of Paris by night.  Dinner for me consisted of cheese croquets, duck confit with French fries, and apple crumble.  It was tasty, but it just couldn’t compete with that ham and cheese crepe from lunch and the gelato from earlier!  Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the boat dock in time to take our boat trip that night, so we made arrangements to go the next night.  As we walked back across Pont Neuf (the New Bridge—which is actually the oldest bridge in Paris),  we saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up and sparkly. 

Back at the hostel, exhausted and ready for bed, we went to check in and they told me I would have to go on a scavenger hunt for beds.  I ended up heading to 3 rooms that night before I found the one I would actually sleep in at almost 2am.  (If you want the extended version of this story, you’ll have to ask in person.) 

Part 2 includes the rest of the weekend.