Weekend in Paris

“Now playing, Shrek le Troixieme”

Right now I’m deleting all the music from my laptop, so I could transfer all 2GB of pictures of took in the past four days. Paris is, truly, an amazing city. We arrived Thursday night. The flight from Heathrow to De Gaulle was only 40 minutes long, but the departure was delayed by an hour and a half. By the time we got our luggage and went through the passport control, it was already past midnight. The airport, by that point, had pretty much shut down. The cleaning crews were dispatched around the terminal, no people walking around, all the restaurants and shops long closed. As we were walking through the terminal towards the train station, a female voice with the French accent was announcing “the airport is being evacuated, please exit immediately”. Creepy. This feeling soon turned into disappointment: when we got to the train station, the last train for Paris had already left. Our options were to sleep at the airport or to take a cab, and we chose the latter.

About an hour later and with 50 less Euros in the wallet, we arrived at our hotel. The room reminded me of a dentist office with its blue-colored bare walls, and a small television next to the ceiling in the corner of the room. Still so much better than a hostel. With that in mind, the first night in Paris came to an end.

Where to go first? The Louvre, of course. After figuring out the metro system (after all my New York subway adventures, I felt like fish in the water) , we took a train to the most famous museum in the world. We entered around 11am, and by the time we left at 4pm, we had seen the entire section of the French paintings, along with the most famous paintings and sculptures in the right wing. Then we walked down Champs Elysees towards the Triumphal Arch and had dinner in a cafe. The weather had been hot up to that point, and all of a sudden it started pouring. With thunder and lightning, the pleasant walk couldn’t proceed and we quickly scrambled to take the metro back to the only place we knew was still open: the Louvre! We stayed there until the closing at 9.30, now having seen every painting on display. What a wonderful place – besides the breathtaking collection of art, I loved how the decor contributed to the viewing experience. I’m usually not a big fan of sculptures but, in the right setting, the stoned figures almost came to life.

We then walked over to the Eiffel Tower. At night, it was shining and sparkling with thousands of flashes going off every second. We then scrambled to find the metro back to the hotel because, somehow, the metro closes at 12.30am. We really didn’t want to take another cab.

Day 2 was all about churches and chapels: we went to Sacra Coeur in the morning, followed by Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame. Absolutely majestic. I don’t know enough synonyms for grandiose and fantastic to properly described my impressions. Maybe that’s why I took so many pictures. I couldn’t believe I was there, looking at these famous sights. I felt very privileged to have the chance to be there.

We then did the most touristy thing of all and went up the Eiffel Tower. This was followed by a wonderful dinner at a French restaurant in the latin quarter. I got cheese for dessert, I’ve always wanted to do that! Oh yeah, and I had a crepe for dessert during lunch. All part of the French experience.

We slept in a bit more the next day. Our flight was at night, so we went to the Opera Bastille, and then walked around Marais. Then we went to Musee D’Orsay, which is now my favorite museum in the world. I went straight up to the top floor – the impressionism exhibition. One of the first rooms had the most famous Monet paintings in the world. I stayed in that single room for what was probably an hour. I’ve never felt as moved by art as I did at that point in time. I felt in love with the paintings, and I have never experienced such a feeling towards an inanimate object. But all the good things had to come to an end, we had to leave fairly soon to go to the airport.

It was already dark when the plane started accelerating on the runway. Before we entered the cloud-cover, I took the last brief look at the city of lights. Out in the distance, I saw the Eiffel tower, flashing with its strobe lights. Then it was covered by the clouds. “I’m coming back to this place”, I thought. I don’t know when, but I have to come back.

Having struggled with the French language for 4 days, it felt s good to be back in an English-speaking country. The accent didn’t make a difference anymore, I understood what the people were saying, and the people understood me. It was time to rest and relax.