Paris, Je t’aime
December 1st, 2011 by Zofia
I felt a bit sorry for Paris when we landed at Orly airport, after a week in Tuscany – where I fell completely in love with the relaxed Tuscan way of life – Paris was definitely going to be a culture shock. This would be my second visit to Paris, and while I completely loved it the first time around and there was still so much I wanted to see here, my heart was still in Florence, so the sheer size and vast number of people everywhere in Paris instantly annoyed me!
We had booked accommodation in a hotel close to Gare du Nord train station which was a very convenient location in terms of access to the Paris Metro system, and when you looked out of the window of our room you could see Sacre Coeur which was a beautiful sight.
On our first morning in Paris we got pastries and coffee and headed for the Metro station. Here we purchased a three day train pass which was a brilliant idea as it meant we didn’t need to worry about purchasing any train tickets for the rest of our stay. Our first train journey led us to Notre Dame cathedral where we took in the outstanding Gothic architecture from the outside and then joined the swiftly moving queue to take a look at the inside.
Notre Dame is an amazing structure, but I was disappointed by just how many tourists were in there talking loudly to one another or talking on mobile phones, taking photos with the flash on and treating this holy place like an amusement park. It really took away from the feeling of awe and holiness that a Gothic church was designed to inspire, there was no quiet place to sit and really take in your surroundings because the crowds were immense. This definitely was a tourist attraction and not like a proper church at all. It was surprising to note that mass still gets said here every day in spite of the crowds, how weird and challenging it must be for the priest to perform a full mass with people taking photos and talking around the isles of the church, and for the parishioners who attempt to partake in the mass, how do they feel about the crowds I wondered?
We left Notre Dame and crossed to the south side of the Siene river to get some lunch. We found a cafe where we managed to get a delicious filled baguette with a can of coke for only €4.80 each – our coffee that morning had cost €4.50 each so this was an amazing deal! Afterwards we stopped in at the famous Shakespeare and Co bookshop before heading on a lovely walk along the Siene riverside.
A while later we were still walking and found ourselves outside the Musee d’Orsay. The queues here were amazingly long so we took a look around all the interesting sculptures that were on display in the courtyard and then we crossed the river and entered le Jardin des Tuileries. Here we took the time to enjoy a beautifully manicured green space in central Paris. There was also a sculpture exhibition in the gardens so it was wonderful to walk around and discover random contemporary sculpture placed in obvious and not so obvious places around the gardens.
At one end of the Tuileries is La Louvre and at the other is La Place de la Concorde. We headed to La Place de la Concorde, stopping for a crepe along the way. There was a street performer on La Place de la Concorde who was blowing giant bubbles and teaching a young girl how to make these bubbles, we spent a while transfixed by these bubbles, trying to capture them on camera.
Walking away from La Place de la Concorde we began the walk up the most famous street in Paris – La Champs-Elysees – with our ultimate destination being the Arc de Triomphe which is at the top end of the street. Along the way up the street we got sidetracked by Avenue Matignon and a quick visit into the Paris office of Christie’s auction house. This was a beautiful French building and well worth the visit, there was a wine auction taking place while we were there so there was a lot of people around the building which made it all the more interesting to visit.
La Champs-Elysees is a crazy street not just for the big names stores which line the street, or the really large sidewalks, but for the sheer number of people that those sidewalks accommodate, and the insane amount of traffic in both directions on the road! This is most definitely the busiest street I think I have ever been on. By the time we got to the top of the street we were so exhausted that we decided just to take some photos of the Arc de Triomphe from across the road and leave it at that. We then decided to have dinner at the only place we could afford on La Champs-Elysees – McDonalds! (It was interesting to note that it was still more expensive here than at other McDonalds restaurants in Paris).
The following day we went to the Louvre. We had pre-booked our tickets at a ticket booth in Gare du Nord station the day before so we were able to jump the crazy long queue and go straight inside. I was surprised to find the the Louvre (home of such priceless art, like The Mona Lisa) did not have as strict a security policy as the Uffizi in Florence, we only had to walk through a metal detector and our bags through an x-ray machine but we were still able to hold on to our bags when we went through the galley (unlike at the Uffizi). We were also allowed our cameras which was a novelty for a museum, normally all form of digital recording device is forbidden.
There is so much to see in the Louvre and I know that the almost 6 hours we spent walking around it barely scratched the surface of the collection, but I was very happy with all I saw. Having completed a whole degree in the history of art with a focus on the Renaisance and also 17th-19th century French art (and with a few Classics papers completed), this museum was a treasure trove of art I had studied and written essays on. If I had to choose 5 pieces that blew me away they would have to have been The Winged Victory of Samothrace (an ancient Greek statue), Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa“, David’s “Intervention of the Sabine Women“, Rubens’ “Marie de Medici cycle“, and Canova’s “Cupid and Psyche“. Each of these pieces were highlights in their own way but the power exuded by these works by their size or the way they were sculpted or painted really impacted on me.
The most disappointing work I saw was the Mona Lisa. While I admit it is a beautiful work by da Vinci, the fact it was behind bullet-proof glass and security guards and a barrier set a few meters back meant that it was not as easy to appreciate as every other work in the museum is. I found watching the crazy crowd around this small painting to be a more interesting experience. People would fight their way to the front of the crowd, pull out their camera and take a couple of pictures, then move on. I am not sure that many people actually stop and really look at this painting which is sad, but then again, with all the camera lights reflecting off the glass in front of the painting it was quite difficult to really look at.
After our art overload we refueled and headed down to the Paris’s most famous icon – the Eiffel Tower. On my first trip to Paris I saw the Eiffel Tower at night, all lit up with twinkling lights, so it was strange to arrive here in daylight and see the iron structure in full light. For some reason I was really surprised that it was brown. I am not sure why I was surprised but for some reason in my head it was a black structure, not a brown one! We stayed in the area until it was dark enough for the lights to go on at which point we saw the Eiffel Tower transform itself into a beacon of twinkling lights.
Our last day in Paris had only one destination in mind, Sacre Coeur and the surrounding Monmartre area. Our first discovery was an entire street which led away from Sacre Coeur which was just fabric shop after fabric shop. This was a dream for my mother who loves to sew and for me who loves craft projects – a whole street of options for random bits and bobs to use in our sewing and crafting. Just wonderful!
We ate filled baguettes for lunch on a park bench in the garden just below Sacre Coeur, it was a beautiful day and this was the perfect spot for lazily watching the world go by and enjoying some very French food. After lunch we climbed the rest of the hill and entered Sacre Coeur. Unlike at Notre Dame, you were not allowed to take pictures in this church and people were generally less chatty so there was a completely different vibe inside. This church really felt like a church, it felt like an escape from the madness of the busy Parisian streets outside, it was a quiet sanctuary where you could sit and think. We took the opportunity for a moment of quiet contemplation in this beautiful place of worship.
The Eurostar journey back to London was comfortablele and straightforward. The two hour train ride was a great opportunity to just sit and reflect on the wonderful holiday I had just been on. Paris showed us a good time and I am glad to have been able to visit for a second time. It is a city so full of history, and so much of that history is visible in the design of the streets and buildings that despite the obvious modernisation and the millions of tourists, this city still leaves a lasting impression of delight.