An American in Paris

Updated: Aug 31, 2018

25.1.2018 -

It’s 5:47pm, and I’m on a bus riding back to London from Paris. As I watch dusk and the sunset and twilight fall across the French countryside, I’m unsurprised by how much art (especially for impressionists) it has inspired! At times, it continues until it reaches an unerringly straight line on the horizon, or else more often than not crests onto a hill dotted with houses, cottages, and farm sills.

The past ~2 days in Paris have been a whirlwind of experience. On the risk of being a cliché, like most narratives do I’ll start at the beginning.

Before that, though, I need to fill in the gap between my last entry and Paris:

I spent Sunday doing homework, and had class Monday, nothing too exciting. Figured out how to use the laundry machines! (they are honestly really confusing! And I DO do laundry regularly at home) I laid out clothes to pack, and has class essentially all of Tuesday. I went to a lecture/talk at Imperial College by Rabbi Tatz, which was great! I got to meet some students of the Jewish Community, too.

For my classes, we took a field trip to Harrods (mainly just walking around and browsing) and a walk down Pall Mall (watch out for those sightlines!) We saw some of the Royal Family’s homes, too! Amazing that we were able to walk by them (though of course there were guards all around, and I’m sure a lot of security we couldn’t see)

Tuesday night, Olivia and I caught a night bus to Paris. The plan was to sleep through the night and be fresh for Wednesday. But it turns out to get across the English Chunnel buses take either a train carriage through the Eurotunnel, or are loaded onto a ferry at Dover. (It’s a lottery which one they do) Guess which one we did? So the bus drives into the belly of this huge ship, and we go into the passenger’s area for 1.45 hrs while we crossed. Though we were exhausted, it was very cool. We got to see the White Cliffs of Dover (where we boarded) from the water and in the moonlight, eat at the foodcourt, play Dance Dance Revolution at the arcade, and split a bottle of cider at 3am. We did get about 45 minutes of sleep, which is good because I slept maybe 3 or 4 hours on the bus in total over the trip. It was unexpected, but certainly an adventure. And a story.

Never thought I would see the White Cliffs of Dover from the English Channel at 3 a.m., but here we are...

After we ported (it was still dark out…) we re-boarded the bus and drove off into Northern France. From there it was about 3 hours to Paris (thankfully I was able to sleep the whole drive). The bus pulled into a different station than we were expecting, but thankfully it was only an extra 20 or 30 minutes away from where we thought we’d be, so we were able to make out way fine. We made ourselves feel human again (Beauty and the Beast reference anyone?) with some fresh clothes from our backpacks and brushing out teeth and took the Metro to our hostel to drop our bags off.

It took us a little longer to figure out how to get tickets for the subway, but after that it was a smooth ride. Tons of Americans at the hostel! It’s a really nice place, very clean, and not to far from the city. Pretty cheap, too!

As a side note, there were a ton of sex shops in the area... (and I’ve walked along South Street in Philadelphia before!) Gotta love Paris.

First off was a late breakfast near our hostel -> I’m sure it was good in-and-of-itself, but after our travels it tasted like heaven. We had eggs, French bread and croissants, and amazing cups of coffee. [I’ve never had a better since]. The sugar cubes are in their own wrapping! Then we planned out day and went over what we wanted to do.

I have never had a better cup of coffee. I don't know the name, but I need to go back to this restaurant some day. Or maybe it's just a France thing

First we went to the Louvre, and the place itself is gorgeous. The building is so majestic and imposing. The palace frames the classic glass pyramid entrance, and I got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower ☺️ We spent around 3 hours walking through, focusing mainly on the time periods and specific art eras that interested us (eg. Romanticism, Impressionism). We eventually figured out the three sections of each floor don’t connect (took us a little while to figure that out…) Our ISIC cards get us in for FREE! That actually happened a few times over our trip! At the museum we saw (in no particular order) the: Mona Lisa, Death of Sardanapalus, Venus, Grand Odalisque, Raft of the Medusa, Michelangelo's Slave, and the others I’m not even sure of the name of!

Don't you just love it when art imitates life?

Afterwards we took the subway to the Arc de Triomphe and Les Champs-Elysées. We spent time walking along the roads and got some fancy coffee drinks while we looked for a place to eat dinner. The restaurant we found was off of the main Les Champs-Elysées, so it was a little cheaper and quicker. My salmon and rice with their wine recommendation was perfect. The first was so tasty - Flaky and just slightly charred. Just how I like it! My after dinner coffee helped me wake up (my face was way too flushed for just one glass of wine!) and after dinner we felt revived.

We slowly walked up Les Champs-Elysées, stopping off at a cool car store (you could sit in the vehicles!) and got macaroons at a very fancy place. Even the bathrooms were gorgeous! Reminded me of Napoleon's apartments we saw at the Louvre.

We eventually made it back to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s in the middle of a roundabout, so you go underground to get to it. Our ISIC cards got us in for free again! We chatted with a woman from Wales we was excited to hear English ☺️

It’s 205 steps to the top. I counted. But the view is gorgeous. Completely breathtaking (Literally. It was so windy!) Our timing was perfect. We got there just a few minutes before 8pm, and saw the Eiffel Tower light up on the hour. What a beautiful skyline. We ate our first macaroon (we bought three at the shop). We admired the view, took photos, and slowly walked down (again, 205 steps!)

The view from the Eiffel Tower is gorgeous, but you get to see the monument itself from the Arc de Triomphe

Next we walked to the Eiffel Tower, which was a little more confusing than we thought it would be. Thankfully it’s something of a straight line from the Arc de Triomphe (the city is divided into segments - sightlines again!). We were able to eventually find it by following its beacon as it came in and out of view over the rooftops. And then, we turned the corner and there it was! Across the river. Thankfully there’s a bridge, and the walk up to it was picturesque. We just stood there for a while, admiring for as long as could. It was close to 9 p.m. when we got there, so we saw it light up again, this time from the bottom. Olivia had already been up before (and is a bit scared of heights…), but waited with me in line as I got ticket (discount young person’s!) The ride up was long and rickety, but obviously better than walking! I called Dad from beneath, and videoed a short message for Mom from the top! (bad reception for Facetiming)

(A French w/ no English wouldn't leave Olivia while she was waiting for me. Yikes! Thankfully he was harmless, and didn’t follow us when we were eventually able to get away. It was the craziest coincidence though, when we got on our bus later that night, he was sitting right at the front! And we even had to walk a bit away from the Eiffel Tower because of construction detours. He stayed on until the stop right after us (we took it almost to the end of the line). Anyway, back to the Eiffel Tower --)

The top floor was closed because of the wind, but the view from the second level was still amazing. I took an elevator up, took photos, had my second macaroon, and admired the view while I waited for 10pm to see the light again. It was so windy and cold, but when the lights finally came on it was so worth it. They flashed all over, like fireflies on steroids. A bit blinding even.

I came down, and after Mr. French Guy we eventually found our bus stop. We even met some Americans on our way, and some Aussies at the bus stop. English-speakers just seem to find each other! Olivia is so right: I’m awesome at small talk (I could make conversation with a rock!)

Thankfully the busride was short, because we were exhausted. Sleep deprivation must make everything comfy better, because the hostel beds seemed amazing. The people were also very friendly, and we had little lockers we would tuck out bags into. We got comfy and fell asleep almost immediately (after running on 4.5 hours of sleep and many cups of coffee, it was not surprise).

At breakfast the next morning we made friends with a man traveling around from Ireland (though not living in Brooklyn) and a young guy our age from New Zealand who’s been traveling for over six years. He’d been working, and then backpacking, on and off - An amazing idea, but truthfully I don’t know if I could do it.

Gotta love good food, coffee, and fun conversation. Hope I can find as good a hostel for future travels ☺️ We took our bags and checked out, and our first stop of the day was to the Palais Garnier, the Old Opera House!

Simply amazing. To be honest, I only originally knew it from the Phantom of the Opera (and mainly from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, at that, though I had seen Kopit and Yeston’s version and started reading Leroux’s book). But it’s opulent and gorgeous in itself; I’d love to see the Palace of Versailles now! The outside wraps all the way around the block, and all the halls on the inside combine amazing artwork and architecture to admire, along with specific planning to show off its patrons and guests as the walk the steps (originally in their opera clothing and fancy dress, now tourists in jeans and ballcaps). We saw the points featured in Phantom of the Opera (like the staircase, chandelier, and Box Five), but the galleries (especially the Grand Foyer) were beautiful in an overwhelming way. Every surface sparkles or reflects light, and the mirrors make it seem endless. I would love to learn more about its history. We had audio guides (and student tickets!) that gave us some background information, and I loved learning about how the Opera House was both a place to see and be seen. For instance, the Grand Staircase was specifically made for people to stand above and look down at other guests, and the steps are situated so the women’s dresses trail elegantly after them. I loved the use of space, the architect, Charles Garnier, planned how people move and exist in the space, and how his influence and planning affected that. Even the red of the auditorium seats, mimicking the red curtains, was so women would appear rosy - Both the people and the place are part of a single piece of art.

I tried to find my way down below to spy the mysterious underground lake, but even with my snooping wasn’t able to find my way, and hurried back upstairs. At least no Opera Ghost found me!

Our last stop of the day and our trip was Notre Dame. Though we didn’t end up going in (the line we had stood in was actually for the towers, and the other one was too long with our bus to catch later!) we still got to admire it from the outside. On the bright side, it’s something I can look forward to seeing, and the Gothic architecture outside is still gorgeous, and very imposing. Talking about “like fire, hellfire.” The eerie charm was presented beautifully in the cloudy sky and spitting rain.

From there it was a bit of a rush to the bus, which we had to walk through a park and then slightly sketchy skatepark for! But we made it fine, and Olivia even had time to grab us sandwiches across the way while I waited to update her on the bus.

The ride back was uneventful, and I’ve been journaling throughout, with an interspersed little sleeping and admiring of the French countryside in between. The bus used the Chunnel this time, which was so much easier than the ferry! It drove into a carriage which took us through in less than thirty minutes. No cider or DDR though, I suppose.

It’s been an amazing 48 hours, and I’ve loved traveling with Olivia - having a friend to share the experience with definitely made the trip more exciting! We’re roommates and have almost all our classes together, so I’m doubly happy we get along so well and have a bunch in common. If we can travel and talk non-stop for 48 hours, and still be friends, that’s a great sign! (If we were going to get sick of eachother, it would have already happened)

Though I didn’t buy any specific souvenirs, I kept all my tickets to clip into this journal, along with a wrapper or two and all my pictures! I can be content with that ☺️ I even learned a little French along the way, so at least I can get by with my manners (perdoname, excuse moi, merci, merci beaucoup)