Paris

On our first day in Paris we visited Sacré-Coeur and Notre Dame. Sacré-Coeur was situated on a mountain of stairs we climbed to the entrance. There are an infinite number of hustlers selling goods or singing American songs slightly out of key. One of the best schemes is a group of African men who approach you and attempt to braid bracelets or rings to your wrist and fingers. These braids then work as handcuffs because you are attached to the man. They then demand 10€ and while you are arguing with them their colleagues, which are very strategic and professional, gather around you as an intimation technique, while you are also being pick pocketed. Jeremy was in the beginning stages of being braided until Max whisked him away. Once inside Sacré-Coeur, the architecture and art is lovely.

            Notre Dame was our next destination where the impressive domed top of Sacré-Coeur faded into the truly magnificent gothic steeples of Notre Dame. The stained glass inside is as wonderful as the stone statues of holy figures carved into the outside tiers of the church. We spent quite a few euros lighting candles in the enclaves devoted to religious statues. I was devastated to learn that Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, is in fact not based on a real person. In the evening we went on a delicious dinner boat cruise on the Siene River. However, we were unable to actually leave the port due to the river’s high water levels from the snowstorm last week. I bravely tried a French delicacy called foie gras… or duck liver.  It was rich with a very poignant flavor. I don’t think I’ll be trying it again. 

            The next day we were up bright and early to see the Louvre. If you were to spend one minute in front of every piece of art, it would take you nine months to see everything the museum has to offer. Consequently, we only made a dent! We strolled through floors of French and Italian paintings, including the Mona Lisa. Her painting is quite beautiful, but with the crowds that are constantly gathered around her with cameras flashing, I somehow felt disappointed. For some reason it was not what I expected to feel when I saw the painting. In the Italian painting section I took a wrong turn down some stairs and magically ended up on in the African and Asian sculptures, which were full of woodcarvings. My absolute favorite gallery was the one devoted to Egyptian artifacts. It was so cool to walk through three floors and countless rooms of hieroglyphic tablets, pottery, and sarcophaguses. I then put some art on myself with some new earrings from the gift shop (courtesy of Jeremy). We spent the afternoon at the Eiffel Tower. We walked up the steps to the tower’s lower level. It was blistering cold so we warmed in the fifteen-minute line for the toilettes. John proposed to my mom underneath the Eiffel Tower by saying, “we need to talk” in a stern voice while pulling a diamond ring out of his pocket. Linda of course said yes.

            That evening Max ordered a delicious dinner, but I skipped on the fois gras this time. We ate at his apartment to ring in the New Year by watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle at midnight. At about 12:30 we decided to go on an adventure to the crowded Champs-elysés famous boulevard. It was packed with partiers and police.  Annalise, Jeremy and I got separated from Max and Flo. Right under the Arc de Triomphe we got caught in the ruckus of low-scale riots. A group of men went running through the crowd and then they started punching another group of men and then those guys started punching random people in the crowd about fifteen feet from us. The police went running through the crowd in an organized formation, broke-up the fights/everyone scattered. We thought it wise to go home at that point.

            Today Jeremy and I went to the Jardin de Luxembourg. It is a very beautiful park with trees planted in perfectly straight and parallel rows with many statues. There is a pretty spouting fountain right in the middle with lots of walking paths. We had lunch at a quaint café. Jeremy had a croque madame for the third day in a row, I enjoyed toasted bread and goat cheese and we both sipped on café au lait. On our way back to the underground metro station (of which we are now masters), we wandered into a big church called Saint Secuile. I don’t believe it is particularly famous, but the lovely thing about European churches is that are all a few centuries old and consequently beautiful regardless.

Tomorrow morning we leave Paris to head back to Manchester.