Paris

After a short train ride we arrived in Paris, armed with directions to get to the station where our couchsurfing host would pick us up. Unfortunately, our host forgot to include the minor (actually major) detail that there are two trains with the same name as the one she told us to take…one of the trains goes to the station we needed and one (of course, the one we took) splits off to another track right before the station we needed. So, as we were riding the train, expecting our stop to be next we were terrified to arrive at a completely different station. We immediately realized what happened and hopped off the train to figure out our next move before heading any further in the wrong direction. We couldn’t figure out how to get back to the station that we needed and weren’t able to get in touch with our couchsurfing host. We tried to ask for some help with our minimal French but unfortunately were unable to find anyone who could speak any English to help us. Finally we were able to find a man who worked at the station who knew another man that worked there that spoke English. The man was able to get in touch with our host and explain our situation to her. At this point it was getting to be pretty late at night and Drew and I were feeling horrible that we were being such an inconvenience to our host. The man at the station helped explain to us how to get back on the train in the opposite direction to get back to the station we needed. We were about to get back on the train when we, thankfully, decided to try to get in touch with our host ourselves. We called and her boyfriend answered the phone as our host was driving on her way to pick us up at the station…we would have really felt awful if they had shown up at the station only to have us not be there! Isabelle (our host) and her boyfriend picked us up, brought us back to the house and introduced us to their roommates. Their roommates were incredibly friendly and wanted to hear all about our travels. We talked for a while and then, being late, we all headed off to bed.

The next day we woke up bright and early so we could get a full day of exploring Paris. We headed first to the Louvre where the lines weren’t nearly as long as we had expected. We saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well as many other amazing pieces of art. The museum is absolutely huge and you could easily spend an entire day exploring it. We spent our entire morning there and by the time we left we had probably only seen about a quarter of its collection. After the Louvre we headed to Notre Dame to try to find Quasimodo. Before we actually went into the cathedral we made some lunch outside on a park bench and spent some time people watching while enjoying our lunch. It was at this time that we came into contact with one of the most annoying aspects of Paris: its beggars. We were approached by a young woman who asked if we spoke English, upon answering yes she proceeded to open up a postcard she was holding. On the postcard it was written that she was a Kurdish refugee who was living in Paris with her mother and brother. Her brother had leukemia and she wanted some money. We told her no but she was extremely persistent and begged us for money. We finally got her to leave us alone and we looked around and realized there was a whole swarm of them. They were all dressed similarly (like stereotypical refugees) and all had postcards…amazingly they all spoke very good English as well! Every tourist attraction and train station that we went to following Notre Dame we would find a swarm of beggars with their postcards so we got pretty good at saying that we didn’t speak English and just avoiding them altogether! It was extremely frustrating to me as I can only imagine that there are plenty of people in Paris who are in genuine need of help…I have never seen such an organized, widespread begging operation in any other place I have ever visited! Anyway, back to Notre Dame…the cathedral was absolutely amazing inside. I think Drew finally understood why I enjoy churches so much…I am always in awe of how much work and beauty has gone into these older churches.

From the Notre Dame we headed off to Arc de Triomphe which was much larger than I could have ever imagined. Standing at the Arc, in the middle of a five lane roundabout I couldn’t help but laugh just thinking of National Lampoon’s European Vacation and just driving round and round…I don’t know how anyone can navigate that roundabout! After the Arc we headed off to Paris’ most famous tourist attraction…the Eiffel Tower! The one thing that Drew really wanted to do and always mentioned when we were planning this trip was to climb the Eiffel Tower so, being the windiest day ever we decided we’d give it a shot! You’re only allowed to climb to the second viewing platform (668 steps) and then, if you want to continue to the top, you have to take an elevator. As thrilling as the climb was I was definitely glad that you weren’t allowed to hike up past the second viewing platform because, being exposed to the open wind at any point higher than that probably would have blown us straight off! So we took the elevator all the way to the top and had some great views of the city. The viewing platform at the top is completely enclosed in an open cage thing so you can’t be blown off. Nonetheless it was scary walking around the top because there was one side completely blocked from the wind so it was completely still and calm but as you walked around to the other side you walked straight into a brick wall of wind…you literally had to lean forward with most of your body weight just to keep walking. We eventually made it back to the bottom and continued on our way! We’d had a pretty full day so we didn’t stay in the city centre much longer before heading back to our host’s house. Unfortunately Isabelle still hadn’t explained the two different trains to us so we took the wrong one again which made our journey back much longer than we had anticipated.

On our second day in Paris we spent the morning at Versailles Palace, considered to be one of the grandest palaces in the entire world. The detail inside of the palace was amazing and again, like the Louvre, you could easily spend an entire day there. Every single room that you went in was elaborately decorated…it never ceases to amaze me that people actually live in such grandeur. Drew and I’s favorite room was the hall of mirrors which is an incredibly long hall with mirrored walls and tons of crystal chandeliers. It is so incredibly regal and amazing. After Versailles we headed back into Paris to see some more of its sites. I really wanted to see Moulin Rouge (really just to get a picture) and we spent most of the afternoon looking for it. While trying to find it we stumbled upon an absolutely beautiful basilica and, on our way up to it, we were hounded by some of Paris’ wonderful street salesmen. Basically what these salesmen do is give you something (in this case they were giving out string bracelets) and then, once you take it, tell you have to pay for it. You find them in a lot of big cities so Drew and I knew what they were up to and just walked through the bunch of them, ignoring their offers of bracelets. However, being Paris where everyone seems to be an aggressive capitalist, one of them grabbed me by the hand and refused to let go. He told me that he really liked Americans and really wanted me to take the bracelet. I kept telling him no thanks, I really wasn’t interested, etc., etc. but he absolutely would not let go! Drew finally had to grab my other hand and begin pulling me in the opposite direction. I was yanked back and forth between the two until Drew succeeded in pulling me away. We made our way up to the basilica and were able to get a really great view of the city through the smog. We made our way back down the hill and finally found Moulin Rouge, got our pictures and continued on our way. We then headed to the Pantheon and then spent some time wandering around and waited for it to get dark so that we could see the Eiffel tower at night. We found the second, smaller, Statue of Liberty that France kept for itself after giving the larger one to the United States. Seeing the Eiffel tower at night was really neat. It is all lit up and looks really cool!

Our last day in Paris was really just a half day because we were leaving in the early afternoon. We headed to the train station we were leaving from first thing in the morning, dropped off our suitcases and tried to avoid drawing attention to ourselves because the station was full of guards carrying huge semi-automatic rifles. We did some more wandering around the city trying to find the entrance to the catacombs. Unfortunately, we were never able to find it so we weren’t able to see the catacombs. We headed back to the train station and, fortunately, got there early because it took us at least a half hour to get through customs. We had to sit off to the side and got questioned about exactly what we were doing in the United Kingdom and why we were there so long. The customs man had to call Patty, my supervisor at the program, to ensure that I was legit and, after she vouched for me, we were able to get through and board our train about five minutes before it left the station.

One of the most rewarding parts of our stay in Paris was our couchsurfing experience. In particular, two roommates of our hosts were so friendly and felt more like our hosts than our actual hosts. Drew and I have really enjoyed couchsurfing so far because it provides you with an extra insight into the culture you are experiencing. We were both greeted with kisses on the cheeks and, I have to admit, it really caught me off guard when we first met our hosts because it is so different from anything we would normally experience but by the end of our stay it was natural and comfortable and I enjoyed being able to experience these small mannerisms of French culture. It was also helpful to have people readily available to help us with our French pronunciations and explain things that we had seen throughout the day. It was also nice to be able to chat and learn more about French culture. These two particular roommates were both not from Paris (and actually the place we were staying was Ris Orangis…a half hour to hour train ride outside of Paris) and had pretty strong opinions concerning Parisians. After our first day out exploring they asked us if we had had any problems with the rude Parisians. We answered that we hadn’t and they were relieved because they felt that many Parisians are rude and think they are better than everyone else. I thought this was very interesting because it is, unfortunately, a stereotype that you often hear applied to the entire country of France. Our hosts (actually, the two roommates of the hosts) wanted to cook a traditional French dinner for us and take us out on Friday night to meet some of their friends and experience the Parisian nightlife…unfortunately, we were leaving Paris on Friday afternoon so we weren’t able to spend this extra time with them but they welcomed us back whenever we get the chance so we just might have to take them up on their offer!