I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Germany, but thought I would take a couple of days to meet an old college friend in Paris before the conference.
I am obviously no world traveler, when I consider it exciting to have taken five planes, four trains, five buses, two metro trains, two different personal cars and a taxi to get around this week and am embarrassed to admit to a sense of relief, when I got behind the wheel of my own car back home.
The flight to Paris was empty, so each of us had three seats to stretch across in and nap. I took a bus into the city itself, so I got to experience a morning traffic jam in Paris. The cars were all smaller, no SUVs or pick-ups, mostly Renaults, Citroen, VW, Peugeots, some BMWs and Mercedes. I saw some amusing things along the way - a couple of life-like cow statues in a grassy berm and a two huge sumo wrestler statues holding up a container - the kind you set on a ship or have hauled by a truck.
We stayed in a quaint old hotel with a winding staircase that was two blocks from the Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomphe), though the area is called l'Étoile. I felt stupid when I was taken in by a scam right off the bus: a guy picks up this big gold ring right in front of my eyes. I kept saying it must belong to someone, he shows me it doesn't fit on his fingers, so it must be my lucky day and keeps pressing it into my hand, but he is hungry, so can I spare some change. I give him 5€ and he wants more. Then I realized it was a scam and figured it was worth the lesson, though I didn't have money to throw around. There were a lot of beggars on the streets of Paris and some in Muenster too. I had to ask what the "S.V.P." on their signs meant – “s'il vous plait”, or please. I do not know any French, and since I had tried to work on my minimal German before the trip, listening to some French language CD’s didn’t help. In the end I didn't get beyond the basic politeness phrases. My friend knew a little French, and most people we encountered knew some English and were helpful. When we asked for directions in the metro, the worker said “bonjour.” We thought she didn’t understand the question and asked again. Again, we got “bonjour.” Ahh… She was teaching us to be polite. Once we said “bonjour,” she pointed out the way.
I am obviously no world traveler, when I consider it exciting to have taken five planes, four trains, five buses, two metro trains, two different personal cars and a taxi to get around this week and am embarrassed to admit to a sense of relief, when I got behind the wheel of my own car back home.
The flight to Paris was empty, so each of us had three seats to stretch across in and nap. I took a bus into the city itself, so I got to experience a morning traffic jam in Paris. The cars were all smaller, no SUVs or pick-ups, mostly Renaults, Citroen, VW, Peugeots, some BMWs and Mercedes. I saw some amusing things along the way - a couple of life-like cow statues in a grassy berm and a two huge sumo wrestler statues holding up a container - the kind you set on a ship or have hauled by a truck.
We stayed in a quaint old hotel with a winding staircase that was two blocks from the Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomphe), though the area is called l'Étoile. I felt stupid when I was taken in by a scam right off the bus: a guy picks up this big gold ring right in front of my eyes. I kept saying it must belong to someone, he shows me it doesn't fit on his fingers, so it must be my lucky day and keeps pressing it into my hand, but he is hungry, so can I spare some change. I give him 5€ and he wants more. Then I realized it was a scam and figured it was worth the lesson, though I didn't have money to throw around. There were a lot of beggars on the streets of Paris and some in Muenster too. I had to ask what the "S.V.P." on their signs meant – “s'il vous plait”, or please. I do not know any French, and since I had tried to work on my minimal German before the trip, listening to some French language CD’s didn’t help. In the end I didn't get beyond the basic politeness phrases. My friend knew a little French, and most people we encountered knew some English and were helpful. When we asked for directions in the metro, the worker said “bonjour.” We thought she didn’t understand the question and asked again. Again, we got “bonjour.” Ahh… She was teaching us to be polite. Once we said “bonjour,” she pointed out the way.
The first day we took a long walk down the Champs Elysees, along a long row of huge old sycamores, trimmed as I have seen in Riga. On through the palace gardens, past the obelisk, and along the octagonal pool, ending up at the Louvre, one of my “must sees” - the outside pyramid, not inside - I feel that needs a much longer visit. We actually could go inside and see the pyramid from below, and look around the museum store. There are actually a few pyramids, and a pool in the center of the old palace buildings. I remember the museum addition was controversial, as architect I.M. Pei can be (we originally hated his art museum at Cornell that looked like a sewing machine to us), but now Parisians are supposedly proud of it and it is one of the main tourist attractions, even a focal point in the Da Vinci Code.
We continued along the banks of the Seine, lined with book stalls selling old books, images, posters. We crossed one of the many bridges over to the island with the Notre Dame cathedral. That is the only thing I had seen in Paris previously (in 1975), so I had no compunction to visit it again. We crossed over into the Latin quarter, where we had lunch in one of the many Parisian cafes. I liked that people would sit outside, and when it gets colder, there are heaters overhead. In the Latin quarter we found the one museum I wanted to see, which had the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. It was a bit confusing, as the museum used to be called Musee de Cluny, but was now the Musee national du Moyen Age (National Medieval Museum.) I walked perfunctorily through the various displays of other tapestries, crosses, statues, etc. (sorry Sue), but when
we got to the room with the unicorn tapestries, they were magical. Years ago I had read The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier, a historical fiction book about how the tapestries were made - the artist and draftsman involved as well as the weaving workshop. Even my often cynical friend was impressed. Unfortunately the booklet that I bought just got into a long academic argument about the meaning of the sixth tapestry. The first five represent the senses. The other cool thing was the building itself. Parts of it date back to the Roman times when it was used for baths. Much of it has been repaired, but left quite raw.
The problem with traveling in November, is that it gets dark soon. We started walking towards the Eiffel tower, thought about taking a bus, but it didn't look that far, so we kept walking. The tower would peek out above some buildings, so it looked like it would be just after the next block, but it kept moving away from us, until suddenly, we were right underneath it. I had no interest to go up in it, but it was impressive to just sit underneath and see how huge it is. We had seen a lot of hawkers of Eiffel tower trinkets, and they were especially aggressive under the tower. We were a bit chilled from the evening rain, so we had some wonderful hot French onion soup for dinner.
The next day we headed to Montmartre by metro. We got out in the middle of a busy street and headed up the hill to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Basilique du Sacre-Coeur). As we walked up the hill, the clouds drifted away, and the white cupola was slowly illuminated by the sun. I lit a candle for my mother, who was originally Catholic and Inta, who is struggling with health issues, and cousin Inese, who recently passed away. The basilica overlooks the city of Paris, though it was hazy. Since this is a tourist attraction, there were various performers around it: a mime in white looked like a religious statue, a street acrobat with a ball, a musician with mike singing old American rock tunes, a harpist, a man creating pandas from pipe cleaners.
We continued along the banks of the Seine, lined with book stalls selling old books, images, posters. We crossed one of the many bridges over to the island with the Notre Dame cathedral. That is the only thing I had seen in Paris previously (in 1975), so I had no compunction to visit it again. We crossed over into the Latin quarter, where we had lunch in one of the many Parisian cafes. I liked that people would sit outside, and when it gets colder, there are heaters overhead. In the Latin quarter we found the one museum I wanted to see, which had the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. It was a bit confusing, as the museum used to be called Musee de Cluny, but was now the Musee national du Moyen Age (National Medieval Museum.) I walked perfunctorily through the various displays of other tapestries, crosses, statues, etc. (sorry Sue), but when
we got to the room with the unicorn tapestries, they were magical. Years ago I had read The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier, a historical fiction book about how the tapestries were made - the artist and draftsman involved as well as the weaving workshop. Even my often cynical friend was impressed. Unfortunately the booklet that I bought just got into a long academic argument about the meaning of the sixth tapestry. The first five represent the senses. The other cool thing was the building itself. Parts of it date back to the Roman times when it was used for baths. Much of it has been repaired, but left quite raw.
The problem with traveling in November, is that it gets dark soon. We started walking towards the Eiffel tower, thought about taking a bus, but it didn't look that far, so we kept walking. The tower would peek out above some buildings, so it looked like it would be just after the next block, but it kept moving away from us, until suddenly, we were right underneath it. I had no interest to go up in it, but it was impressive to just sit underneath and see how huge it is. We had seen a lot of hawkers of Eiffel tower trinkets, and they were especially aggressive under the tower. We were a bit chilled from the evening rain, so we had some wonderful hot French onion soup for dinner.
The next day we headed to Montmartre by metro. We got out in the middle of a busy street and headed up the hill to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Basilique du Sacre-Coeur). As we walked up the hill, the clouds drifted away, and the white cupola was slowly illuminated by the sun. I lit a candle for my mother, who was originally Catholic and Inta, who is struggling with health issues, and cousin Inese, who recently passed away. The basilica overlooks the city of Paris, though it was hazy. Since this is a tourist attraction, there were various performers around it: a mime in white looked like a religious statue, a street acrobat with a ball, a musician with mike singing old American rock tunes, a harpist, a man creating pandas from pipe cleaners.
We walked down a picturesque staircases and steep streets into the red light district on Boulevard de Clichy. Our goal was to see Moulin Rouge, the famous cabaret. We then headed towards two train stations - Gare de l'Est, not far from Gare du Nord, where I had to catch a train to Germany the next day. We found a peaceful garden which ended up along a canal flowing through a lovely quiet neighborhood. We headed down Blvd. De Magenta, which seemed to be lined with stores of fancy gowns and tuxes. Another street was full of jewelry stores. I walked into one and the prices were amazingly cheap, but it turned out that these were all wholesale stores and you couldn't just buy one of something. We decide to see one more site - Centre Pompidou, an interesting building. All the ducts for air, electric, heat, etc. run on the outside of the building in designated colors, the stairs are also on the outside. We were done for the day, and looked for a metro to get back to the hotel. We landed in a Times Square of metro stations with huge crowds of people rushing every which way and ended walking through a maze of corridors, down and up stairs, to get to the right platform. An exhausting, but exhilarating day.
I had to take two trains to Muenster, Germany, switching in Koln. Trains are expensive, but clean and comfortable. I had an assigned seat and a little table in front of me. While waiting for the second train, I could actually see a chart of all the trains with their numbered cars, so I knew which was mine. My assigned seat was next to the handicapped area and the couple with their handicapped child argued that I should not be there. I was concerned about getting out at the right station, but people helped me out.
