Paris or Bust (Weekend 3)

It’s hard to say for sure whether or not Paris is truly the city of love. Things like that tend to be a little distorted when traveling with a group of ten or so people. I can almost guarantee the atmosphere would have been much more romantic if I was alone in the city with my girlfriend. This particular introduction to Paris, on the other hand, was much more touristy…which can also be good. We certainly hit all the major sites and were going at it pretty hard. By the end of the weekend, the one word I would use to describe myself was exhausted. This city deserves so much more time than the modest weekend I could give it, but I’m so glad I got this chance to see the city that has inspired so many strong feelings.

The weekend started off with a bang. My group had scheduled a train less than ten minutes after an official program tour ended. We literally had to sprint to the bus to make it in time. I’m sure we made a pretty big scene running through the driveway of a famous castle with our luggage in tow and generally looking insane. The best part was that this wasn’t even the wildest thing that happened on the way to Paris. Due to some late scheduling and trouble with our Eurail pass and French railways, we had to take a total of six different trains to reach the city. Needless to say, it was a slightly stressful, but incredibly exciting, trip. Highlights definitely included getting popsicles from the cranky train security lady, wandering around for twenty minutes looking for the platform for a connecting train before realizing that we had walked in a complete circle and hadn’t needed to change platforms at all, and meeting a duo of Norwegians who were VERY social. The Norwegians were around our age and happened to be going to Paris as well. We rode with them for the last three trains, and they made the ride much more enjoyable. Plus, my whole group made two more Facebook friends out of the journey. Two Facebook friends are worth six different trains, right?

Eventually we made it to Paris, and the first thing on everyone’s mind was visiting the Eiffel Tower. The massive steel structure dominated the entire area around it and completely dwarfed even the tallest buildings. In fact, the only thing that could compare in size to the tower itself was the line to get up to the top. After a quick look over the Eiffel from below, we decided to come back the next morning and wait in line before it opened to make sure we got a chance to get to the top. Believe me, it was well worth the trouble. The view from the top was unbelievable and truly breath-taking. You could see just about every facet of the city, and I was so glad I got to experience it. For Drew and his fear of heights, the top of the tower might have taken his breath away in a totally different kind of way. The perfect follow up to this massive monument was something a bit more quaint. We found a group of street painters on the top of a hill near the center of the city. We apparently all decided that they deserved our money because I don’t think a single person left empty handed. For me, it was the first of many souvenirs.

A trip to Paris wouldn’t be complete without a visit of the Louvre, and I wasn’t about to miss my opportunity. When we got there, it was immediately obvious that this was the best museum I had ever been to (and possibly the best in the world). Even the entrance was a work of art. The mixing of the modern glass pyramids with the buildings which I’m sure were hundreds of years old gave the entire area a nice contrast of themes. The pyramids also gave me a nice opportunity for some fun perspective picture opportunities. When I got inside, I realized just how huge this place was. To fully explore the museum and appreciate it would take weeks of time. Sadly, I didn’t have weeks and ended up rushing through most of the exhibits. Regardless, I saw a LOT of art in that time. Ancient statues close enough to touch (though you weren’t technically supposed to) and massive wall-sized painting were the norm in the museum, and everything just seemed within such easy reach.

There was one exception to this rule. The Mona Lisa was housed in a bulletproof glass case, constantly watched by two men, barricaded with a wooden, semi-circular barrier and blocked by a small army of tourists all trying to get a glimpse of it. I miraculously got to the front of the crowd eventually and was rather disappointed to see a painting that was actually very modest and unimpressive. The expression of the face was certainly interesting, but it didn’t seem to compare with the huge forty foot canvases of epic scenes which had been in all the other rooms. I suppose I just don’t understand art. I was much more impressed by the Venus de Milo statue as well as Winged Victory, both of which had almost zero crowd around them and no special security. The Louvre was one of the last things I did on my weekend Paris trip, and it was just about as good an ending as anyone could hope for. My only regret is that I wish I had more time. Much like my experience with the Louvre, I felt like I didn’t give the city itself its fair share of my time. This was definitely a city that would take months or years to fully appreciate…perhaps with a girlfriend to share the experience with and decide for certain whether Paris really is the city of love.