My first day in Paris was a lot of work and a lot of walking. When I came in Monday night after a surprisingly peaceful bus ride from London to Paris, I met Raphael at the train station. He is a French student who spent last semester in Cincinnati at Xavier with me and I learned where my home for the week is (he has also not been home to see his parents yet because of me...he will probably be recoginized by the pope as the first living saint).
We are in the 12th district in a quiant Parisian apartment with plenty of windows and a lot of character. I was finally able to grab a real meal at a brasserie (bar and grill/small cafe) near the apartment and by the time that was all done it was night time. Even though I only spent a week in hostel beds a real bed is a welcome thing.
My first day I knew we were going to do a lot of walking and that Raphael was ready to be a tourist in his own city. So we took off for the day and it was great. First thing I noticed about the city, which I've noitced before is that the cars are all so much smaller here and everyone rides bikes and scooters. It really just seems a lot easier, we should jump on this trend guys. Also this picture below is a row of electric cars that are charging...and, as you can see, people in this country actually use these crazy things...again, America, you should jump on that.
Our walk took us over the Seine River (which is the main river which divides Paris into the left and right bank). Below is the back of Notre Dame Cathedral--I will be having more pictures of Notre Dame in the next post because I'm planning on climbing the tower and going inside again. *Note: for any of you that don't know I have been to Paris before, so if it looks like I'm missing something obvious, I'm doing it on purpose, probably.
Eifle Tour (obviously)
Sacre Cors on Mont Marte
On the same note as sustainability, Raphael told me about a new law that says supermarkets cannot waste any of their food they have to sell it or donate it...I know some of our stores donate to food pantries at home, but I also know just how much food is wasted at these stores. #thankswegmans
Next we checked out one of the coolest things in all of Paris, the Panthenon. I cannot believe I didn't come here last year when I was studying the French state and revolutionaries. I think it may have been under renovation or something. Anyway this was built before the revolution and has gone back and forth as a monument to the state and a church...so its in limbo and its kinda both now.
The crypt is the what I find to be the most amazing part. If you're French- this is what you want to aim for with death. This is where are the cool kids are burried. Important French people (more recently women) are buried here after it has been decided that they will be remembered for doing great things for France.
Here we have Voltaire:And my main squeeze, Jean Jacques Rousseau <3333
Victory Hugo (Les Mis and Hunchback of Notre Dame, we know this)
Leader of the Haitian Revolution (just a memorial he's not actually there, he's probably living it up in Haiti)
Marie Curie --I believe she was the first woman to be buried here:
So being buried here is a pretty big deal, other notables include Braille, as in the man who invented Braille (mom that note is for you) and the man who ended slavery in France (I always thought the French all collectively decided that slavery was bad and so they should stop...but this actually does make sense). So last week four more people were added to this crypt, two men and two women, and they were four of the people who resisted the Nazi Regime during WWII. So there was a really fascinating exhibit to them in the main atrium of the building. It made me proud to be French.* *Note: I am not French.
Had a quick lunch and met up with Raphael's friend Mary who I met last year as well when I studied in Paris. She is very smart and had very interesting things to say, I will probably have to make another post of that because it is pretty late now and I don't feel like typing it all...sorry.
We walked to the Arc de Triumph on the Champs e'Lysees (last time I was here they were cleaning it so it looks great now...I took a selfie to appreciate it properly).
The view from the top though was really something incredible...
panaroma of the city with Sacre Cors on the far left and the Eifle Tower on the far right
Now I am off of the arc. We walked around A LOT. In and out of churches, sorry I didn't take pictures of all of them. But we did go to one church, St. Paul's, I believe, that was invaded during the revolution and the priests inside were martyred (for those of us who don't know one of the *big* themes of the French Revolution of secularization and seperation of church and state. This theme is very much alive today in French culture. One example being the law that says in public spaces you cannot wear anything that shows a religious leaning--in schools Muslim women cannot wear hijabs, Catholics cannot wear crosses around their necks, etc. --in the United States we have freedom of religion, in France it is freedom from religion. super interesting). Anyways, that was a neat church.
This picture was taken on the steps of the church and straight across is what I believe is the National Assembly and behind that to the right is the tomb of Napoleon...he wanted to be remembered. He probably thought he was too good for the Pantheon.
Another beautiful buildling: the Opera house. Raphael said that this is one of his favorites, and if this building was anywhere but Paris it would be much more famous. This picture doesn't do it justice, maybe google it or something. It's huge and beautiful and Napoleon built it.
Lastly, there is a store (its actually like three city blocks big) where if you climb to the top this is the view you get:
Sacre Core again
After that we met up with Raphael's friends, who are going to NYC next week and very very excited to eat at five guys and buy Nike Jordans. And this is why Paris is better than New York.
I should give my feet an award.
No comments:
Post a Comment