Party Like a Parisian (A Birthday in Paris)--- Partie Un

There is just too much to say about Paris in one blog. For this reason, this week's blog will be in two parts. Part Two should be completed Thursday!

Last year as my 22nd birthday approached I remember feeling slightly unexcited by the age of 22. It's one of the first years where nothing monumental occurs. Discussing this in one of my classes a professor, a very wise professor, told me that the year he turned 22 was one of his best years and he thought that the same would hold true for me. I can now say this statement was very prophetic indeed. Year 22 (or if you are being literal my 23rd year of life) was full of excitement, change and I would like to say growth but I probably shouldn't be the only one to judge that statement. For these reasons, I was slightly sad to see this monumental year go but am always excited by a birthday and am looking forward to the age of 23.

 The morning of my 23rd birthday I received a knock on the door and was presented with a cake. So for all of you that asked if I got cake for my Scottish birthday the answer is yes!

 Because my mother is not here I was able to open my gifts in bed, early in the morning and then throw the wrapping paper on the floor. Sorry Mom, clearly I act like a savage when you are not around.

Some of the very lovely gifts I got throughout the day.

The actual day of my birthday I didn't do anything amazingly exciting throughout the day. However, that evening I went out for drinks with friends and it was a fun celebration. While all of this was wonderful, I couldn't help but look more forward to December 1st than November 30th. I'm sure it seems odd that I was willing my birthday to end more quickly so that the first could arrive. I believe this makes more sense when I say that on December 1st I was going to Paris! Yes, finally all my wildest dreams were coming true, I was going to Paris to celebrate my birthday. I have always wanted to go to Paris. In fact, I still suffer from flashbacks of the war in which my parents forced me to take Spanish over French. Each time I had come to Europe I was thrilled with the places I was visiting but longed more and more to visit Paris. When I was accepted at the University of Glasgow I decided to dream big and dream of spending my birthday in the city of lights. Well thanks to some cheap Ryanair tickets that dream came to fruition.

After an assignment was turned in and a bag packed my travel companion and I were ready to jet off to gay ole Paris. After a brief flight in which the flight attendents tried to sell us everything under the sun (If you would like scratch off tickets, perfume, aftershave, water, hot food, books, magazines, zebras, spoons, houses, giraffes or the ocean fly Ryanair) we touched down in Paris! Oh wait, not Paris, Beauvais. The passengers of our flight merged into two lines "UK/EU Passeports" "Tous Passeports." This actually worked very nicely in my favor seeing as I was the only passenger on the flight without an EU passport. If some of you are confused because you believed my travel companion is from South Africa you are correct but someone's mother is from the UK so therefore he is the proud owner of not only one but two passports. All alone I made my way to the "Tous Passeport" line and handed over my little blue passport. Passport lines always make me nervous. I have visions of my passport being denied and being stuck in the airport for the rest of my life. Since I am writing this blog you can tell I did not get trapped in the airport for life. Instead my passport was examined, stamped and handed back through the window. I retrieved my passport murmering "Merci" to which the passport lady smiled and said the same. I was ecstatic, I had this French language thing handled! My French was beautiful, marvelous and incredible. Pretty sure no one had ever said "Merci" as beautifully as I had just had. After collecting our bags we jumped in line to purchase bus tickets. As great as Beauvais was, I was really ready to get into the actual city of Paris. As we stood in line, Richard startedto worry a bit about our French language abilities. Please ever doubting travel companion, you obviously did not just hear my usage of "Merci" we will be fine! As we approached the window and leaned towards the glass. The Frenchman behind the glass said "Bonjour" and in return I said "Bonjour" (Excellent! Such a good start!). The Frenchman then proceeded to say something that sounded exactly like this "laieoajlkadjf lkajfoiejafad lkajfoieja ncm,mae zmdkea mzotal kea." The look that washed over both Richard and I's face must have said something along the lines of "We are terrified and have absolutely no idea what you are saying and we just want bus tickets please help us." The very nice Frenchman then produced two bus tickets and as I took them I blurted out "Merci!" (At least I still had that!).

The bus ride took an hour and a half. An hour and a half in which I was plastered to the windows looking for any sign of Paris. After an hour we got into the actual city and well things were beginning to look a lot like Paris. However, there was still no sign of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, Champs De Elysee or poodles. We were dropped off and managed to quickly find a taxi to take us to Montmartre, the location of our hotel. As our taxi whisked around a round-about I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed Richard's leg in total excitement "LOOK!" and pointed off to what was no longer there. This of course excited Richard "What is it?!" But, now we had to wait. The car that had whisked about two seconds ago now seemed to slowly drag us around the rest of the round-about until we approached the straight-away of the road once more. And, as we did our eyes were drawn upward and the Arc De Triomphe towered above us. I have heard the argument that due to increasing technology people do not need to travel as much. It is argued that you can see in great detail all the marvelous sights of the World from the comfort of your home. There are a few moments in my life that tear this argument to shreds and seeing the Arc De Triomphe was one of these moments. The Arc is exquisitely detailed and massively impressive. It also is so quintessentially French that when you see it the realization that you are actually in Paris washes over you. While it is a small moment seeing the Arc De Triomphe for the first time is one of my favorite moments of my Paris adventure.

As we arrived in the hotel we were greeted by an extremely friendly hotel staff. The staff at our hotel was incredibly generous and helpful throughout our stay, certainly putting to rest the stereotypical behavior of the French to English speakers. Having heard much about French hotels I was prepared for just about anything as the door to our room swung open. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by our hotel. Our room was an impressive size and had it's own bathroom. The best part of our room were the large windows overlooking the street below.

The Boucherie across the street from the hotel window. It was fun to watch the store being prepped for the day each morning.

After dropping our bags off in the hotel we left immediately to explore. This was Paris, there was no time to lay about in a hotel room! But, most of all we needed food, both of us hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now after five. We wandered the streets of Montmartre working towards Sacre Coeur and stopped in an outdoor cafe to have dinner. Much of the cafes in Paris are situated outside. During the winter large plastic curtains are drapped over the outdoor seating areas so dinners can still dine outdoors but not freeze. As we were enjoying dinner and a bottle of wine, Richard very nonchantly states "oh Kate look by your foot a mouse." Amazingly enough, I did not have a heartattack and once I discovered that the mouse was not actually on my foot and was very small I was able to enjoy the fact that we met Ratatouille on the trip. After dinner there was of course more wandering of the streets. We hiked up the back hills to Sacre Coeur and were awarded with amazing views of the city and our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.
Finally, we headed back to the hotel to create a schedule for the following day.

We had two days in Paris we took trip planning incredibly seriously. This consisted of using a metro map, a museum map and a phone.

Friday, we woke up early and had a very continental breakfast of baquettes, croissants and cafe au lait. It was then time to go to the Louvre. Richard, fortunately, was impressively deft metro navigator and using the metro we arrived at the Louvre. And, neither of us got stuck in the doors which we actually saw happen to some poor man. Getting to the Louvre early certainly had its benefits. We entered through the back and were alone while walking through the courtyards of the Louvre. It was peaceful, quiet and beautiful, a treat to travelling during the off-season.

This quiet, peacefulness did not last too long.Even though it's December, Paris is still alive with tourists. We purchased our tickets and decided to try and beat the crowds to the Mona Lisa. The Louvre, is not surprisingly, extremely impressive. I always have a fascination with how art is displayed at museums, it makes a great difference in the overall museum experience. The Louvre has some excellent displays but the most impressive is that of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The statue slowly comes into view as you walk down an elaborate hallway. Perched at the top of a staircase the Winged Victory can be seen at a great distance and is breathtaking.

As the Mona Lisa was approached the number of tourists began to grow. The Mona Lisa is the most visited attraction at the Louvre  and people take it pretty seriously. Richard and I have a very unfair hatred (that is probably a strong word, I should say strong dislike) and that strong displeasure is placed upon tourists. Being tourists ourselves we realize this is slightly ridiculous but there are reasons! To get to the Mona Lisa a visitor to the Louvre travels through the Italian Painting hallway. The Mona Lisa is housed in a room off the corridor. It is very easy to tell which room she is housed in due to the insane amount of people in that room. As we entered the room we were greeted by Mona Lisa completely covered in bulletproof glass and watched over by two armed guards and an absolute mob of tourists. It is at this point that Richard looks at me and says "There is no way I am dealing with this" and wanders off to some military painting as I decide to take on the tourists. Using my purse and camera I push my way to the front to share a few moments with Da Vinci's most famous painting and 60 other tourists snapping pictures on their iphones.

 The Italian Painting Hallway

              The Mob of Tourists! And, yes, I realize this actually is not bad in the summer it's much worse.

The Lady of the Hour or really the last few centuries.

After seeing Mona Lisa it was time to see Venus De Milo. It was at this point my frustration with other museum goers began to increase at a rapid rate. Venus De Milo is located in the statuary of the Louvre. The statuary is beautiful and is apparently a great place to pose with statues for multiple pictures. Fortunately, Richard was able to slightly diffuse my anger as I saw a particular tourist not only put their hand on a statue to take a picture but lean their entire body weight into said statue as they put their hands all over it to get a good snap for their facebook profile picture. As I said, Richard quickly lead us away from the crazy tourists to a quiet part of the Louvre where we could wander about enjoying art peacefully. This was wonderful until I saw the only other person in the gallery take a picture to look like they were pinching a particular part of a statue's anatomy. The following pictures document my struggles with photographing the Venus De Milo due to the large amounts of people posing with her.

Success!



We had wandered through miles of artistic displays and decided it was time to do some gift-shopping. I do love a good giftshop. In case you are ever sitting around thinking "you know, I could really use an umbrella with Mona Lisa's face on it" or "hmmm I sure do wish I had a Venus De Milo lighter" then just head over to the Louvre giftshop. You can get just about anything with the famous paintings of the Louvre splashed across it. And, in the ever modernized Louvre you can now purchase a cup of coffee from Starbucks or an Ipod from the Apple Store. While the starbucks was tempting we left the Louvre to dig up some more authentic French food for lunch. We found yet another cafe and had an excellent lunch of toasted sandwiches. I have always been a fan of Croque Monsieurs and was more than happy to taste my first true French Croque Monsieur. As I bit into the first delicious bite I blurted out "this is the best Croque Monsieur I've ever had! " Richard, ever practical, responded with "well, it is the first time you are having the real thing." True, and fortunately it lived up to expectations.

The most delicious sandwich in the World mustered up enough strength to continue our journey down the Seine to our next point of interest, Notre Dame. My faith in tourists was partially restored at the cathedral. The entrance had large signs asking all visitors to remain quiet and respectful. Throughout our passage through the cathdral these requests were upheld and it made the overall feel of Notre Dame very sacred. Following the cathedral we headed down the steps in Notre Dame's square to the crypts. Historically, the crypts are interesting and if you can get in for free ,like I did ,they are worth going to. However, if you are over 25 they aren't free and if you are on a tight schedule it might be best to just move onto something else.

 The walk to Notre Dame

 Mopeds not just a stereotype... they are everywhere!

 Just in case we were missing Scotland a little too much!

 The Crypts... The original foundations of the city.

It was time to once again test our luck with the Metro and head off to the Rodin Museum. Once again Navigator Extraordinare did a fantastic job and we arrived at the Rodin Museum quickly and without getting lost. I rarely have travel tips that I believe are truly vital but the following is worth paying attention to. If you ever find yourself in Paris and want to go see Rodin's work I would highly reccomend it. However,  only purchase tickets to the Rodin Gardens. The ticket to the garden will cost you one euro and you will be able to see nearly all of Rodin's work. The museum cost about six euros and is disappointing after the gardens. If you do not pay to go into the museum you will not get to see "The Kiss" but you will get to see "The Thinker" "The Three Shades" and "The Gates of Hell" in the garden. The Rodin Gardens was certainly a high light of the trip. The gardens were quiet with only a few people wandering through the statues. The gardens themselves were beautiful and peaceful. It was a nice getaway inside the bustling city streets.

Following a visit with Rodin it was time for the biggest Paris moment of them all. Yes, it was time to walk to the Eiffel tower. We decided it was best to walk. I will repeat what I have said over and over in this blog, walking is the best way to take in the sights and to understand a place a bit better. Now, I was looking forward to the Eiffel Tower but the tower is so overdone. I thought there was just no way it could possibly live up to the hype. However, as the roads curved and we were approached the Eiffel Tower I began to understand why it is so overdone, why it is so iconic and why so many tourists flock to see it each year. It is really beautiful and the closer you get to the structure the more you are able to see just how architectually magnificent it is. We were so fortunate that the weather was absolutely beautiful the day we wandered around Paris. The sun was shining and there was no rain or snow and for December it was relatively warm. The warm weather brought many Parisians to the park and it was very entertaining to people watch on our journey to the tower.

Some Observations:

1. There is a dog park under the Eiffel Tower. It is not just a stereotype that many Parisians have small fluffy dogs. These dogs also wear sweaters. The dog in the sweater always managed to beat out the unsweatered dogs in the ball chase. Despite his sweater, he was tough.

2. Paris is not called the City of Love for laughs. People take this extremely seriously. In fact, in the Louvre you could buy a book entitled "The Best Places to Kiss in Paris." Lots of people were trying these places out and let's just say they did not take kiss to mean a small, friendly peck.

3. The lines for the Eiffel tower were extremely long even in the winter.I honestly can't imagine coming to Paris in the Spring or Summer.

Sometimes I am a forgetful person. Living up to this statement, I forgot to charge my camera until the morning of the Paris trip. For this reason, my camera was not completely charged. Richard's camera has the battery life of a guppy you win at a school carnival (about four hours). For these reasons, by the time we arrived at the Eiffel tower both of our cameras were dying. My camera has a lovely trait in which the battery runs out but not completely, however, the camera wants you to believe the battery is dead. When this happens it becomes necessary to remove the battery, blow on the battery, let the battery relax for a minute and then quickly take a series of photos before repeating the previously listed steps. Richard would like to believe that his camera is the same way ... but it is not. When his camera's battery dies it is dead. But crossing fingers (or holding thumbs) he hopes that it will magically spring back to life. Because of this, he will turn on his camera, eagerly awaiting to take a picture, then his camera will let out a scream of death after which the camera owner lets out a similiar moan of disgust and is severely let down by the camera that is still dead. We approached the Eiffel Tower blowing on batteries and handling a screaming camera. Despite this, we managed to take a picture or two.

Party like a Parisian (A Birthday in Paris) Part Two will feature: A walk down the Seine, shopping the Paris Christmas Markets, a stroll down the Champs Elysee, A climb to the top of the Arc De Triomphe, a romantic meal of very foreign food on the Champs Elysee, two completely exhausted tourists, a trip to Versailles and a mad rush to a plane.