The phrase "hot mess" describes most of us pretty well right now, in more ways than one. Funny what dumping poison into our bodies on a daily basis and not sleeping does to a person. Not to mention Bri's mystery spider bite, Tess's bum knee and my swollen stubbed toe. And Steph got sick. And Allie got sunburned.
But the worst thing was that we arrived in Paris in the middle of a freak heatwave. It was over 100 degrees when our train pulled in on Wednesday, and we had to stand around in the sweltering heat while Georgios got our metro tickets. Everyone felt like they were melting. Luckily we had an air conditioned bus to the hotel, but when we got into our rooms, the power went out. By the time they fixed it, we were back out in the heat and on our way to the walking tour of Paris:
Whatever monument that last one is is undergoing restoration, so they put it in a box.
We then took the confusing mess of a metro to the Eiffel Tower area to prepare for our cruise of the river Seine, which was scheduled for 8:00 PM, giving us around 10 minutes for dinner. Most of us ran to a grocery store, but I couldn't find anything that fast, so instead I had to settle for Subway. First night in France and I'm eating fast food.
Finally we get to the boat, only to have the attendant tell us our group was too big for the 8:00, so we had to wait for the 8:30. So once again we had to just sit in the heat and wait. Finally we board for the cruise, and according to Georgios, they were using a different boat than usual, so instead of the nice double decker with plenty of room, we get stuffed into this crowded boat like sardines:
Of course I get stuck in the middle!
I know, I know. I've learned this lesson before. Gotta remember my Indianapolis trip with Emily, gotta remember the Virginia trip to Newport News. This is the nature of travel. Sometimes it's pure bliss, but sometimes, things go totally wrong. Gotta be prepared for that. The trip is still worthwhile.
Plus, we did stop at a French chocolatier, and Georgios bought us all macaroons.
So it wasn't ALL bad.
I essentially just commiserated and drank on the cruise while other people took photos and oohed and aahed at the sights. Most people in our group bought wine at the grocery store, and many of them were willing to share. I drank a warm rosé and some cheap sparkling and waited for the cruise to end, marinating in my own sweat. I took zero pictures.
Finally, once the cruise ended, we were able to go up in the Eiffel Tower, and the Paris stop became a little better. The Eiffel Tower is MASSIVE, by the way. Everyone knows what it looks like, but for me at least, the scale I imagined it being was way off.
Bought the tickets to go up. In line, the security guard tells us we can't bring any glass up there. That was a problem for the many people who still had multiple bottles of unopened wine on them. The guard would not let us leave them and get them on the way back. We had to consume.
So I had to help chug a bunch of warm, cheap wine as fast as possible. Awful.
But going up was pretty great. We reached level two right at dusk, so we got to see the city just as it was lighting up. Speaking of lighting up, the tower suddenly started doing this:
We then got a second ticket for the very top, which was definitely worth it. The view:
Spectacular.
On our way to the bottom, our group got fragmented, so it ended up being just four of us together going back. We successfully figured out the metro lines to get us to the hotel, and we had almost made it...when the trains stopped running. Apparently the cutoff is 1 AM. Write that down.
So, we had to walk the rest of the way. About 30 minutes, so not horrible. And we met up with the rest of our group along the way. Asked a local for directions. Got a little lost. Classic Paris experience.
The next morning, we had a bus tour of the city with a local guide. This was a bad idea. For one, it was very early, and almost everyone had been out late. Second, and more importantly, the guide had a very soothing, monotone voice that literally put all of us to sleep. I'm not kidding. One hundred percent of us were asleep at some point during the more-than-two-hour bus ride.
After the tour, most people had signed up for an optional tour to Versailles, but I had elected not to. This was the third and final of the extra excursions you could sign up for when you booked the trip. I'm sure seeing the palace would have been impressive, but I was more interested in seeing things, you know, in Paris. Eiffel we had checked off the list the previous night. I had two other destinations on my must-see list, and with everyone else headed for Versailles, I had to manage seeing them on my own.
The first was the Louvre museum. On my way, I crossed that one bridge with the love locks on it:
There might be more than one of those bridges. I don't know.
Figured out the metro no problem. Finally got there:
The line to go in through the pyramid was huge, but luckily I had been told about the secret side entrance called the Carousel. No line at all. Got my ticket, got lunch, and got in way before I would have even hit the pyramid if I had waited in that line.
My first stop in the Louvre was obvious. I had to see the Mona Lisa. For most of the exhibits, they have signs pointing you in the right direction that say like, "Greek sculptures" or "Italian paintings", but for the Mona Lisa, they just have a picture of it and an arrow. They know what people are here to see.
Down this hall:
And into the room:
As close as I got:
It is pretty small. And it's not even the most impressive thing in the room. But it's the most famous painting in the world, and we still have it! The actual paint that DaVinci put on the canvas. Pretty cool.
After seeing it, I was free to wander around at my own pace and actually, you know, enjoy the Louvre. Some stuff:
That statue changes depending on the angle you look at it from. Hard to explain. Like, it seems to be going forwards or backwards. Should've gotten another picture.
The hall of naked people:
Babe Ruth:
This ugly thing:
The other iconic statue everyone comes to see, the Venus de Milo:
A sphinx:
Honestly you could spend years photographing everything in the museum. I'll cut it short here. I left through the pyramid:
Next, I boarded the metro again to my next destination: Notre Dame.
There was another massive line to get in, and I almost skipped it, but I'm glad I didn't. Ultimately, I figured that I wouldn't want to leave Paris saying "yeah I could have gone into one of the most famous cathedrals of all time but I didn't want to spend 15 minutes in line." That would be ridiculous.
Inside was spectacular. Definitely beats Frankfurt and Munich:
Did my usual thing that I do in these churches: picked a seat near the front, took it all in. There was an intersting little like, mini-museum around the back behind the chancel that told some of the history of the catheral. Started building it in like 1165. How can anything be that old?
As I left, there was a newlywed couple taking pictures:
Don't think they got married at Notre Dame itself, although holy moley what a venue that would be.
Navigated my way back to the hotel and took a much-needed shower. The aforementioned stubbed toe had appeared by that point, and I'm sure walking around on it for about four hours didn't help it. So I sat myself on the bed and chilled out. Took a short nap. It was wonderful. At 6, I met back up with everyone downstairs to go to our gourmet French dinner. Asked them how Versailles was. Apparently that same droning guide from the bus tour had gone with them, and they said that the palace was cool, but the tour was pure torture. Two people had even gone ahead on their own just to get away.
The gourmet dinner was probably the highlight of Paris. We were there at the same time as another group travelling with the same company, but on a 25 day tour rather than our 16. It was like looking into an alternate reality. What if this had been my tour? What if these had been my friends?
We were the only ones in the place, and we filled it completely. I got french onion soup and chicken in wine sauce, with chocolate mousse for dessert. Tried escargot (it was pretty good!). Wine was brought to the table in pitchers with free refils. Musicians played and sang and got us to sing along. Once again, Chelsey got up and sang, and Georgios danced. It was a fun little callback, a nice reminder of our time in Italy.
It was also a good reminder of that lesson I'd learned many times before: you take the good with the bad. Paris was awful for the first several hours, but it got better, and was still a good experience to have. What if I had given up when it was bad (if that had been an option)? I wouldn't have seen Paris at night from the top of the Eiffel Tower. I wouldn't have seen the Mona Lisa or Notre Dame. And I wouldn't have eaten that delicious meal, singing and getting rowdier by the glass with two tour groups.
It was a worthy trade-off. The cost of the trip isn't only money, but also the time and effort paid to get to those wonderful moments. And it's almost always worth it.
But I will say this: Paris wasn't this dream destination people expect it to be. It's noisy and crowded and touristy, and once you've seen the sights, it really is time to go. You have to be prepared for that, or you will be severely let down. That's the other side of the coin. These experiences are worth it, but you might not think so if you don't have realistic expectations going in. That's essentially what I've found throughout this whole trip.
After the dinner, I took the tram home with a few people and crashed in my bed. Paris wore me completely out. Got up this morning, and hopped on the train again. We're almost done with this thing. One more stop, then it's over. I've had a great time, but I'm honestly ready to return to the states.
I can't imagine how those people on the 25 day tour are surviving, much less the people on the the 35 day one, which is the biggest this company offers. Now that would be a nightmare.
No comments:
Post a Comment