This weekend I took my first trip out of Strasbourg – the destination: Paris. The weekend started out with a bit of a rough start. Something was wrong with the lignes de grande vitesse (high speed lines), so we had to take the 4.5-hour, “picturesque” route. The train actually stopped for periods of time in the middle of nowhere, so it was definitely an “appreciate-the-convenience-of-the-TGV” trip. I still don’t know what caused the problem, but I am betting that it was some sort of rogue cow who wanted to faire un grève (protest) against something. They gave me an envelope to send in my ticket to receive a compensation for the trip, so it wasn’t all that bad.
Both ways on this trip I’ve taken first class. Now don’t think that I paid a whole lot more for plush seats; they actually were €1 more than second class. What an amazing deal, huh? One of the cool programs for youth they have here in France is the Carte Jeune 12-25. For €49, you get this card that allows you to purchase tickets at 25-60% off of the original value, depending on how early you buy it. With this trip, I bought the tickets two days before the trip at €90, a €70 reduction from the normal €160 price, so the card has already paid for itself.
I arrived in Paris at about 23h00 (11:00 PM) instead of the predicted 21h00 (9:00 PM). Bobbie had been waiting for me at the train station with her beau James for over an hour, and I was really grateful for that. We took the crowded metro to their Cité Universitaire (CTU), which, unlike mine, was actually very nice. In Paris, this CTU is actually a group of “international” buildings where each country has their own building, and normally the students are grouped by nationality, but there are buildings like the Cambodian house, and my friends said they never found a real Cambodian there. Their rooms are absolutely huge (about four of mine) with 15-foot ceilings. I was a little jealous. Their toilets had seats with state-subsidized toilet paper (again, I tried to keep my jealousy from boiling over). The building itself was gorgeous; it even had marble flooring in some places. To top it all off, there were tram and metro stops right by their building. Thanks, Strasbourg CROUS.
Because I arrived the first night, we decided to not do anything except basically catch up that evening. We cooked (as in Brennan, Bobbie, and James cooked as I watched) and joked around. The next morning, we got up and I felt like doing some exploring. We took the metro to the Jardin de Luxembourg (garden) after having a fast lunch at Quick, the French version of McDonald’s (which was actually decent tasting). There were large art installations, so like any self-respecting tourists, we took ridiculous pictures in front of them. As we walked around the beautiful garden, where the chateau now functions as the house for the Sénat (Senate), we found a crazy art exhibit in the Orangerie (this is a odd structure in which orange trees are grown during the winter). There was a hanging container that had mice and a snake in it, tied-up, naked Asian women floating over a Tel Aviv beach, and a 20-foot tall painting on Plexiglas of someone with a menacing sheep mask. The best part was how everyone had brought their children to see it. Thanks a lot, America.
After the Orangerie, we hopped back onto the metro (which still scares me) to go to the more “touristy” part of Paris. We got out right at the Arc de triomphe, which was all together pretty cool except for the fact that it celebrates one of the only victories France got as well as all the people who have died in the other, more-unfortunate-for-France wars. We walked down the Champs Elysées, looking at all of the cool concept car stores and really expensive designer stores (e.g. Chanel, Versace, D&G, Louis Vitton, etc.). It was interesting to note that each of these stores had a doorman – I suppose this is to keep out the fashionably untouchables. We ended up walking almost all the way to the Eiffel Tower, but we decided that we were getting ridiculously hungry. I knew that I was going to return to Paris multiple times, so the tour (tower) could wait.
We felt that it was getting rather chilly, and it was about to rain, so we ducked into an H&M. For those of you who don’t know what H&M is, it’s a clothing store that has an Express look but Old Navy prices. Being as clever and thrifty as I normally am, I decided to save time by just buying a cheap jacket and scarf there instead of going all the way back home. Smart, huh? After the rain stopped, we went to the traditionally Jewish part of the city where everyone (except me) had falafels. I guess I just wasn’t in a Jewish sort of mood.
That night was “La Nuit des Musées” (literally, the night of museums), a biannual (I think) government-funded evening where all the museums in France are free to the public. We decided to take advantage of this and risk throwing up by going to the Centre Pompidou, which is a museum that houses some of the craziest modern art that you’ve ever seen. For example, in one room, there’s this old wheel that continually turns moving chains that are attached to this hanging conglomeration of ugly masks and dirty clothes on the other side of the room, making it spin. In another room, there is a piano and the walls are covered with material that muffles the sound, so all you want to do is play a note. There are also your usual splattered-paint, I-could-have-done-that paintings as well as those without any paint at all.. Another cool room contains “inflatable art”, which is basically a ton of inflatable furniture with sketches of bigger pieces that were made in the past. One of the most sickening things I found was these preservations of birds the artist had killed in what seemed to be resin. There was also a video playing of the female artist doing it in the nude. I don’t understand how seriously you must take yourself to do that, but it’s more serious than I can. We spent about two hours in the museum, twenty of which watching a play of marionettes without words (one of which resembled a Darth Vader grasshopper).
After the museum, we felt that we ought to find a café and then a bar, because, after all, what is a night out on the Parisian town without going out? We stayed out until about 03h00 (3 AM) and took an extremely crowded night bus home.
The next day, Emily and Chelsea wanted to go to the flea market by their house, and having nothing better to do, Brennan and I decided to voyage there into a somewhat less pretty part of Paris. At the flea market, there was about three things for sale: Converse sneakers, sunglasses, and souvenirs – all of which were being sold by Middle Eastern men who tried to hit on the girls. We pretty much guessed that there was some sort of black market that struck it big on a shipment of Converse sneakers because every booth had them, and they were all at the same price. Some of the wonderful things we heard from the shop owners were “Ahr-ee-zo-na… Ahr-a-zo-na… isn’t that in Texas?” I can’t really blame the shopkeepers too much, though; Chelsea and Emily were wearing sweatshirts with “FLORIDA” and “ARIZONA” on them, and we were speaking English, which is a huge sign that we’re tourists.
I had some time to waste before my train back, so Brennan and I went to see Notre Dame de Paris. It’s a lot less ornamental than the Notre Dame in Strasbourg, clearly showing the difference between the more traditional and the flamboyant Gothic architecture. It was very pretty either way. There was a festival going on outside called “Fête des Pains” (party of bread, literally). We didn’t stay too long because there was a basketball game being played with a very annoying announcer speaking in English and French. We wanted to find a café to spend the rest of my time, but because they were all inordinately expensive, we settled on a Starbucks that was off the beaten trail. In it, I met a girl from Oregon State who was traveling throughout Europe and was going to Strasbourg. I gave her a few suggestions as to what to see, and she also talked about how she had gone on spring break to New Orleans to do some community work. Small world, I suppose.
Soon I’ll post some information on my work as well as something on my work as well as what I did on my short day-trip to Colmar. À bientôt!
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