Paris part trois

Where did I leave off.... right the 200 lb man sleeping above me. Well, everything is ok, because I am here writing this blog, but it was a little disheartening. Day 3 was our final day in Paris, and it was a little sad. I had (and still am) gotten used to using the Metro system, and being able to go from one end of the city to the other in a matter of minutes. Not to mention, the exceptional organization and efficiency of the system. I would also miss the simple pleasures of having historical monuments at your finger tips.

But, it wasn't over yet, let me explain my last day in Paris...

So, we got ourselves ready and stored our gear in the 'storage room' which was just a room behind the kitchen. It's a good thing I had a lock for my bag, I felt a bit safer leaving my stuff there. Afterwards, we had our last baguette and croissant breakfast, and then headed out to the city. Firstly, we went to the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery \9http://www.pere-lachaise.com/perelachaise.php?lang=en),housing the likes of James 'Jim' Morrison, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust,Oscar Wilde, to name a few. Quite the 'A-list' of celebrities gracing one of Paris's oldest cemeteries. It really was amazing though, the tree lined lanes, and old tomb stones, and people paying their respects. In October of last year I watched a film at the Vancouver International Film Festival which was directed my a Dutch women, based on the cemetery. The idea was to uncover why people went to the cemetery. Many of the people there were older women taking care of their loved ones graves, going on a consistent bases, bringing water to clean the grave, brooms to sweep debris, and flowers to adorn it. Other people were paying respects to some of the greatest individuals of history. The film inspired me to see the cemetery. I am incredibly happy I went there, I tried to break down that Western fear of death, difficult at best, but necessary because I feel that we are so afraid of death. But, enough about this it is a difficult subject but one that felt compelled to explore. I did see Oscar Wilde's grave and I kissed it, it's a unspoken tradition to kiss the grave, and after what seemed hours of searching we found James Morrison's grave, fenced off to fend off people from fornicating and doing drugs on his grave. One weird thing though, when I was leaving the cemetery, a pigeon fell from the sky (what it looked like, probably a tree) but it was convulsing and then died. Kind of weird. Also, it's head seemed to be decapitated. I was so afraid for like 2 hours, I thought it was an omen. Everything seemed ok though.

Afterwards, we headed over to Versailles to see the Chateau Versailles home of the infamous Louis the 14th and Marie-Antoinette. It took a while to get there, with the train lines being incredibly confusing to get to- the case for suburban trains, not to mention the underground network of tunnels that you have to walk through to get to the 'other' trains. Despite my best efforts, we ended up on train C which I was told to avoid in my guide book, it is the SLOWEST train in Paris. What should have taken 45 min tops took about 1 hour and a half. But, we arrived in one piece, getting a lovely view of the industrial and then the fields of Paris.We had to walk about 20 min to get to the Chateau but it was worth it. A sprawling view, the chateau is immense, something I would highly recommend one to see for themselves. It was breathtaking the closer you got. It was also incredibly busy, people were everywhere, queues for hundreds of meters. Unfortunately, this meant we couldn't go inside because the line was outrageous, so huge. But, we did get to go into the garden which was stunning. We had fabulous sunny, warm weather. Walking into the garden felt like you time warped backwards to the days of French court. They had classical music playing, and people were milling about, it was so cool. We took loads of photos and then sat to take in the view. My favourite spot was the terrace looking over into the orange orchid and then on to the man-made lake. It was such a manicured spectacular view. We walked around and saw statues of gods and goddesses. I think in the end the money spent on Versailles was worth it, the view and the constructions were phenomenal, and it instigated the revolution which created the French Republic and Freedom for the French. So, in retrospect, it paid off. All that greed and materialistic spending. After we scoped out the garden we peeked through the windows to the inside quarters, but stopped shortly after because of the fierce looks we were getting from the people pissed that they didn't think to do what were doing, and who instead spent a fortune getting inside, and hours standing in line. I don't blame them. So, we toodled off to the book/gift shop. I got a guide to Versailles, which gives me the historical background, and images of the inside. Pretty exhausted from the walking we hobbled our way back to the train station, hoping to catch the train in time because on Sundays half the trains run, compared to every other day of the week. We made it though, and the fast train.

When we arrived back in Paris, we decided to head over to the Eiffel Tower to catch a river cruise on the Seine. It was free with our Paris tour cards, however, the card expired on Saturday, so we had to fudge it a bit.... It worked though, we were able to get on the cruise and sit back and enjoy our last hours in Paris. It really was the perfect end to our visit. We got to take the cruise at dusk, so the sun setting against all the buildings and monuments was an amazing view. We also got to see the major monuments and buildings again, but from the water which was a very unique view. When the cruise ended we headed back to the hostel to grab some dinner near -by and head over to the bus station to go back home. My last meal in Paris was a Marilyn crepe- dark chocolate melted, with pear and ice cream. Fabulous. I gained a new found love for pears, they have such a unique taste when paired in combo with something else.

Our ride home was ok, except for the ridiculously rude bus driver who made us wait for 30 minutes well he went inside and did who knows what.... we made it home on time though, which was the most important thing. Exhausted but happy we made it back to our humble abode and slept for hours.

That was Paris, and I would go back in a heart beat. It is my favourite city, in my growing repertoire of cities experienced. I could live there, it's that amazing.

Paris part deux

Day 2:

We managed to wake up at 8 to get ourselves showered and Parisian for another day in the city. The hostel 'kitchen/dining area' was packed and getting food was tough. But, half a bagette and a croissant,with some stiff coffee and I was good to go.
Our first stop was the Catacombs.... woooooo scary. It actually was. Brief history lesson (don't hate because it is from Wikipedia) -->

"The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are a famous underground ossuary in Paris, France. Organized in a renovated section of the city's vast network of subterranean tunnels and caverns towards the end of the 18th century, it became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1867. The official name for the catacombs is l'Ossuaire Municipal.

This cemetery covers a portion of Paris's former mines near the Left Bank's Place Denfert-Rochereau, in a location that was just outside the city gates before Paris expanded in 1860. Although this cemetery covers only a small section of underground tunnels comprising "les carrières de Paris" ("the quarries of Paris"), Parisians today popularly refer to the entire network as "the catacombs". (End quote).

You have to go down a spiral set of staris for about 250-300 metres, it is also quite narrow so if you are clastroophobic your troubles are only beginning. There were names scarwled along the walls heading down... Finally, we got to the bottom and it opened up into a low ceilinged room with paintings and historical facts (all in French of course). There was an English tour happening but we decided to skip it because he was too 'fun and games'. It takes quite a bit of tunnelling to get to the actual catacombs, but these tunnels were enough to creep you out. And, then we turned the corner... and it started... the rows and rows stacked at least 5 feet and even 6 feet high. Mostly, legs bones, skulls,and arms bones. Freaky stuff. We were down there for about an hour and you just walk along these paths stacked with bones, there were also some tombstones and inscriptions. Nonetheless, I didn't freak out from the lack of space, or get all sketched out from the potential horror movie scripts running through my head. When we climbed back up from the the depths we were faced with these three guys, in a room that connected to a back alley. They were the 'bone collectors' (hahaha) their job was to make sure you didn't steal centuries old bones as a little souvenir. After our inspection we were free to go. We walked around the neighbourhood for a bit, scoping out the cute Parisian stores, and relishing the lack of tourists.

We made our way to the Metro and headed to the Jardin de Luxembourg, what a beautiful garden. I could sit there for hours reading or just people watching (a favourite French past time). The most popular thing to do is to buy a bagette, either pre-made or to make yourself, wine or coffee and head down to the garden. I loved it so much. We did it backwards, we went to the garden sat, enjoyed and then left, found a wicked sandwich shop and then headed over to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was a Christian basilica, now it is a temple of the nation (so eloquently put), it also houses a crypt with some of the most famous French people, such tombs include-Voltaire and Rousseau to name a few. There are monuments and paintings dedicated to the French Revolution, and my favourite Foucault's pendulum- demonstrating the rotation of the earth. After we left we ate some of our food and Ania got busted, apparently you can't eat on the steps of the Pantheon, the one set of steps in Paris. We checked out the Law Faculty at the University of Paris, and then headed back to Jardin de Luxembourg to finish up our food, like 'normal' people.

Onto the Metro again, this time we headed over to Musee de Orsay. Oh so fantastic. A lot of French art and loads of Italian sculptures,a few key pieces from Monet, and Van Gogh's self portrait. His 'Starry Night' was on loan. Damnit. There was also a section dedicated to French architecture and design methods. I picked up the museum guide, important to remember my favourite pieces, not to mention a great coffee table book. Afterwards, back to the Metro to catch the Norte Dame Cathedral. When we got there, the masses were huge. People milling about everywhere, trying to get a picture. That's the thing about Paris, every tourist area is hoped up on steroids- with its constant buzz of tourists and flashes from the cameras. You have to queue just to get a picture. But, even more monolithic was the line to get into the cathedral. It's a good thing that it was moving quite fast, and despite its size it wasn't really that daunting. Inside, you were really wowed. Very dark, candles everywhere, also people, despite signs saying no pictures, flashes were in a frenzy. It really is a stuning sight to see, I must say I was a litle disappointed when I didn't see the Hunchback (ahahaha kidding), it did inspire me to read the book, and would spawn me into the depths of French literature and eventually the French Revolution. After we lit candles and admired the cathedral, we headed out into the fresh air, only to head into the crypt of the Cathedral and into its stale air. It was neat to see what looked like replica archeological digs, and the history of the cathedral. To be honest though, it was a little boring. The cool thing is that Norte Dame is on a little island, so you feel like you are enveloped into the city, such a stunning city.

We took a minor break, only to get back on the Metro and over to Blvd. St. Germain (ahhh I've been wanting to go there, ever since I started listening to St. Germain the jazz house fusion band). We walked the streets of the blvd, such a beautiful blvd, with shops crammed next to each other and even on little islands of concrete between streets ie) the candy shop I pillaged to get a sugar fix. We walked and walked, and found ourselves going further and further into the heart of Paris. We ended up getting slightly lost trying to find the Shakespeare and Co. but in return we ended up in a busy side alley with heaps of resturants all vying for our business. We settle on a quiant resturant called Le Bistro (it was French) with a three-course meal for 10 euro- yum :) We started with a fabulous French Onion Soup - chucks of bread, with onion and a cheese lightly grated and melted on the top, amazing. Next I had salmon and pasta, unfortunately it was salmon or no second, it was ok, nothing special, but dessert made up for it, a chocolate mousse = divine. Oh, and a half litre of red. What a great dinner, I can still remember the soup almost a month later. After we relaxed and filled our tummies, we decided to try and catch a river cruise, but when we left we got side tracked by the glittering of the souvenir shops. Not to mention the scarves and hats. So, we picked up some hats and gifts from Paris. By this point, we were so exhausted we just went back to the hostel, and chilled out. Around midnight, two people came into our room (they were going to occupy the other two beds) but I was on the bottom bunk, and the guy took the top bunk above me, and I was so afraid I was going to die. Call me crazy, but a 200 pound man above me on a rickety metal bunk bed, was not exactly the limits I wanted to test. To top it off, he snored. So, I slept with one eye open, so to speak, ready to dive off the bed. When I did wake in the morning I felt slightly sleep deprived but happy to have made it out alive.