Seeing for the first time

I’ve been going to the beach since before I could walk and talk, leaving me unable to remember my first trip there and my first view of the ocean. My parents, (having both grown up in Iowa), had very different experiences than me, and so while I was growing up they would tell the story of driving over La Jolla Boulevard and seeing the breathtaking view of the San Diego ocean for the first time. This trip to Europe has given me so many of those first incredible views of the various sites I’ve gotten to visit, and I just know that those feelings will stand out vividly in my memory for many years to come. This weekend in Paris provided me with quite a few of those moments, especially when combined with high anticipation and excitement. In this journal, I’ll go through my first impressions of the city and the sites and attempt to describe the beauty of Paris.

After pulling into the train station around noon on Friday, Meg, Ken and I emerged ready to explore the city and experience the culture. Like my first few days in England, everything just felt different and I was giddy with excitement. I had even had trouble sleeping the night before, trying to plan out the trip and make sure I didn’t miss a thing, (along with last minute packing!). The signs were in French, the announcements were in French, the people even looked French! Not only was it a European country, but English was not the first language, adding a new level of exotic-ness. I will admit that I half expected to walk off the train and have my three years of French from high school come rushing back to me so I would be fluent and able to converse with the Parisians, but unfortunately I wasn’t so lucky. We wandered along the main road of the train station before stopping for lunch at a café. We all had omelets and had our first French dining experience. The waiter was almost exactly what I expected—a little snooty, placing us at the back of the restaurant and pretty much ignoring us. Oh well…

We took the metro to our hostel (we quickly learned our way on the public transit system—very well organized with colors, numbers, arrows and names) and checked in. From there, we instantly left to go on a walking tour around the city. We got off the metro at St. Michel and saw a beautiful fountain. From there, we walked across the Seine, seeing Notre Dame, (it was HUGE!), the bridge Pont Neuf, (constructed with faces to represent Henry IV’s dinner guests when they were drunk, haha), le Musee d’Orsay, the Louvre, the Tuileries Garden, l’Orangerie, and the Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triomphe in the distance. We learned lots of fun facts from our outrageous tour guide, and I absolutely fell in love with the city. "Paris-je t’aime." Every building was beautiful and the whole city just seemed to harmonize with everything else. The gardens were well tended to, the monuments were impressive yet sophisticated, and the atmosphere was incredible. The picture above is on a bridge over the Seine. Couples go to the bridge, make a promise of love, put a lock on the bridge and then throw the key into the Seine--cute!

We headed back to our hostel in the Bastille area and then grabbed dinner. It was at the Falstaff Café, and I had a Croque Monsieur. I distinctly remember learning about that dish in my French class in high school, and so I thought I just HAD to try it. It is an open faced grilled ham and cheese sandwich—very good! Again, things from my French class kept coming back to me as I read the menu and reflected on hearing the stories from Monsieur Svidal about Paris and tried to realize that I was actually in Paris! Unreal.

After dinner, we took the metro back to St. Michel and walked along the same path from our walking tour for the night. Everything was so pretty at night, and I really came to understand the “City of Lights” reference. We headed toward the main street of Champs Elysees with its high end shopping. We finally made it to the Arc du Triomphe, took some night pictures and then took the metro to the Eiffel Tower.

On our way to the Eiffel Tower we got to see it sparkling, (it lights up every hour on the hour during the night for about three minutes), and it was absolutely stunning. Standing in front of the Eiffel Tower just didn’t seem real. I had such high expectations for it, and it most certainly did not fail to live up to those expectations. It is such an iconic monument, and I just don’t have the words to describe the powerful feelings I experienced standing under it. There was a cool atmosphere around the base as people were selling these slingshots that shot neon blue firefly toys.. I decided that seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time definitely made it into my top 3 moments from the trip. We headed back to the hostel afterward and called it a night.