Entry 63: Paris, je likes you

Now Reading: The Language Instinct by Stephen Pinker

To me, Paris is like Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Everyone wants to say they read it, they want to say that they really find the book intriguing, but deep inside some people found it boring.

See, contrary to what movies and books would have you think, not everyone falls in love with Paris. I didn't. I like Paris, it's a beautiful place, food is good, pace is slow, art and music is everywhere, Stendhal bombs lurking at every corner (more so along the Axe Historique), but somehow, I didn't fall in love with that place.

I mean, I did see the Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, L'Académie française, Arc de Triomphe, Château de Versailles, Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame de Paris and probably much, much more. But I'm not one of those people who'd go to Paris and go, "Oh my God, I'm so in luuurrve! I want to be married on the Eiffel Tower!" Would be a sweet idea, but it just didn't quite click for me. I'm the guy who didn't think much of MJ's death, remember?

Maybe it was the general feeling that sometimes, Paris didn't bother to make tourists feel welcome. The way signs around the major sightseeing spots occasionally did not have English translations, the way the Metro gets littered all over, the way the locals look at you just because you don't speak all nasally.

Nonetheless, Paris was beautiful. I can see why people fall in love with this place, people are beautiful, food is actually pretty good, the general allure of Parisian French floating around you like muzak, architecture is definitely amazing to say the least.

So anyway, once we arrived at Paris, we took the Metro to our hotel located right in between two main subway lines. First visit was to the Jardin des Tuileries, where lots of fountains were. And then on to the Louvre, where the infamous 5 glass pyramids lie in its courtyard. The "Axe historique" (historical axis) runs straight through, on which lies the Obelisque, Arc de Triomphe, the big glass Pyramid of Le Louvre, La Defense, and many more things. Wikipedia has a nice diagram of it.

So at night we popped over to the Eiffel Tower, where the tacky lights came on but somehow people cheered. It retains more of the allure when it's just lit up by floodlights, trust me. Having sparkly lights makes it look like a French techno concert. Battery went dead that night, was pissed but no choice.

Next day was to Château de Versailles, where the infamous Treaty of Versailles was signed in its Hall of Mirrors. Maybe they wanted the Germans to reflect well on what they did. In retrospect, maybe the Big Five should have reflected too, because Hitler rose to power partly due to this. The place was nice, the Rococo (Yes, Julie, thanks to you) architecture and decor was a little too much to handle sometimes. Fountains were nice but not worth the 7€ we paid for. Although all in all, was a trip well spent on.

Then I bought macarons! Not the bloody American coconut ones. Those little pink capsule-shaped cream-filled wafer things I found in a shop in San Fran. Only this time I found it in McCafe. Not the most obvious places to buy them, but still it was rare to find them. Didn't find them anywhere else in Paris because my friends preferred to rush to sightsee all the time. I prefer to take my time sampling local foods. And pay a bit more to sample local foods. So next week Berlin will be all alone. GANZ ALLEIN!

Later that night we went to Montmartre, or more specifically the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. Was a nice place to look out to the city centre upon, gave me the feeling of looking down upon San Francisco. After all, major cities all look the same from a hill at night. Had foie gras, veal and creme caramel for dinner, which was awesome. Told people I had the most fantastic foie gras in California (The French Laundry), but of course some people in the group I went with sneered because they said foie gras in California doesn't count (speaking of which, have I ever blogged about French Laundry?). Oh well.

And thus concluded our weekend trip to Paris. I did not mention lots of things we visited or tried to do, but Paris is definitely worth a visit. Love it or not, it's your choice, but you can't convince me to.