Tour de Paris

July 29, 2008 at 5:31 am 1 comment

Today is day 26 of my 54 day trip. I have spent five nights here in Paris and managed to do a LOT of walking. My Birks have been a saviour – no blisters or sore feet whatsoever. The metro is really convenient, but since it has been 30+ degrees these last few days, it is just so stuffy and busy down there, that it works out better to walk. Being on the metro is good for people watching though. The French are quite hot tempered people and I have witnessed a number of arguments that get quite lively…

When walking around today, I saw a postal carrier with his buggy of mail about to cross the street at a pedestrian crossing. An oncoming car started honking as if to say me first. But the postal carried insisted that he was going to cross. And the car insisted she was going to go for it. So inevitably, the car hit the postal carrier’s buggy and Bam! This was followed by the postal carrier marching up to the car, opening the door, yelling “C’est quoi ca??” And the shouting went on and on…

There are a LOT of tourists here. I walked passed two guys from New York that looked totally lost and were holding “the Idiots guide to backpacking in Europe” trying to figure out where they were. There really must be a more discreet way to travel. I have tried to blend in as much as possible and avoided carrying my knapsack as that is usually a giveaway.

When sitting down for a coffee or something to eat, I have been pretty picky about where to go because there are a lot of cafes that are totally taken over by tourists, and the ambience is just not the same when there are more foreign languages being spoken than French. So even if it takes me longer and I have to go further, I have been trying to pick out interesting eating places. There are many crepe kiosks that whip out the favourite Nutella crepe, but I managed to find a great little Creperie that makes them with buckwheat (which is more traditional) and served with lemon and a bit of sugar. They are sooooo good. The smell alone is worth it. The servers in most restaurants are men in their 40s. So where do all the young people work?

I made it to the Auguste Rodin museum with Kathy and her sister who is visiting from the US. It was a great museum with lots of beautiful marble and copper sculptures. The museum also paid tribute to the work of Camille Claudel and recognized the impact she had on Rodin. The museum also has this perfectly manicured garden with evergreen shrubs trimmed to a sharp point. We enjoyed the fresh outdoor space.

On my own I also visited the Picasso museum and realised that Pablo Picasso and I share the same birthdate: October 25th (except he was born in 1881). Although born in Spain, Picasso spent most of his life in France and so upon his death, France inherited many pieces of his artwork.

So here is my question: where are the Rodins, Picassos, Van Goghs etc… of today? What blows me away the most when walking through museums is to think about the time one individual spent must have spent to create each piece.

On Sunday, the Tour de France finished their 22 day race which started in Brest and finished in Paris on the Champs Elysees. This year was the 95th race. Everyone was lined up along the street waiting in anticipation for the cyclists to zoom by. People brought step-stools, kids were sitting on the shoulders of their parents and some even climbed up trees to get a better view. Around 5:15pm, the winner – Carlos Sastre from Spain – crossed the finish line. It was great to be a part of the hype as the race is a big deal here in France.

A lot of shops close for the summer here in Paris. Many have little hand written signs posted on their store-fronts noting the closure and the date that they re-open. There are a lot of little Pharmacies that sell regular drugs as well as a lot of homeopathic remedies. And these homeopathic products are often a lot cheaper than at home in Canada. Now there’s a first!

It has been so nice to have a view of the Eiffel Tower from Kathy’s apartment. Because if you go to see it on the street, there are just swarms of tourists, and you don’t really get to relax and spend your time. Here, I can be reading on the couch and all I have to do it look out the window, and there it is. Until the end of December, the Eiffel Tower is light up in blue lights at night to symbolise France’s presidency of the European Union (it changes every 6 months). They also do a 15 minute sparkly light display which is really pretty.

There are very few internet cafes in this city. But they do have a great bike rental system called Velib. You sign up for an account and provide a deposit of 150 euro or so, and then there are many stations (usually near Metro stops) where you can punch in your info at a little kiosk and unlock a bike to travel to your desitination. If your travel time is less than half an hour, you travel for free. It seems like a very efficient system. It has become quite popular that they have added more stations and more bikes and improved the repair system for damaged bikes. You often see business men in suits riding the Velib.

So now I am repacking my backpack and going to take the bus out to Paris Olry airport for my 2.5 hour flight to Vienna.

Salut!