Seven Wonders

"I'll never live to match the beauty again"

Paris: City of Light

"Wouldn't it be neat if we could actually see into the water through the windows? Like an underwater aquarium?"

We were on the Eurostar train from London to Paris and we'd just gone into the chunnel (channel tunnel) when my daughter's excited little voice conjured up new pictures out the window for us. She and her best friend giggled and wiggled while imagining what they could see in the water. I had a flashback to Jaws 3 and a great white shark smashing into the underwater observatory.

In typical mother-like fashion, I wondered how the dirty the water might be and what refuse could be filling up the English Channel. Nothing as romantic as the Little Mermaid Ariel's cavern, I'm sure. That does remind me of Mark Dion's Tate Thames Dig at the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London. Fascinating.

My daughter's one place she wanted to see before moving back to the States was Paris. We got lucky because her best friend and this friend's mother were able to join us. Another plus was that this friend's mother could speak a little French. My whole two years of French in high school had left me with the limited vocabulary of oui, non, s'il vous plaît, merci beaucoup, je ne parle pas francais and parlez-vous anglais?

Unfortunately, having only recently returned from Venice, I was still responding with si, grazie, prego and other Italian words I'd remembered from when we'd been stationed in Italy. I sounded like I had a stutter when responding to queries.

"Did you enjoy your breakfast, madame?"

"Si, uh, yes, uh, oui!"

I'm just thankful that I hadn't gotten Japanese words jumbled in there, too. I remember saying "Hai domo" a lot after leaving Japan.

We left Waterloo (the ABBA song always pops into my head when I see that) and arrived in Gare du Nord in 2 1/2 hours. Spent a few minutes trying to decide what tickets we wanted for the metro (subway) until deciding upon a carnet of 10 tickets. Hopped onto the metro and rode 10 hot, sticky, sweaty, and smelly stops to Odéon.

I've heard that the Paris Metro is the most efficient and user-friendly subway system in the world, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The carriages looked like those trams in San Francisco, which could've been charming, I suppose. Maybe it was the heat that detracted from the pleasure of riding on the metro. (Now I've got the Berlin song 'Riding on the Metro' stuck in my head. Since the first song [Waterloo] was from the 70's and this one was from the 80's, I hope the next one will be from the 90's.)

Found our hotel and, since we were early for check-in, left our luggage before heading out to start our sightseeing. We walked to Notre Dame where the girls immediately fell in love with all the sparrows and wanted to feed them. After spending too much time with the birds, according to me, but not enough time with the birds, according to the girls, we headed into the cathedral.

This time there was no requirement to put on a paper skirt (which cost 1 euro at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice) if you weren't properly attired before heading into the church. I was very interested in Notre Dame and probably could've stayed longer, but the others seemed ready to go.




So we went around the cathedral and found a pretty little park in back. Sat at one of the benches and listened to a musical performance there.











From there we headed over to Saint-Chapelle. Lovely.



The girls wanted to find some more birds to feed, so we thought we'd walk to the Luxembourg Gardens.



It was beautiful there, but we were surprised that it cost 1.40 euro for a child to play on a swing.




We'd been prepared for the toilets costing something (0.40 euros), but the swing threw us for a loop.

And the parks do not allow you to sit or walk on the grass.

I saw my first mimosa tree on the walk back to the hotel.





I never can seem to remember names for flowers and plants. Just not a green thumb, I guess.

We ate dinner at a wonderful place called Le Procope in the Latin Quarter. You could have a 3-course meal for 24 euros or a 2-course meal for 19 euros. I started with the melon, but I wish I'd had the French onion soup. My daughter had it, and it was delicious! The chicken was okay, but I loved the crème brûlée for dessert! I think we enjoyed the restaurant so much because of the decor and the atmosphere. It was quite impressive.

After dinner, we walked around the Latin Quarter for a little bit and then thought we'd try to take a boat ride on one of those Bateaux-Mouches along the River Seine. First I had trouble finding the metro station I wanted. And then I think the route we'd planned to take to get to one of the boat docks must've been under construction or something, because we had to ask for directions and were told to take a completely different route. By the time we got there, we saw a beautifully lit-up and sparkling Eiffel Tower *but* ...




we missed the boat!








So we had another long, hot and sticky ride on the metro back to our hotel. I guess I've been spoiled by the subways in Japan and London, because the metro seemed old and outdated. I'm used to the doors to the carriage opening automatically, but on most of the metro carriages you had to pull a lever up to open it. Because it was still so new to me, it was easy to forget about it and then stand there waiting for it to open. And of course when the doors wouldn't open, you'd start to panic and think you were going to miss your stop. The bottle of hand sanitizer was empty before we were halfway through the trip.



The next morning we started at the Arch of Triumph and then walked down the Champs-Elysées towards the Louvre. Had a tasty pain au chocolat on the way.












We found a pretty, little park near Théâtre Marigny where the girls were thrilled to find some birds to feed.






We continued on to the Tuileries Garden where one of the girls had a slushee and the other had an ice cream cone. We saw the carousel on one side of the garden, but I thought I'd read there was another one under the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel so we pressed on. Turns out it wasn't a ride but a shopping gallery (Galerie du Carrousel).

It was a Monday when we went to the Louvre, and I'd read in some guide book that it was open until 9:45 pm. Evidently, that guide book wasn't current because they were closing at 6 pm that day. Wednesdays and Fridays were now their late days. Since we didn't have enough time to see much before closing, we decided to head over to a department store for some souvenirs and ice cream.

After shopping at Les Galeries Lafayette, we took the metro out to the Eiffel Tower and went up. The views were wonderful, and I went crazy taking pictures. After we got back down, we got tickets for the bateaux-mouche because we definitely did NOT want to miss the boat again.




Took the girls on a carousel ride in front of the Eiffel Tower while waiting to board the boat.


I couldn't imagine being able to fit everyone onto the boat, but they did it and there were seats available here and there. We were disappointed that we didn't get a seat outside until it started raining during the boat ride. Then we were very happy with our seat selection!

Afterwards, we took our one and only taxi ride back to the hotel because the girls were feeling a little under the weather. Aha, I just thought of Amy Grant's version of 'Big Yellow Taxi.' No, it wasn't a yellow taxi, and we were surprised it only cost 10 euros. (You'll have to help me come up with a song from the 21st century!)

The next day we thought we'd try to see the view from the department store La Samaritaine, but it was closed. So we walked along the Seine and wondered about the Conciergerie.



We walked back to the Notre Dame to feed the birds again.





This time there was a different man feeding the birds and he was helping others feed them, too. It was such a treat to see the girls' faces beaming when all the birds swooped down to feed from them. I actually found a picture of the same guy online. Guess he's been there quite a while!




When we were able to tear the girls away from the birds, we headed towards the Place de la Bastille. I think I was interested in seeing it because when we'd been planning this trip to Paris, we were wondering what it would be like to visit during Bastille Day.





On our walk (skip for the girls) there, we saw a street performer playing the violin on one of the bridges. The best friend's mother said she thought the performers in Paris sounded a lot better than the ones in London! We tried to scrounge up change for any performers we saw in the metro and around Paris.



After the Bastille, we hopped onto the metro to go see the opera house and then went up to check out the view from the department store Les Galleries Lafayette. I liked the views from the Eiffel Tower much better.

All too soon it was time to go, and I wasn't ready. We'd only gotten a taste of Paris, and it made me want more. Maybe someday when the two best friends are little old ladies wearing purple and a red hat, they'll meet up again in Paris.

written in 2005 and modified in 2006

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