I have no clever title: Paris Part One 7/5

To get to Paris, we took a bus, a ferry, and then a bus again. We left London at midnight, and I wasn’t sure the undergrads would all survive the trip. They didn’t seem to understand how to speak quietly at night when people were trying to sleep. Tired me was very enraged. After a couple of hours, we reached the port of Dover. Turns out the white cliffs of Dover? Just cliffs that are white. Kind of anticlimactic.

Our bus drove straight up onto the ferry that was to take us to France. As we filed off the bus, I was so relieved. I was certain we would be able to find a quiet seat on the ferry, to catch some sleep. I was very wrong. The ferry was super busy, and the rooms were fully lit, despite being around 3 am. Still, we grabbed space on some chairs and tried to fall asleep, and then the temperature began to fall, instead. It was so cold on that stupid ferry that I could not sleep. I just curled up and shivered until we reached Calais. Luckily, by the time we were back on the bus, everyone seemed on board for quiet time, so we all struggled to get some sleep.

Still, when we finally arrived at St. Christopher’s Inn, the hostel we were staying at, we were groggy and unhappy. Our male leaders didn’t seem to understand that why we would want some time to change and clean up, but we finally convinced them we could use some time. After pulling ourselves together, some, and dropping off our luggage, we walked down the block to find ATMs. We stopped in a little bakery, where I purchased “Chocolate Bread.” It definitely lived up to the stereotype of French pastries being delicious.

When we were slightly more human, Doug took us on a little tour of Paris. We started by walking down the canal that is immediately next to our hostel. Then we had our first Paris Metro experience. I am not a fan of the Paris Metro. It’s gross, there’s what I termed, “Metro Scum,” which is huge swaths of mold that drip

down onto unsuspecting travelers. It’s also dirty, smelly, crowded, and occasionally the lights on the trains go out, or the trains stop. Plus, the maps are super difficult to puzzle out, since the lines are very similar colors, like everything is a shade of pink or shade of green. Despite the grossness of the Metro, I was so tired, I actually nodded off a couple of times. Our tour resumed at the site of an ancient Roman theatre. I was amused to see that the local boys use it as a football field, totally regardless of its history. There was a great contrast in that.

Some of us grabbed crepes for lunch, mostly, I think, because we knew the words “crepe” and “fromage.” We walked as we ate and ended up at Notre Dame. Notre Dame was beautiful, with a breeze off the Seine that was much appreciated, after walking in the blazing sun. Notre dame really reminded me of the cathedrals in Spain, huge, highly decorated, etc. It’s turning 850 years old this year, so there’s a restoration project on going. One thing I thought was interesting was that only one of the bells is original. The others were melted down during the French Revolution. They’re falling apart now, and don’t sound very musical, so new bells will be installed as part of the anniversary.

We then walked down to the Louvre Museum, which was enormous, and yet still crowded with people. Y’all know how much I appreciate art, so my priorities were the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the stature of Ramesses II, all of which I was able to see. After years of hearing how everyone was shocked by how small the Mona Lisa was, I had expected it to be tiny. When I finally found it (after walking past the room it was in and down to the opposite side of the gallery), I was surprised that it was the size of a typical portrait.

After we saw the Mona Lisa, we walked through the Ancient Greek area to see the Venus de Milo, and then down into the basement, past the statute of Ramesses II, into the medieval Louvre. It was nice and cold down by the old medieval walls. I was really annoyed that the museum staff didn’t reinforce the posted rules. I saw people taking pictures of paintings with flash, which made me want to go over and stop them, if the curators wouldn’t.

After the Louvre, Katie, Liz, and I walked around and took in Paris. Paris doesn’t have benches, really, so we ended up sitting in a store window for a time. We had dinner at a really nice restaurant that used to be a pub frequented by the

Musketeers. I went with what seemed to be the most French choice- duck. The duck was really good, but it came with a side of French fries, which was odd. We tried to catch a boat cruise that evening, but we missed the last one.

Exhausted, we limped our way back to the hostel, where we discovered that there was confusion between the hostel and our program leaders, and they put five of us in a room with only three beds left. Drama ensued. In the end, we all got beds, but Kate had to go to four different rooms.