Andiamo a Parigi!
Paris had such a unique ambiance: it is laced with elegant architecture, and full of polished people. Everything is romantic, and inevitably I fell in love with the city. I have to preface this post by saying that my amazing company made it easy for me to love Paris: Adriana and Kyra are two of my greatest friends in my program. They are very different than me (New Yorkers who have funny conceptions of the South), but they really enjoy life and are so open to anything- I’ve learned so much from them.
The sites in Paris were amazing: we did it ALL and our bodies were DESTROYED from exhaustion after 5 days. Paris is a lot bigger than you think- I would suggest to always take the metro, which we didn’t commit to until day 3. We first went to the Louvre, a ginormous museum that make me feel like I was drowning until I made it to the Italian section, where I saw works of artists that I had studied in my Italian Art class like Cimabue and Giotto, and of course DaVinci’s Mona Lisa.
My favorite museum was the Orangerie, where Monet’s Lilly Pads were placed in oval shaped rooms, just as he had envisioned when he painted them. The lily pads were huge and the paintings are without a horizon so they seem to go on forever, meanwhile your perspective places you in middle of the pond. They were stunning.
We also took a day trip to Versailles. After hours of waiting, we entered the Palace that King Louis XIV-XVI had lived in. The palace was so isolated it seemed like it’s own country. Veramente, everything that you could need was within these walls. It was beautiful with ornate gold. One loooong room had a wall of solid windows and the adjacent wall of solid mirrors, meanwhile 100 gold and crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. It was so beautiful. What really amazed me was the gardens. They went on for eternity in perfectly shaped bushes and flowers that framed centralized fountains. We went to Marie Antoinette’s section of the property with about 8 buildings that made up her own estate. I preferred it over there: It was elaborate, but more intertwined with the nature of the gardens.
The food was amazing. Every morning we would grab brie cheese and fresh baguettes to last us through lunch. One lunch we got the tip to go to the famous falafel place in the Jewish Quarter, recommended by John Legend himself. Another day we bought sweet and savory crepes from a cute old man who was so skilled. Before going out for dinner each night we would try a different bottle of Rosé. Once we were ready for dinner, it would be so late, about 10 or 11, so kitchens were shutting down and our options would be limited. One night I ate escargot with pesto from the shell- it took a few tries before I understood how to use the instrument to eat the snail! In the Latin Quarter I also ate duck. Of course, we also stopped at the Lauduree to buy the original macaroons. They were beautiful AND so yummy.
The first day I saw the Eiffel Tower, I was walking to the Lourve a couple miles away. It towered way over the horizon’s buildings and I stopped where I was walking and gasped. Adriana and Kyra thought something was wrong with me until they saw what had grabbed my attention. Still, 3 days past and we hadn’t visited the Tower. Finally, our last night in Paris, after walking up and down the River looking for the Livre della Jungle at the book huts, we dragged our limp bodies (plus, Kyra was seriously handicapped and had to have surgery immediately upon return to Italy- povera ragazza, bless her heart) under the Eiffel Tower. We crawled on the ground at one of the legs of the structure, amazed at the grandeur of the monument and amazed that we were alive. We relaxed for 2 hours, then grabbed a Parisian dinner nearby. we returned around 10 when it was dark so we could see it lit up- it was breathtaking. We haggled with a seller to buy some wine and found a spot on the lawn. I am always attracted to live music so we sat in earshot of a group playing their guitars and singing. Every hour the lit-up tower starts to SPARKLE for 5 minutes. I felt like those 5 minutes were moments I had been programmed to see since I was born, but I had been deprived of. It really shook me.
After we saw it once, we were still so tired, so we thought we would head home. However, the group of Parisian music players had seen us swaying to their music and came over to us and asked us to come sit with them. They all only spoke French except for one boy, Maed, so I stuck with him and got to know them. By midnight we had all tried to sing these foreign lyrics, and we all danced together (I even incorporated shag moves). I was dancing with Maed until suddenly my body awkwardly jolted as a reaction to the Tower shining at the strike of 1am. I stood mesmerized and Maed was so sweet to let me enjoy it. Those 5 minutes were so nice.
Even though there was a huge language barrier between our groups, we spent 3 hours with them. These people were so artistically talented, yet they lived with such simple, not showy, contentness that was inspiring. They really loved every moment, and enhanced it- they always added something positive to it. Paris was truly the city of lights: not only because the lit alleys and the sparkling Eiffel Tower mesmerized me, but because we met some amazing Parisians that also had a light within them that they freely shared with us.