There were two major happenings in Paris when we were set to arrive - one just ending and the other just beginning. In the weeks prior to our arrival, Paris was seeing record amounts of rain. The Seine was bursting at the seams and parts of the city were flooded. They were even removing some of the artwork from the Louvre just in case. It was still raining off and on when we arrived, not quite the deluge it was before, but the water was receding. The Seine was still a raging torrent of water. The waterline was very high although it was no longer overflowing.
The event that was starting the day we arrived was Euro Cup 2016. This is like the World Cup of Europe and is held every four years as well. The games were to be played all over France and Paris was one of the venues. As you might imagine, this drew quite a large crowd from all over the Continent. One particular part of the crowd was traveling on the train with us from Amsterdam. A contingent of Ireland fans took over the bar car and, in stereotypical fashion, they were loud and boisterous and drunk. That wasn't so bad but unfortunately they also filled the bottom of the bathrooms with urine.
I'm going to guess that Sweden was playing that day. There were a lot of color coordinated groups around the city.
Saw a lot of these men and women around. France was on high alert during the tournament.
So it was amongst excited crowds of painted faces and flag draped bodies that we arrived at Gare du Nord. We quickly hailed a cab and overpaid to be dropped near our place, not in front of it, because the cab driver insisted he couldn't go down our street. The apartment was not far and we were soon settled into a lovely two bedroom French flat that we would call home for six nights. The street was quiet but near enough to a few boulangeries and restaurants that we would walk out in the morning to pick up fresh pastries and eat in our place. Paris is worth visiting for delicious croissants alone.
Thinking back on Paris, we actually didn't do all that much. I mean, not much in terms of touristy attractions anyway. Melissa and I are not ones to cram each day full with sightseeing and tours and my parents felt that was fine. Again, we spent a good deal of time wandering around.
We walked by the Hôtel de Ville, saw Notre-Dame Cathedral, and meandered up and down the Seine. We argued for a bit (longer than anyone should have) about whether a boat was moving or not as it made it's way upstream against the fast moving current. We made use of the bathroom under the Musée du Louvre but did not go in. Le Centre Pompidou is a very interesting building that we saw but did not enter. We gazed at the front of Les Invalides but decided it not worth entering.
Was it moving? Yes. The answer was yes. Even after 20 minutes of discussion.
Notre-Dame in the morning is beautiful. Especially where we were - on the outside.
There were some awesome sculptures on one of the bridges. Also, this was also the weather most of the time.
That's not to say that we didn't go into any of the attractions. We visited the Catacombs, which was a first for all four of us. We hopped on the Metro and took some time to walk through the Montparnasse Cemetery to get ourselves ready to look at a bunch of old bones. Melissa had secured some timed tickets so we jumped right to the front of the lengthy line. Spoiler alert - there are a LOT of bones in the catacombs but mostly just skulls and femurs. We learned that the bones only line a small portion of the tunnels as they were mostly built to make sure Paris didn't fall into a giant sinkhole. And there are many, many kilometers of them.
Later that afternoon, we shunned Napoleon’s Tomb and met an old colleague and his wife for some beers and soccer watching. We discovered that some bars hide their trash in the basement and bring it up into the middle of the bar via elevator to take it out.
Make no bones about it, the place was cool. The flower is a nice touch here.
Look at these numbskulls! I got the scathing wit from my dad but the goofiness from my mom.
One day, after my mom and Melissa finished at the hair stylist, we ambled our way over to Musee d’Orsay. We got there about an hour and a half before closing. So, we did what we do at museums and immediately split up upon entering. Melissa and I had been there before so we took our time and went to look at some specific things, like the impressionists and a caricature exhibition. My parents zoomed through the entire museum and were waiting for us outside for 10 minutes before we finished. As I said, to each their own.
I think the highlight of our time in Paris was our visit to the Château de Versailles. The weather had been a bit shaky during our first few days, alternating between overcast and raining, but it was just about perfect for exploring a massive palace and it's gardens. The opulence of the Palace was staggering at times and it leaves no doubt in my mind as to why a revolution took place. The history of the expansion of the palace was very interesting and very well exhibited. Each addition was more grand than the last as the current ruler looked to add his or her mark to the grounds. I'm sure they would be horrified to find unworthy peasants such as ourselves walking the halls taking selfies.
Just like the royal families would have wanted, a massive parking lot for a front yard filled with gaping tourists.
Opulence? Yes. Color choice? Mmmm, maybe not.
Really, though, there was a lot of gold there. Like, literally, tons of it.
The gardens themselves, although massive, are just OK. A floating waterfall installation, simply titled “Waterfall,” had just been completed the week before we arrived (a fact I didn't know until I was writing this). The concept is interesting and it looks like a floating waterfall. From the front that is. It looks like a broken piece of a crane with water coming out the top when viewed from the side. When it was turned off, just a broken crane. And it is turned off and on several times a day.
OK, pretty neat. The illusion isn't complete but it's pretty nice.
And then there is this. It just doesn't look good. And with the water off, it looks like they are doing some kind of construction in the middle of the lake.
At one point I led us on a merry adventure through lightly treaded parts of the garden, much to the consternation of my parents. Fast fact - there is a farm with cows on it in the middle of the grounds. If you can believe it, we had several arguments about our current whereabouts and eventual destination. Eventually I had to strike off on my own to allow everyone else to soothe their minds with some quiet garden musing. It all worked out in the end though and my parents decided not to disown me. They also promised to never argue with me again about directions. Haha just kidding that would never happen. They could soon as promise to stop breathing as to promise not to argue anymore.
Great day for pics but that crow just can't even.
Mapping our route and definitely not arguing about it.
Melissa and I left my parents to their own devices on the last morning so we could visit the newly refurbished Rodin Museum. It was under construction when we were there three years ago but the main studio house was now open. It is fantastic to see how Rodin would work through his pieces, “sketching” a small sculpture then eventually building it larger and larger to completion. My parents used the time to eat a nice breakfast then walk past (but not enter) the Louvre again. They made their way down the Tuilerie and met with us at Place de la Concorde, where a 3,000-year old Luxor Obelisk from Egypt resides.
We headed up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, dodged the rain for a bit, ate an excellent lunch, and walked under, but did not enter, the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile. I had last been to the site about 15 years ago. I remember my first thought about it was that it was much, much larger than I thought it would be. You see it in movies and pictures but never really get a sense of the scale. I was happy to hear my dad express the exact same feeling. He read that a pilot flew under the Arc at the end of WW2, that's how big it is.
What better place for a giant flag than under a giant arch?
For the most part we avoided the idiots, er, loud soccer fans. Unfortunately, there was a massive viewing area set up in the park leading up to the Eiffel Tower and we had to wade through crowds of them to get to the tower entrance. My mom and dad wanted to go up the tower so we left them to it. They circled under the tower for a few minutes before finding the correct line and headed up. They only made it to the first viewing platform because of the long wait to get to the top. I guess it's a reason to come back and do it again some day.
Look! A giant football in the Eiffel Tower so that everyone would remember that games were happening.
Roaming cities seems to be the preferred method of seeing things for all of us. I think my parents would have been fine just walking up and down each street studying the buildings and speculating about what is behind each giant doorway. Which, truth be told, is what we did a lot. The city was a little un-Paris like because of the Euro Cup. There were machine gun wielding troops and lines of police vans around, which is not usually the case. Crowds of people chanting and spilling into the streets from bars is a far cry from the usually subdued Parisian streets and cafes. All told though, we had a very good time and I was more than happy to be able to share one of my favorite cities with my parents. Hopefully there will be more travel like that in their, and our, future.
A combo of the two is where I got my good looks from.