Friday morning, I met everyone up in Paris, and I had to wake up at 3:00 AM in order to catch a bus to the airport. The details are a bit fuzzy by now as it is 17 hours later and I’ve had the kind of day that even after a full night’s sleep would make me tired, but long story short my plane got in an hour late to Paris at 10:00 local time. Dad picked me up at the airport, and we went to our hotel in the middle of the red light district. He told me on the train ride that Pépé had been propositioned by a real live prostitute the night before, but politely declined, saying “Pas ce soir.” (Not tonight.)
After meeting up at the hotel, the four of us got on the Métro to go to the Louvre. What an awe-inspiring place. For the first hour, everywhere I looked was a jaw-dropping scene. Soon I came to expect the beauty and grandeur and was able to keep my mouth shut, but my eyes were just about popping out of their sockets nonetheless. We saw the famed Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, one of Dad’s favourite paintings including two topless women (see pinkplaidwellies.shutterfly.com for a picture), La Victoire, and so many other famous and lesser-known oeuvres that it was basically like cramming an entire lifetime of art culture into my head in those precious few hours that we spent there. Absolute beauty.
We then went to a restaurant, where we sat outside in a row facing the street. We were just down the road from the Opera House, yet another cool feature of the day. Food was very good, wine was some of the best I’ve tasted, and the passers-by gave us a slight view into Parisian culture and fashion.
When we were all fed and happy, we caught the Métro near the Opera House for our final stop of the day. It took until past dark for us to arrive where we wanted to go, but it was completely worth it when we arrived. All lit up in green and gold for the Rugby tournament, the Eiffel Tower was my major “EEE!” moment of the day. We walked right up underneath it, taking tons of pictures. Dad and I both touched the tower, something that I will be able to brag about when I go home. It was gorgeous.
After we left, we of course turned back to take yet another look of the tower from afar. When looking this time, it was all lit up with twinkling fairy lights that made it look even more beautiful than before. They lasted for a good half hour, which was about the time it took for us to get our bearings and find the entrance to our Métro station. With one last look at the Parisian icon over the River Seine on our train ride back, my adrenaline finally started to crash and it was all I could do to keep standing in the jolting car.
All in all, it’s one of the best days that I have had since my initial couple of weeks in Edinburgh. I have noticed, however, that even though Paris is a great city to visit, I would never want to live here. Edinburgh is more of a living town, even if Paris is Europe’s tourism diamond.
0 comments:
Post a Comment