Paris in a pretty little bow.

Written by:  The girls in various places throughout the house.

The bigger picture gets a little lost when you are only hearing about what we are seeing and doing everyday.  So, here is an attempt of putting a nice pretty bow on Paris.

Amy:

Paris is definitely impressive.  Everything from its architecture, crowd control, security measures, tourist offerings, food options, and transportation options are over the top awesome.  I used to scoff when I heard people refer to Paris as the capital of the world.  Now, I am convinced it actually is.  It has everything you would hope in a capital—beauty, hospitality and grace.  When the aliens land, I’m all for them seeing the best visually pleasing place—Paris—first.  So, in that way, it goes on my list as the frontrunner for capital of Earth. 

Surprisingly, there were not as many tourists as I expected.  But, that might have been because it was SO cold.  I had not expected it to be as chilly as it was.  The cold just took your breath away and chilled you down to your bones.   Also, it just tuckered all of us out.  But, not having to push and shove our way to see everything kinda balances everything out.

Contrary to my general opinion of French people, I found the average person to be generally nice.  They seem glad to see tourists after the the threat of ebola has now past and the terrorists attacks a couple of weeks ago.  On that subject, we did see plenty of examples of the city’s heightened awareness.  There were armed police officers and other military personal.  And, they are not kidding when they arm their protectors—they give them AK47’s. 

This is what greets you at the airport.

Those are some mean looking automatic weapons!

It was a little nerve wracking to see one of the major streets just jam packed with police, but when I went up and asked, I was told that this was nothing important.  I gathered that there was an important personage that they were closing the street for.  Who, you might ask?  I have no idea. 

I wasn’t super fond of having to pay to get into museums.  I have gotten really used to London, New York, Dublin, and Washington DC’s free museum policies.  That is super awesome.  So, having to pay in Paris was a turn off.  That, and the general expensiveness that is Paris will just put you under.  I can’t imagine how people live there with the expense of food, transport and everything else.

The language was a unexpected barrier.  While most service related people speak English, you can tell their first language is French.  Fortunately, I am okay at reading French since it is not too far away from Spanish.  However, I can not conceive of how to pronounce it.  Also, the rapid way Parisians speak really makes use all of your listening skills.  But, you can listen all you like because hearing French is completely different than reading it.  I was completely screwed.  Consequently, I just gave up and became the American tourist complete with the I’m-not-even-going-to-try attitude.  It’s the only time that coming from the most entitled country in the world has come in handy.

I’m not done with Paris, though.  There is just so much more I want to see and do.  Next time, I might just come with adults only—that way I can drag more people through castles, palaces, and churches.  Also, the girls emphatically did NOT want to go to EuroDisney.  So, I  guess I’ll have to go back and do that on my own time. 

Colleen:

My thoughts about Paris

I have really mixed emotions about Paris. It’s kinda still in the Renaissance. With all it’s cas-... sorry, palaces, and churches, Paris doesn’t hide that it’s old and has a lot of history. Just the opposite, really, it emphasizes that point. Paris wants to have people recognize that ‘Hey, this place is really old!’.

And, these people must have stomachs of steel. I mean, I ordered a Croque Monsieur with no cheese, and, by now, you must know that I had no idea what a Croque Monsieur was. The description said it was a ham and cheese sandwich. I hate cheese, and so I ordered the sandwich without cheese. When the waiter said that he couldn’t do that, I figured that they pre-made the sandwiches and the cheese was already melted on. When it arrived, I was intrigued, disgusted, and confused. It was supposed to be a ham sandwich, right? This was a ham sandwich… WITH AN ENTIRE INCH OF CHEESE ON TOP!!! Gross!!

Signing off, Colleen

Abigail:

Hello, hello! So Paris was a few weeks ago, but it still fresh(ish) in my mind. Paris was really, honestly, cool. In Portland everything is modern. There's nothing built from the past, there's nothing past the 1900s because the European settlers completely obliterated everything believing in the Manifest Destiny cough cough it's literally all their fault we have like nothing from the past there cough. In Paris, however, almost each and every building's foundations were built in the 1700's! There were apartments in the 18^th century style and people were living there just like “whatevs”! It was pretty stressful, however, to try and sit down at a restaurant and have the waiter speak in rapid French and order off a menu you can't understand. What are you going to end up ordering? Who knows. It could be fish, it could be a ham sandwich, it could be the French version of a hot dog (which is covered in cheese). Speaking of food, the first day we ate in Paris I ordered a pizza. Guess what? It so wasn't pizza. It was cheese atop bread. That was it. No red sauce, no pizza crust. Cheesy bread. Word from the wise: don't order pizza in Paris. It's a letdown.

            Anyway, food aside (the crepes were awesome), Paris was really a cool place. The Louvre was a pretty cool place, too. A bit overwhelming, but awesome nonetheless. It was stuffed full of paintings, huge and small, on the ceilings and the walls. There were sculptures all over. To give you a quick idea of the layout, the Louvre has three stories. It also has two underground stories. It's perimeter is three miles. No joke. Honestly, the place looks clustered full of paintings and stuff. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, David and the Goliath, and a bunch others until eventually we all got burned out. We checked out the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace, the Chocolate Museum, and just so much more stuff. Even though it was bitterly cold, we had a great time. I look forward to going there again, just not for the pizza.