I Heart Paris

I finished writing this post about Paris about 4 days before the attacks on France. I hadn’t posted it due to a lack of decent Wifi in the hotels I’m staying at in Morocco. Right now - having heard the news part of me felt reluctant to post this, however my experience was one I will never forget and ultimately I would love all of you to understand how strongly I feel about this beautiful city that my heart is breaking for right now. So here it goes:

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I’m unsure how to describe what it was like to stay in Paris for an entire month other that to say it is something I will always remember. I know people who love it and perhaps almost as many that hate it and I can understand both sides. Below are a few of things I’ve learnt about the city of love.

- It’s dirty. Garbage is piled on the street - not once a week but almost daily… -and not just a little. Speaking of dirty - I had no less than three encounters with rats - one in an eating establishment.

- Metros, RER stops and many an alley way smell strongly of bodily fluids.

- Parisians happily let their precious dogs ‘decorate’ the sidewalk - you HAVE to watch where you are going at all times

- Great coffee is either non existent or really expensive - it mostly comes out of a one press automatic machine.

- On the subject of price - Paris is tres cher! Especially if you want to eat healthily. It’s no wonder ‘French women don’t get fat’ !!

And even though everything above is true, I couldn’t help but love it - really love it - warts and all.

To start with I was there in Autumn. Paris is a beautiful city at any time of year but in Autumn you feel like a character in a novel or a movie, it is stunning and surreal.

Quality art is abundant and accessible. So many exhibits are free sometimes or all the time and beautiful statues can be seen in multiple parks around the city. And when visiting these amazing collections the buildings that house the art often compete with the art itself! For me, the Musee d’Orsay was by far a stand out. The Lourve is undeniably incredible but to walk through the converted train station with it’s elegant arches and magnificent clock while darting in and out of perfectly curated and designed rooms was soul food!

And it’s not just the gallery’s and museums that are stunning. The architecture was so beautiful everywhere that I had to constantly remind myself to pay attention and take it in. Although there is a height limit on the buildings the high ceilings allowing for giant doors and windows that make all the buildings feel like they tower over you. And the mouldings, columns and balconies really lend a feeling of decadence.

And I guess you can’t say the words decadence and Paris without mentioning the food! Butter seems to be the first ingredient of every meal. And cheese is so integral to the Parisian diet I almost couldn’t eat anymore! Dinner with my host family was racelet - cured meats and potatoes covered in copious amounts of cheese melted using a special machine at the table. Not to mention the giant pot of fondu consumed when my friends came to visit me from Aus. More than this - every supermarket smelt terrible due to the very large part of the store dedicated to such a wide variety of cheese. And it wasn’t just the dairy. Anyone following my Instagram knows about my obsession with eclairs from L’Eclair de Genie (my final verdict was the passionfruit and chocolate one is the best). I also had to walk past at least 10 boulangerie’s wafting their tempting aromas every morning on the way to class and often succumbed to a small Pain au Chocolat for breakfast!

So the mention of class reminds me what I was actually there for. 4 weeks of French lessons for 3 hours a day. I was skeptical about how much I could learn in such a short amount of time but was honestly pleasantly surprised. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fluently conversing by any means but my comprehension has improved dramatically, I don’t always have to speak in the present tense and I use the word ‘donc’ like a pro! All lessons were completely taught in French which allowed for an amazingly diverse range of students. One of my favourites from my class was a lovely girl from Japan. Neither of us could speak each others language so French (and charades) was our only way to communicate!

Some other quick highlights from my time in Paris..

- Seeing an orchestra play music by Danny Elfman from Tim Burton’s movies in the The Grande Rex Theatre. Incredibly Danny Elfman actually songs from A Nightmare Before Christmas live! Amazing, amazing, amazing!

- The Four Seasons Concert at Sainte Chapelle - incredible.

- Spending hours in Shakespeare and Co - a brilliant bookshop in St Germain looking out on to Notre Dame. The bookshop was opened in the 50s and named after the famous ‘Shakespeare & Co’ where the likes of Joyce, Hemingway and Fitzgerald used to congregate. The store has a great cafe next door and the shop has an upstairs reading room and is filled with too may wonderful books. Will power is necessary here - particularly for a traveller with a luggage limit.

- Meeting up with many friends both old and new! Spending time with two of my oldest friends from Australia. We visited sites, ate way too many snails and drank champagne at the Moulin Rouge.

- The Eiffel Tower - both going up it and staring at it. I know it’s terribly predictable but it’s magnificent to look at and the view from the top (again particularly in Autumn) is unforgettable.

- Reading ‘A Moveable Feast’ in outdoor cafes around Paris and imagining the events unfolding. (if you are feeling a bit ill from my cheesy activities [haha cheesy] I can understand if you stop reading here….)

-Rodin’s Garden, Victor Hugos House, the Lourve, Sainte Chapelle and an awesome exhibit at the Petite Palais showing the contrast between Japanese Printer Kuniyoshi and 19th Century Gothic Printmakers such as Goya.

- Learning to make eclairs in a Patisserie school!! (and of course eating eclairs..)

- Buying art supplies from art store Sennelier across the river from the Lourve and sketching in the Tuleries Garden, Luxembourg Garden, Coffee Spoune Cafe, Rodin’s Garden and many other inspiring locations!

…And I’m going to stop. I know I will have forgotten to include so many things and I also know that my descriptions are likely inadequate. I think Mr Hemmingway summed up the way I felt about this city better than I could:

‘There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs to that of any other…It was always worth it and we received a return to whatever we brought to it.’ Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast.