You don't really know Paris until you decide to just take a map, go out, and wander the streets. Truly, I would challenge any visitor to just take a city map and meander from point to point using street names or features as some kind of orientation. This is not the easiest feat, since many street names are a few stories up, but it makes for fantastic adventures. For Mom and me, it was a comedy of errors. We got hopelessly lost, meandering past landmark stores, chocolate shops, places where luminaries would go.
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| Grand Palais |
We covered a lot of ground this day, passing the
Grand Palais which is another art museum housed in a building dating from the
same World’s Fair featuring the Eiffel Tower.
We passed a poignant sculpture of Winston Churchill which looked like a
Rodin (but wasn’t) featuring his famous quote: “We will never surrender.” I paused to look at it and wondered what
Winston would make of the modern Paris his tenacity helped to save.
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| Pont Alexander Bridge Ornament |
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| View from Pont Alexander |
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| Winston Churchill |
Finally, we reached the Champs Elysees which is perhaps
one of the longest, widest streets I have ever walked along or across. It is an amazing street, packed with people,
and took us the better part of an hour to span it. At the very top is the Arc de Triomphe,
standing watch over what is effectively the “Times Square” of Paris. High fashion, trendy shops, chain stores,
expensive things line the street. I mentioned crowds, and it was very much like
Shibuya crossing … but in a much larger space.
Shibuya times five, maybe.
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| Looking back towards the Louvre in the distance |
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| Crowded corner |
The Arc de Triomphe was impressive to look at, but we didn’t
get too close. I had this picture in my
mind, an old movie from World War II of our GI’s passing beneath this arch and
down the street behind me. It was to be
a prophetic first glimpse into our later journey to Normandy.
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| Arc from a distance |
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| Arc de Triomphe from the middle of the Elysees |
I was on the look out for pickpockets, and my attention was
well warranted. We were approached twice
in our journey. The first time was at
the D’Orsay when a harmless little fuzzball of a man passed us by and suddenly
stopped, picking up a ring. He wondered
if it belonged to us and offered it out.
Immediately, I knew this was a scam and ordered him to leave. I honestly thought he was going to take the
rings off my mother, when in truth if we’d taken it he would have pestered us
to no end.
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| Fountain in a park |
The second time was on the way back from the Arc. I passed a very pretty young woman, who of
course wanted me to sign her little form and steal my money. I insisted NO and kept on. Mom was not two yards behind me and the woman
started for her. As my mom insisted NO
the young woman started to click her lips and move in tandem with my mother’s
own movements. Thankfully, she side
stepped the girl and continued on.
I will tell you right then and there, I would have tackled
that girl to the ground if she’d laid one finger on my mom. I don’t care if I would have gotten arrested
for assault. I was so sick and bloody
tired of people like her and the whole experience of dealing with the complete
lack of any care or concern of it. It did leave a very poor
impression of French security, and I hearken back to my original post on that
subject.
I really don’t know how the Parisians live
there dealing with this 24/7. It’s really too bad, but probably no worse than any big
city anywhere but the fact of these things soured my mood on the city. These are things Parisians could easily fix.
And they probably will, hopefully soon.
When they do they can make their city a true jewel once again if they
addressed these things.
Our day concluded with a wonderful meal purchased from what
was essentially a grocery store. It was
a gorgeous little place in which everything looked delicious. We ate at the hotel breakfast area and
managed to drag poor Dad downstairs. I
felt sorry for the hotel employees who looked at us as if we were the strangest
people on Earth to be having a “picnic” indoors.
Tomorrow would be a new day and a new leg of our
adventure. We were leaving Paris behind,
to begin the true start of our journey in France. Beyond, stretched a lot that was unknown when
we would leave the city of Paris behind.
My final thoughts on Paris: It's beautiful, huge and I want to go back. Like Tokyo, there's a lot to see, a lot to understand and delve into. We only brushed the tip of the iceberg. For all that I harp on the pickpockets, the litter, the graffiti, Paris stands on the world stage. The problems I witnessed could be fixed, but they are long standing and rooted in a different culture. Paris has such treasures to behold. It is where our country came to find its own enlightenment centuries ago and we still have roots there today.
Paris is a golden jewel, glittering and catching the subtlest light. As a writer, I dared to walk in the footsteps of Joyce, Scott, and Hemmingway. As an American, I stood where John Adams and Ben Franklin conversed with kings. I sat at the foot of Rodin and stared into the fearsome eyes of Van Gogh. These things will shimmer in my memory, beautiful and seductive as Mona Lisa's smile.
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| Looking back on the Eiffel |
