PARIS - La ville des Lumières, part 1

Hey everybody, I know it's been a bit of a gap since my last post, but don't worry, I got something real good for y'all today.

So This past week I enjoyed a week-long February break. I didn't make any plans to travel out of the country, and initially thought maybe I would travel to different places around France. After realizing how much a train ticket to one spot, let alone two or three, would cost me at the time (not the best at planning ahead, gotta be honest), I decided to just go to Paris. Not a bad idea at all. I left early Sunday morning, and arrived at about 11 o'clock. Immediately I got hustled by a poor woman who claimed she was from Bosnia and needed money for food. This security guy right near her tried to shoo her to the door, with a funny "tchhh tchhh" and a wave of his walkie-talkie. I gave her 1 euro, because I just wanted to be left alone. At least she got a euro closer to a baguette or something. What gave away that I was a foreigner? I got a nice french-style jacket and everything, got the pumas on, everything was good...except the giant backpack on my back. I carried it around all day that day. Why you ask? I was going to stay at this kid Doug Hassett's house, but he wasn't going to be back from Amsterdam until later. Shout out to Doug and his roommates Gordo, Ryan Cane, and Mike Francel for being such nice hosts. I stayed with them all week until Friday, and they were real accommodating and such.

I walked across this bridge right next to the Louvre and got hustled by a woman who claimed to have found a ring. She said, "I give it to you for a gift," I said, "Sure." She said "please give me a few euros to eat, be generous" or something like that. I should have said, "Since you found this ring, go sell it or something. I only have so many euros." Instead, I said, "alright, how much you need?" She said "4 euros." I said, "here, I'll give you the ring back and, yeah." She settled for 2. I took the ring a while, until some other guy like 100 yards away tried the same trick. Such is life. Another one of those "owned" travel moments. I supposed I was in for at least a few in Paris.

Alright, so I went all over, literally all over. I took literally hundreds of pictures. I went to the Louvre, a bunch of sweet churches - Saint-Germain-des-Près, Notre Dame de Paris, Sacré-Coeur, La Madelaine, L'Église de la Trinité, - a Museum of the Middle Ages, the Champs-Elysées, La Tour Eiffel, Les Arènes de Lutèce (a Roman-era arena near the Latin quarter, where many of the colleges are found), La Sorbonne, Montmartre (a sweet hilly neighborhood with a ridiculous cemetery, literally a necropolis, and Sacré-Coeur), saw the café where Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir sat in the early 20th century and did some serious philosophizing, walked along the Seine, and, last but probably one of my favorite excursions, took a train outside the metropolitan area and saw Versailles, Louis XIV's famous hunting lodge-turned huge palace to house the French royalty and nobility. Honestly the coolest, most ridiculous, opulent, ballin residence and grounds ever constructed. Really amazing.

So, here come some pictures. Obviously I can't put them all, even though I would love to, so here are some of the coolest.

Funny side note: Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate much with me while I was there, it was very cold each day, and often cloudy, sometimes snowy. Thus, my hands took a beating as I forgot to bring gloves. The bitter pain of the cutting cold in my digits was worth the photos I took, even if I sometimes had to be diplomatic about my photo ops - "Damn my hands are too cold, can't take pictures for a bit, in the pockets they go."

A view of one of the facades of the Louvre. The building is sort of U-shaped, an extremely elongated U. It used to be a palace before it became a museum. I couldn't fit an entire facade in one frame, the building is just so massive. Just to give you an idea of its size, though.

A small arch between the Louvre and the Jardin des Tuilieries. The Tuileries are a truly beautiful stretch of gardens, pathways, and statues. They would've been cooler in spring in the sun, but still. Both the Louvre and Tuileries are situated along the right bank of the Seine, really makes for a good walk.

A close-up of a four-horse chariot on top of the arch. The arch commemorates the French Army's clash with England at Boulogne (a wooded area not far from the Arc de Triomphe). There is a Greek theme, as you can see. A reoccurring theme with a lot of epic French works of architecture/art.

Crossing over the Seine, onto "La Rive Gauche," the left bank of Paris. The area where many hip cafés, restaurants, and boutiques are. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and other famous writers spent time or lived in this area in the 1920s. That's pretty well-known I think, just giving some context. The expats, you know. So hip. Anyway, along Boulevard Saint Germain, there is the Café de Flore, where Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir came to sip coffee, read newspapers, smoke cigs like it was going out of style, and make their mark on philosophy.

Only a few blocks away, the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Près. The oldest church in Paris. It was originally a sprawling abbey, originating in 542! If I recall correctly, It was constructed by one of Clovis' sons. Clovis was the first christian French king. Ridiculous. René Descartes, among other luminaries, is buried here.

Notre Dame de Paris. Looks great from the outside, a million times cooler inside. An absolutely ridiculous Cathedral.

A Statue of Charlemagne, badass French king and first Holy Roman Emperor, next to Notre Dame.

Some nut at Notre Dame. Had to take his picture without him noticing. Great stuff.

A memorial dedicated to citizens killed in street fighting during the 1830 uprising/rebellion (not exactly sure what happened) in Placee Bastille. Close to the site of the infamous Bastille prison, which no longer exists.

A sweet pure silver and gold statue of Athena in the Louvre. First in a series of Louvre pictures.

Hammurabi's Code, so cool. The first codified set of laws written down, I think. Babylonian times. So awesome to be standing right next to something so old and historical.

Some text of Hammurabi's Code. 195 says "If a child hits his father, his hand will be cut off." Below, 200 is the most known: "If someone pulls out the eye of a free man, his eye will be pulled out...If someone breaks the tooth of a free man, his tooth will be broken." Sound familiar?

Tiger style!

Giant Sumerian Statues. The Louvre had a few rooms of these, so amazing.

A really elaborate dining room in the section "les grands appartements." The part of the Louvre where several kings and napoleon lived. One of my favorite sections. Just a warm-up for Versailles, though.

A table, mirror, and chair made entirely out of crystal and gold.

Sword of Charlemagne, with scabbard, though the scabbard was made several hundred years later. Still cool.

The coolest chessboard ever made. Glass, gold, bronze, stone, you name it. All around the board are tiny, sunken-in wood carvings of animals and people.

This was one painting I especially wanted to see, and I was really glad when I found it. "The Last Judgment." I forget who painted it, unfortunately. There are several in the Louvre, but this one seemed the most epic, It was hard to get a good picture because it was so high up and so huge.

A cool painting I came across of Saint Francis of Assissi in ecstasy.

This is really cool. It's a close up of the actual document of the last will and testament of Louis XVI, the king who was famously guillotined in 1793 at Place de La Concorde. Some of what he says: "In the name of the very holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Sprit. Today, the 25th of December 1792, I, Louis XVI, king of France, being confined for four months with my family in the Tower of the Temple at Paris, by those who were my subjects...moreover, involved in a trial of which it is impossible to foresee the result, because of the passions of men, and of which there is neither prextext nor means in any existing law; having only God as a witness for my thoughts and to which I may speak, I declare here, in His presence, my last will and testament." Sorry for the spotty translation. I felt bad for the guy, honestly. Even though he was a repressive king, at the time it was written, he was just another man on his death bed. Heavy stuff.

On to some cool Egyptian stuff! The Louvre has a whole section dedicated to Egyptian artifacts. No doubt they enlisted Brendan Frasier, his hot wife, and bumbling brother-in-law to collect them all. Some nice hieroglyphs. Really amazing.

A gold Sarcophagus.

A view down an incredible hall, filled from top to bottom with paintings and ornate wall decorations. Close to the Mona Lisa.

Well, gosh, here she is! La Jaconde, the Mona Lisa. Look at her, with all her airs! Pretty cool, but definitely pretty disappointing. The painting is actually very small, and you have to stand thirty feet in front of it, and it's behind glass. Oh, and the picture looks crooked because I took it from the side - there were a lot of people Jonesing for a spot, and I didn't want to wait to fight my way to the center. Still really cool to see perhaps the most famous painting in history, though.

Alright, that's all for now. It occurred to me as I was writing this that there is way too much about Paris to put in one post, so I'll do a couple more over the next few days. This post is long enough I think, if you make it to the bottom you're a trooper.

So, coming soon will be more and more pictures of my Paris experience. I will say one more thing about the Louvre though - truly one of the most amazing, coolest places I've been. Anyone who tells you the Louvre is anything less than that didn't have the right attitude or something going in. I mean, it is huge, very huge. Since I had no schedule, I spent almost all day wandering around in there - around 5 hours I would say. And normally I'm not a museum enthusiast. Honestly, if you want to go to the Louvre you should set aside a serious amount of time to fully take it in. And if you have little kids, probably not a good idea at all. If my parents had taken me there when I was young, I would have hated it. So big and so tiring. At this age, I can appreciate it for what it is, though. So worth it.

So much art, yeah! Get me some skinny jeans, a v-neck, and some weird Kanye eyeglasses, an unnecessary beanie, and a pretentious attitude! Just kidding - hipsters do what you feel, it ain't for me to say you're wrong.

Alors, à la prochaine! Une autre publication suivra dans quelques jours.