Paris!

Europe is small. It just seems that all the major cities of Europe are really close together. My home state is five times the area of Switzerland. Flying home for Christmas from grad school takes four hours; I think a four hour flight here would carry me across most of this continent. Europe just does not seem very big to me.

And that is a beautiful, beautiful thing, because even a grad student with little time or money can manage to visit a lot of famous places. I started by going to Paris.

Paris Highlights



The Tour de Eiffel: While I admit this monument seems to serve no other purpose but to have its picture taken, I enjoyed visiting the Eiffel Tower anyway. I have visited a few skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, but the Eiffel Tower has a lacy, delicate appearance that somewhat disguises just how big it is. I loved standing beneath the Tower and looking at it stretching above my head. The view from the top was amazing, too, as I tried to recognize the major landmarks of the city (or guess what I thought a building should be). People watching is also fun up there; I don't know how many couples have gotten engaged on the top floor, but I watched the counter increase by one while I was there. At night, the Eiffel Tower lights up with steady and sparkling lights. The wait to get to the top was very long, but it was worth it for my first trip. I would suggest bringing a good friend to wait with, or bring a new one and get to know someone a whole lot better.


Musee de Louvre: Because of all the things my friends and I wanted to see in the three days we had in Paris, we only spent about four hours in the Louvre. It was nowhere near enough time. I could have spent four hours admiring the building itself. The Louvre is in an old royal palace, complete with long galleries, ornately carved moldings, and elaborate paintings on the ceilings. It is full of works of art I first met in my art history textbooks. I was walking down the gallery of Renaissance paintings, paused because I thought I recognized a painting, and walked over to verify that yes, I did recognize that da Vinci. I had studied it in class. I wandered around trailing a good ten feet behind my companions with my jaw another ten feet behind that. We managed to see a handful of the most famous Greco-Roman sculptures and Renaissance pieces, but not the Baroque or Egyptian collections.


I guess I will just have to go back to see the rest.


Notre Dame: Notre Dame cathedral struck me as the opposite of the Louvre. While the Louvre was pale and golden and light and airy and horizontal, the cathedral was dark and somber and vertical and other-worldly, with the dark jewel tones of the stained glass windows high above and a forest of columns concealing and revealing niches devoted to various saints. Only in the center of the cathedral is there much light, when the amazing height of the nave arches overhead. I was once again walking around with my jaw dragging behind me. After walking around inside the cathedral, my friends and I also took the time to climb to the bell tower. It took many, many upward steps, but I think that was my favorite height to see Paris from. You are removed enough to see a lot of the city, but not so removed that you cannot make out fun details. The gargoyles and other carvings on the towers are also amazing. They seem more comical and relaxed than the worship spaces below, but each gargoyle is unique, and there have to be more than one hundred of them.


Crepes, Patisseries, and Desserts: To me, sampling some traditional French foods was an important part of the visit, and baked goods were of course at the top of my list. As there seemed to be boulangeries, patisseries, and crepe stands everywhere, that was an easy goal to meet. Watching your crepe or galette be made, having it handed to you piping hot in a little paper sleeve, and then nibbling it slowly in a niche between buildings . . . I have been craving crepes ever since I got back. I also convinced my friend to visit one of the boutiques of Pierre Herme, a patissier in Paris who has published cookbooks of his elaborate desserts and comes out with new collections twice a year. We purchased a couple of his individual desserts to split. While some of his wares were eye-poppingly expensive, even for Paris, the individual desserts were no worse than those available at any brasserie, but tasted much, much better.