Mark Twain

So apparently Mark Twain once said: "In Paris, they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language."

Two weeks ago I left on a bus to Frankfurt, It was a very long drive but completely worth it. I saw Vancouver's Kidd Pivot perform the amazing "Lost Action" and hung out with Julie-Anne and Jeremy post show, tech crew extrodinaire. I didn't get back to my Hostel til two thirty in the morning. Definition of a "wild night" for this here lady.

The next day we hopped a train to Paris. well, not really, we had tickets... What can I say about Paris? Like most of my travels, I did no research before I went. (except the obvious research into my accommodations) I'm not sure this helped me out this time around. I knew of course only of the things everyone knows about, The Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, L'arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, Eiffel Tower. I of course visited these places and more. I would love now, to be able to go back in a few years perhaps and experience Paris as a local. Not visit the museums and major tourist spots because that's exactly what they now are, TOURIST ATTRACTIONS.

The Louvre however was beautiful, I of course saw all the paintings and statues of reputation but also saw some other things that were far superior, in my eyes at least. I particularly love the glass pyramid in front of the museum, I think I have about twenty photographs of it. Another surprise was the Pompidou, Paris' modern art museum, I went on Free admission Sunday so my access to exhibits was limited. The building alone was spectacular, five levels of museum, theaters, libraries and a beautiful view of Paris from the top floor.
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Accueil.nsf/Document/HomePage?OpenDocument&L=2

A few enraging instances were visiting places like Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, and the Catacombs. Ignorant tourists complete with flash photography, loud commentary and vandalism everywhere. I got the feeling these people didn't even care or rather, know where they were. They just seemed concerned with getting their photos for Facebook to show people they were there. Don't get me wrong, I take photos (When photography is permitted), I use Facebook but I also take the time to experience what I see, isn't that the whole reason we want to travel, to experience, to learn, to enrich? In the catacombs people actually tagged some skulls, not in my presence luckily for them, I would've whipped out my sharpie and tagged my name on their foreheads. I suppose in a place like that, it's so difficult to acknowledge that all of those bones were people, it's a chilling experience, beautiful and terrifying. Beautiful to see the art that is created out of the remains of 7,000,000 Parisians, terrifying to think of all of those people, dead, around you, underground in narrow tunnels, how easily you could get lost. (before it became a museum, of course) I still get a chill thinking about it.

My last day I went out to Versailles, unfortunately the Palace was closed but the gardens are always open. The size is indescribable! I must have walked around them for about an hour and a half and I'm sure I only covered 5% of them. I think Versailles is a place to visit late Spring or early Summer, the gardens were just being maintained for the upcoming season and what was completed was absolutely stunning.

Most of the Parisians understood my French, unlike Mark Twain's, and I understood nearly everything that was said to me so I didn't feel all that bad as just another tourist.