Week Seven

Monday, April 07, 2008

Week seven has come and gone. Inconceivable.

I have so much to write. Especially about PARIS, France! But first, I will tell a little bit about Monday and Tuesday. They were quiet days. A couple friends came over to work on school work and Tuesday night, I went out with some other Canadians. OK, there.

And now for the trip to Paris! We left early on Wednesday morning and got the train in a small village in France near the boarder of Switzerland. We (the Kausche family – Lorenz + a friend of Verena’s + her daughter + me = 8 people) travelled first class for 3 hours to Paris. When we got there, we made our way to the youth hostile where we stayed the 3 nights. One of the of the first things we noticed here was that it was not permitted for people over 25 to stay there. But it was not a problem, I think, having 3 people over 25. I don’t think they said anything.

We ate "the 4 o’clock" in le Place de la concord, where we caught our first glance of the Eiffel Tower. One of the funniest things of the trip was when there was one piece of chocolate left and Verena said that we would “save it for a time of stress.” After, we strolled down the street where we saw the Madeleine and other beautiful Parisian architecture. Next, we spent a good 2+ hours in the Louvre. It was incredible! I loved it so much! There were huge, beautiful old paintings, beautiful Greek sculptures, and art from all over the world - some as old as 5000 years, and maybe more. We saw the original Mona Lisa and Vénus de Milo and the crowned jewels of Louis XV, and other very famous things.. The museum was sooo big. It would take years to do it justice! There were also many ancient Egyptian artifacts and pieces of art, including a real mummy. We ate at a small Greek(?) place. It was fun and very filling.

On Thursday, we ate out breakfast of a baguette and coffee/hot chocolate and started the day at Versailles. We took a “Guided Tour” with head sets that gave an explanation of each room. Versailles is so much bigger than I ever imagined and so beautiful! Everything square inch of the place is so furnished with paintings, carvings, sculptures… anything decorative, basically. It seemed funny, though, to me, because I didn’t know anything about the Louis’ (Kings of France) nor their residence in Versailles, but before I went, the only thing I knew about Versailles was the treaty of Versailles during WWI. To my surprise, there was nothing about the Treaty of Versailles nor the ends of either WW. It was still super cool. I learned some things about the Louis’ and Napoleon (who overthrew the monarchy) and a little bit about Marie-Antoinette. We ate our morning snack in the gardens. The gardens we also so big and so beautifully designed with fountains, and a large river, and long, green stretches of grass, and trimmed bushes and statues and sets of old, elegant stairs… the whole works. It was truly beautiful.
After, we took the metro back to down town Paris to le Tour Eiffel. It took a while for it to sink in for me. It was also so amazing. We climbed the stairs to the “second storey” (about 600-700 stairs). It was a beautiful day and we had an amazing view of all of Paris. Willi explained to me that when people built the buildings in Paris, there was a rule that only allowed you to build up to 7 floors plus one for something else… so 8 stories. So all the houses and regular buildings are the same height and all the big attractions of Paris stand out so nicely because they are so much bigger. We could see all the famous churches, the Grand arc, the Arc de triomphe… it was so interesting and “joli”. We demounted, ate a snack of biscuits, and had a bit of a photo shoot.
Next was the Arc de triomphe. Also a lot bigger than I had expected. There was a memorial service going on under the arch, I think a bit like Remembrance Day (which they don’t have in Europe, surprisingly), so that was special to see. The Arch is the beginning (or end, which ever you prefer) of 12 big (I think) streets. I’m looking at a picture of it right now and it is so cool and huge and chique and ancient looking.
For dinner, we ate at McDonald’s. It was Timon’s second time and Verena’s first time. It was quite different from the typical North American McDonald’s in the way that there was a café with elegant looking desserts and also, the whole entrée menu costs the same amount whether you are getting chicken nuggets, a big Mac, or a regular cheese burger. I don’t really know all that well what it’s like in Canada, but I would expect not like this. After dinner, we walked down the streets and looked at the very expensive name brand stores like Louis Vutton, D&G, Chanel, Lacoste, etc. By the time we made our way back to the youth hostile, we were very worn out.

On Friday, we started at Notre Dame. Like everything else, it was so big and so beautiful. There were two things in particular that I found interesting about Notre Dame. 1 was the contrast between the very extravagantly furnished, rich, immense church and the poor, hobbled, unclean beggars surrounding it. The second was that there were prayer candles (I’m not that familiar with the Catholic religion, but I think they were prayer candles) for sale and what looked like office cubicles for talking/confession with a priest, I’m guessing, for a charge. It made me sad to see the church give the impression that “unreligious” people could buy and light a candle and talk with a priest in THE Notre Dame that they would be set for after death.
Anyways, we ate a petit pain au chocolat on looking the church and after, walked to the Panthéon. It was astounding. (I’m starting to run out of adjectives to justly describe the sites.) Everything was beautifully painted, and great big statues made the place come alive. Under ground, the Panthéon is full of tombs of famous French people like Louis Braille, Victor Hugo, and others (most of which I didn’t know, but wish I did) like army commanders, priests, artists, literary greats, etc. So that was really neat. I’ve never seen tombs like that before, in rooms and made of clay.
Next, we went to the Sacré Coeur – another well known, beyond belief catholic church. It was also so beautiful. We got to walk though, actually, during a Mass service. It felt kind of strange walking around and “observing” (if you will) the people. It was really great to hear and see nuns singing (with organ and great acoustics) and leading the congregation in song. The singing was so beautiful. Willi explained to me after, that the Sacré Coeur was build by the government during, or after (I don’t remember) a war with Germany, and wanted to build the church to be able to pray and earn God’s favour so they could win the war. They had to collect money from the people to be able to build it, and did it by saying that by donating X number of dollars, their sins would be forgiven. This also made me sad to see this kind of deception from the church.
After the Sacré Coeur, we walked along a street packed with tourist shops and eventually got to the La Fayette – the biggest department store in France… 7 levels! They had everything from jewellery, to brand name clothing, to baiting suits, to restaurants, to souvenirs… you name it. It was fun to see. Maren bought some flip flops and Timon bought a bathing suit.
For dinner, we ate at a small pizza place near the hostile with Helga and Leah as well. The food was good, but the highlight was the owner – Tony, who hustled around and had a very strong Italian accent and spoke fast, repeating everything at least twice.

Saturday was our last day. We started at a local market that was about 4 or 5 blocks long. It was so funny. It was so packed full of people and the vendors were yelling what they were selling and their great prices and people we buying, bartering, pushing, trading, testing, weighing, … it was so busy, just what one would imagine of a Parisian Saturday morning market. We spent the late morning/early afternoon in the Centre Pompidou – the biggest museum of modern art in Europe, and I expect, in the world, but I don’t know for sure. It was so cool and very interesting, extremely different from the Louvre. Some things were funny, some were strange, some were depressing, and most I didn’t understand in the least, so I was glad when there were explanations of the techniques and complexity and meaning of the pieces of art.
After the Pompidou, we found a mall and did some shopping. Maren and Lorenz (who wasn’t even there) were the only successful ones. After, we went back to the hostile and got our bags and headed off to the train station. It took us a little while to actually find the train, because the station is so big! We had a nice ride home and it was a great week seven!