Paris in the Fall of 2009

Paris in the Beautiful Fall of 2009

We arrived in France at the Charles de Gaulle Airport at around 5 PM in the afternoon after an 8 hour flight on KLM from Nairobi. KLM's great meals and many movies made the time pass quickly. It was strange going from wild and wonderful Africa to elegant and beautiful Paris. What a contrast! I don't suppose there are many other two countries so different from each other than Kenya and France! The French countryside was green and beautiful as we flew over...lush, green fields, vineyards, orchards, rivers, forests, streams, and lakes. Our decision to stay a week here was made possible by the "triangle" option on our frequent flier miles program wherein you can stop and stay in another city without an extra cost or more miles when you are doing a round trip. Our choices were London or Paris. I had already been to both, but Lawana had not seen either, so it was great fun when we planned the trip to see the thrill and joy on her face when I said, "How would you like to go to Paris on the way home?" London is nice, too, but, "Ah Pareee!".......I knew there is no more romantic city in the whole world! More about that later!

We chose our small French hotel on the Right Bank of the Seine primarily for it's great location in the center of the city and more reasonable price. It turned out to be perfect because of it's closeness to the Metro (subway), busses, trains and river boats...and, because most travelers, and Parisians themselves, try to avoid travel by car in this bustling city. We walked, bussed, boated and found our way around quite well...with some great help from our IPOD's GPS!

Prices are expensive here, even more than they were during our European & Baltic Sea trip last year, not only because of the continuing weakness of the dollar vs the Euro, but also simply because it is Paris. For example, it cost about $80 for the 30 minute cab drive from the airport. And, "that will be $3.00, Madam, for your diet cola." (and, no refills, either!) So, our first night was typical of many evenings during the week...off to the great little markets and pastry shops nearby for great French breads, milk, cheese, bananas, yogurt, and oranges. That first evening's dinner was wonderfully spent on the steps of an ancient old Church, enjoying delicious, warm and fresh French pastries, and getting our first glance of the local scenery. And, as we found everywhere throughout the rest of the week, love is always in the air in Paris! Couples were hand in hand, talking and laughing, openly hugging and kissing. And, why not? This city simply makes you feel that way. It's quite wonderful!

Our small hotel of 20 rooms, the Pavilion Louvre Rivoli, is nice, located along a typical narrow (one lane, one way) cobblestone street at 20 Rue Molie're. The room is small (only about 9 X 10!), but, in typical French excellence, very well designed. Lots of planning was done to make the small space quite comfortable, even if we had to squeeze around a bit. Our first experience with the language was with Shada, the desk clerk, a typical perky, young, dark-headed French girl, who cheerfully gave us directions in her mix of French and English. Many French people do not speak English, so it was fun going around and trying to communicate. They liked it when we tried some French words and laughed at our mistakes. The language is truly beautiful and melodious. Many consider it the most beautiful language in the world, which I agree with. Different languages are very interesting to listen to, aren't they? Some seem to me to be not pleasing at all...gutteral, harsh, sharp, noisy, and loud. But, French is very soothing, just seeming to glide smoothly along...and, like the rest of this country, very romantic, too!

We are so lucky to be here in the beautiful Fall time of the year. We caught it in early October, just as the leaves changed. Fall and Spring are the most beautiful and romantic times in this wondrous city. It reminded us very much of great classic movies, like, "An American in Paris, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Gigi, " etc. and we could visualize Audrey Hepburn riding along on a bicycle down a narrow, cobblestone street here in Paris, just like the ones we are walking along every day we are here.

To get a general overview of the city before striking out on our own, for the first three days we took double decker open top bus tours and open top river boat tours. It was a great decision, complete with headphone tour guides. We got on and off whenever we wanted to look around on our own, too. It is beautiful Fall weather here, so we dressed in layers. The Fall air and color changes of the trees is refreshing. It quickly became apparent to Lawana why this is called the most beautiful city in the world. And, even though I have sometimes not liked France because of it's occasional haughtiness and political criticism of America's foreign policy, I have to admit that the country has much to be very proud of, indeed. They have done many things right that other countries, including the US, could learn much from!

You really have to see it in person to really understand that. Elegance, Class, Charm, Beauty, Culture, Historical reverence and preservation, Ecology appreciation, Antiquity, Planning, Design, Fashion, Music, Language, Romance, on and on and on. Beautiful trees are on practically every street, sometimes two rows on each side. There is a reverence for it's ancient history, monuments, and buildings. We went from place to place in it's 14 districts, completely in awe at the beautiful, ancient buildings, monuments, parks. The planning seems to have been done from the very beginning with great emphasis on maintaining the beauty of the past. Even the bridges were beautiful, ornately done with statues and gorgeous design. And, can you believe art works behind glass in a subway! The great river Seine flows serenely through the heart of the city with old, beautiful riverboats lining much of it's banks and water traffic gliding smoothly along. Cobblestone streets, many flower shops, ornate street lights, tree-lined walkways, beautiful parks, small streams and lakes, little shops and boutiques, sidewalk restaurants, small markets and pastry shops, small, intriguing courtyards, huge, tall 12 foot doors, ornately-carved and with big, elegant door knobs, wrought iron balconies on practically every window and complete with flower boxes, ornate carvings on even cement building walls, tiled rooftops, the smell of French cuisine from great restaurants, ancient churches, museums, art galleries, street musicians, gently rolling hills, elaborate, elegant craftsmanship, huge bronze, marble, stone statues and sculptures, fountains, plazas, and great, historical monuments everywhere.

Compared to the sometimes rather gaudy, overly-ornate, gold-layered churches, buildings, monuments, and sculptures we saw in Thailand, Russia and the rest of the Baltic last year, I was impressed by the much less gaudy, but beautifully ornate, elegant majesty of their Parisian counterparts, as well as the whole culture and art generally. It is much more classy and genuinely elegant. However, the elaborately-carved gargoyles on top of Notre Dame and other great churches and buildings did seem a bit weird. We wondered what came to the builders' minds when they decided to cover a church's waterspouts with gargoyle heads? On the other hand, perhaps it was better than just a plain old waterspout on such a beautiful building!

The nights here are especially beautiful. Paris is called the "City of Lights" because another wonderful way their planners from the beginning made the city especially beautiful was to make the extra effort to uniquely light it's wonders up at night. Beautiful, ornate street lights everywhere. Unique lighting on the bridges, statues, and monuments. Lighting of many different colors, not just white...making it a wondrous technicolor city scape of different colors, almost so beautiful a person wonders if it could all be real. Lavender, pink, greens, etc. providing a gorgeous glow. It created a romantic feeling everywhere. It really is magical. We wished we could have ridden over it at night in a balloon and looked down on all the lights and colors from above.

We toured many of the beautiful, world-renowned sights: Like:

- The awesome Eiffel Tower, the icon of Paris, which was the world's tallest building for many years.
- The Louvre, the world's largest museum, covering acres and acres of ground, 5 stories tall, over 100 huge rooms of some of the greatest art, sculpture, and history in the world. Like, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, works by Monet, Rembrandt, Picasso, Michaelangelo, Dali, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, etc. We easily could have spent the whole week just in the Louvre! Paris has more museums and art galleries than any city in the world. For example, we saw the "Thinker" and the "Kiss" in Rodin's own gallery and could have done the same with Picasso and many others.
- The Arc de Triomphe where our troops marched through for the liberation of Paris
- Beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral and many, many more beautiful churches, like Sainte Chapelle, with it's magnificent stain glass windows and where Christ's crown of thorns is housed. And, we saw the beautiful Dome Church and we climbed the hill to see the gorgeous Sacre-Coeur abby on the hillside above Montmartre. There was also La Madeline, St- Eustache, St-Severin, etc.
- The Bastille where the French Revolution began, many sites of the Rennaissance (Rebecca and Kevin would have loved it all. We wish they could have been with us there!)
- The Pantheon, the majestic Opera House, the Concordes Plaza, the Invalides, the Carnavalet,
- The Latin Quarter and the Moulin Rouge red light district, where the "can can" and the strip tease originated. - The beautiful Champs de Elysees, the most beautiful avenue in the world.
- The Pompidou Center, Luxembourg, Bois de Boulogne, Tuileries Gardens, Place des Vosges

We loved walking along the Seine. You can do it from the tree-lined street above or 10-30 feet below on walkways right along the river. Walkers, bicyclists, and lovers are everywhere. A marathon was going on one day and hundreds of marathoners streamed along in their colorful outfits. Bands were playing along the way and people were cheering them on. Picnics were spread out along the way in the many parks and grassy places. We waved at people looking down at us from above on their wrought iron balconies in apartments along the river. What a beautiful daily view they have! Probably very expensive, too! The walls lining the river are beautiful in their mixture of ancient stone, covered in many places with ornate carvings, moss, and ivy, and flowers. It's a beautiful river and very clean and lit all along the way at night. Can you believe we saw no trash at all...and, come to think of it, not in the streets either! (Later, we found out why. Each night the streets are washed with small, narrow street cleaners, so they can maneuver down the narrow, cobblestone streets and sidewalks! What a great sense of pride this people and city has of itself! Most of the bridges are ornate monuments themselves, with beautiful carvings, statues, lighting, etc. It made me wonder why our bridges in America in great cities, like New York, Boston, San Francisco, etc had to be made to look, in comparison to these in Paris, rather stick-like and unattractive. Artists and small vendors selling their wares lined parts of the river, Parks were along the way and benches and other places to sit and relax were everywhere. It would be fun to own one of the many riverboat houseboats lining the Seine's banks. Most had bicycles on their decks and some larger ones had small cars. Flower pots and small tree pots sat on the decks and it was obvious that some were permanent homes, even though they still floated there on the water.

Tourists are everywhere, with all kinds of different languages being spoken. But, somehow in the beautiful elegance of this unique city, it doesn't seem crowded or noisy or rushed. People just seem, like us, to be very enchanted by all the beauty and culture and seem to be trying somehow to fit into it and respect it and other people, rather than detract in any way from it's enchantment. I think, perhaps like us, they wish other cities could be more like this place, which has done so much so well in planning, design, and preserving it's history and culture. I'm reminded again, especially here, how rather silly and uninformed we sometimes are when we brag a bit too much about our home and state. Many times that's done by some who have really not been to many other places in this beautiful world. After being to over 60 countries, I feel this city is the most beautiful of the large cities I've seen so far.

How in the world did the French somehow instill in its people such a respect for each other and its city's history and culture? That's even evident in the way traffic moves. This is a very busy capital city of almost 500 square miles and 4 million people. But, we seldom heard a horn honk! And, we were constantly amazed at how many bicyclists and small scooters rode smoothly along in the exact same busy traffic lanes and flows with the taxis, busses, and cars! Many of the people on bicycles and scooters were young women and older people who amazingly seemed to have no fear of riding along in between the rest of the traffic and on such narrow streets. We soon learned that it was possible only because everyone was mindful and respectful of the other. At great plazas, like the Concordes, you know, like the ones you've seen in the movies with the great fountains in the middle, there are at least 6 avenues intersecting like spokes on a wheel, and some have 8, 10, and even 12 streets coming to the middle! Amazingly, we only saw one small accident all week. New York, Bangkok, Nairobi, LA, Tokyo, London, Munich, and most other great cities could learn a thing or two from Paris.

A very funny thing happened one day related to all this. We were riding along on the top of the double decker tour bus, when from the rear we heard the blaring of French police horns...you know, the kind of strange honking horns you hear in the movies. It is a bit distracting, because horn honking is very unusual. And, here they came, around 10 big police vans, 2 police busses, and several motorcycles, all trying to get through the busy traffic on the narrow, cobblestone street. Well, they finally made it through. But, about a mile down the road we came across them again, parked along the side of a plaza and looking at a map, and evidently lost! It reminded us of the funny movies of the past where the French police are often portrayed like bumbling, Keystone cops!

The mix between the old and the modern, the rich and the poor, here is really interesting. You see the little boutique shops and then around the corner is some of the most expensive, chic, and very fashionable clothing and jewelry shops in the world. We laugh at the funny little French cars that are literally about the size of the front seat of your car and then suddenly you hear the growl of a Ferrarie or Massarati whizzing by and you realize these streets are the beginning and end of the Grand Prix and the Tour de France. It made me wish we could be here next year when Lance Armstrong makes his try at another championship. Little old French couples walk along hand in hand and then along comes a young French girl on her bike, short skirt and all. The Fall weather is cool, but short skirts are still everywhere, mostly with black tights and heels. Interestingly, they don't seem immodest, but definitely very feminine and romantic. As we walked the Champs de Elysses, some call the most beautiful street in the world, we saw high fashion and design everywhere. Furs, frilly outfits, high, high heels on unique shoes and boots, exotic jewelry in the stores and on display, as some of the very fashion conscious and trend-setting locals strutted their stuff along the famous avenue. The women are elegantly dressed, especially for the evenings, in lots of frills, furs, lace, feathers, very high heels, boots, sometimes way above the knees, short skirts. It was evident some were fashion models and others quite wealthy. Generally, French women are mostly dark-haired, petite, and move and act with a confidence about their femininity and sexuality. The culture also seems sometimes flirtatious and fun. They remind me of Lawana. I like those things about her, too! The men, like most Europeans, seemed a bit feminine at times to us Americans...but, some women don't seem to mind that...instead, maybe thinking it's appealing because they interpret it as more caring and romantic...and, maybe it is! Mixed in with all of this, of course, were other tourists like us, feeling a bit awkward and embarrassed in our tennis shoes and sweatshirts! Oh well. If we'd wanted to, we could have dressed in all the razzle dazzle, too, and fit right in.

At the close of this great week, we reluctantly made preparations to finally head home, after being gone for 6 weeks. We were anxious to see loved ones and friends, but knew we were leaving a very wonderful highlight time in our lives. Both Africa and Paris, though strikingly different, were unique, unforgettable experiences which we will never forget. We feel very fortunate and very blessed to have experienced this adventure. It was especially wonderful to have experienced Paris, the most romantic city in the world, together in the sunset years of our lives!

Love to you all,

Dick and Lawana