Parisssing around

Sights: Paris is decadent, I mean look at these places.

Jardin du Luxemborug: A beautiful park and garden.

Notre Dame: Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame to save the cathedral because people wanted to tear it down. It worked :)

The Louvre: Lots of beautiful art, my favorite was the Egyptian art (even if Napoleon stole it). Also, really enjoyed the Islamic Art section.

Everyone is crowding around the Venus de Milo, but look at this classy lady!

I loved this face found in the Ancient Greek section. Have never seen anything like it.

Mona Lisa maddddness!!! Apparently, no one gave a shit about the Mona Lisa until it was stolen. And now we have this:

Well over a hundred people crowding around

Selfie stick to the rescue

Joel here for an extended rant: In the far back downstairs corner of the Louvre, hidden away from all of the other sections (where you actually have to go upstairs and then back down to get to it...we had to ask three different people for help to actually find it) is the "Arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas" room. Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas? Umm fuck you Louvre, bite-my-scab France, and stick-it-in-your-blowhole Europe. How about the Non-Europe Room, or the Every-Inhabited-Contient-in-the-World-but-Europe Room, maybe the 88%-of-Humanity Room? Not only that but the sign at the entrance to this sad room described it as art from "four continents". FOUR? Are they not counting Oceania...or is North and South America lumped into one? If any continent is fake/arbitrary it's very clearly Europe. Oh and then there's the art: this room dedicated to the art of 85% of the earth's land mass contains around 25 pieces - including three (!!!) from Oceania, about six (!!!) from Asia, and maybe eight each from Africa and America. Now the Louvre does have a lot of beautiful Islamic and Egyptian art that France looted back in the day, but all of that is kept distinctly separate from this. So why even bother with this room Louvre? The Sac State Art Museum (my alma mater!) has quite a bit more non-European art than this. I think there might even be some Peet's Coffee's that have more. You're one of the largest museums in the world: either keep your museum in pre-19th century Europe and get rid of this pathetic excuse of a room, or try and get an-at-least displayable amount of art from those other continents and take them out of your damned basement.
Anyways here's some a few pieces that stood out to us from this room:

The Eiffel Tower: Aside from knowing what it looked like and where it was I knew nothing else about it. What I learned: it was meant to be temporary and taken apart after 20 years, it was built for a World's Fair, the creator lived in it, the creator saved it by putting an antenna on the top. (Also side note: after Paris hosted the World's Fair it was Chicago's turn. So Chicago had to come up with something as impressive/awe-inspiring as the Eiffel Tower, and this is how the Ferris Wheel came about.)

As Joel says: Underneath the skirt of the Eiffel Tower "Up-skirt!"

Oh shit! The sparkle lights are on...it's actually a bit cheesy looking. The tower just doesn't need to extra make-up.

Père Lachaise Cemetery: A beautiful old cemetery filled with a ton famous people's corpses (Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Gertrude Stein, Balzac, Proust, Marcel Marceau, Pissarro, Georges Méliès, Max Ernst, among others) and some very impressive memorials.

Oscar Wilde

Jim Morrison

Gertrude Stein

Max Ernst

 




































Water: There are beautiful canals, AND they give you tap water at restaurants, without charge!!!!!

 

This is not the original Love Bridge. They had to close it down because the even weight of the locks was causing too much damage to the bridge. The unbearable weight occurred after the Sex and the City movie. The last scene is Carrie and Mr. Big on the bridge and so lots of people decided they should mark their love on the bridge too. I mean, if it's good enough for Mr. Big and Carrie, than it's good enough for them. 

Food: Paris is not a good place to be budgeting. We won't spend more than 15 euros each for a meal ($16.72 USD) so our dining experiences were less than spectacular. I think we'd be willing to spend more if we knew that we were getting something good but we don't know where those places are. And this isn't just Paris, we have the same issue everywhere.

The outer neighborhoods: All the photos I have seen of Paris have been from the inner neighborhoods, so having seen walked around the inner neighborhoods we took a day to see some outer neighborhoods. We went to Little Sri Lanka and a Chinatown.

The people: Paris (and France in general) gets a bad rap and I've heard many a tale of French-hating-Americans. People here were as nice/not nice as the other countries we've been to. Sure, they always speak to you in French even though they speak English but I liked being out of my comfort zone in that way. 

In a moment you will read my personal opinion. This means, I am not trying to change your opinion, okay? Here is my opinion: Paris is a'ight. I know people love this city and know that for many this is their favorite city they have ever visited, it's just not my cup of tea city-wise. And don't get me wrong, it's a beeeeautiful city and I would never tell someone not to visit Paris, it's just a city that didn't resonate with me.

Joel says: Agreed. I feel like a jerk not loving Paris but I didn't love it...it was just so damned precious. I mean the city is beautiful, the history is amazing, and the transit is superb. Just didn't connect with me. Maybe I just needed to spend more time outside the tourist areas but I was hoping for a little more Belmondo and a little less Boutiqueo.

Observations:
Birkenstocks are most definitely not in style in Paris.
Vans are very in style in Paris, you see people looking stylish and wearing Vans and lots of Vans ads.
People in the inner neighborhoods wear A LOT of black.
Parisians love New York. Tons of NY themed restaurants, articles of clothing, and was even a Brooklyn-mania festival going on.