Paris - City of Artists and Dreamers

Recently I visited Paris with my family. It was a week long and easier than I expected it would be. So what did I think of Paris? Somehow, it was charming and arrogant at the same time, historic and modern, mindblowing and impressive. I like to think of touristy Paris as a giant theme park called Art & Culture Land which has rides like 'Museum Jump' and games like 'Red Wine Swill' and visitors who wear berets, like Disneyland visitors wear their mouse ears. But that is not the Paris I will make nostalgias of. I want to remember the Paris of Artists and Dreamers. Here are a few of my favourite excerpts from my diary of the trip:

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Paris
19th March

"It's so strange to write the words 'Paris, 19th March' on my diary. That is something I imagine is a copyright phrase of aspiring authors and the characters created by them, used to begin a description of their often romantic, often lawless, but always entertaining adventures in Europe and here I finally am."

20th March

"Our first close up view of the Eiffel Tower was from a park across the Seine, the perfect view in my opinion. It was probably also the perfect spot for a sunset picnic. It is quite odd to actually see this giant structure in reality after all the many times you see it on TV."

"We bought a five day metro pass and dove into the world below. The Parisian undergroun is a world of its own and definitely has a lot more character than the one in Copenhagen, but not as much as the one in London. What can I say? I am biased."

"After heading back to the hotel for a siesta of sorts, we dined on the Champs Elysees at a nautical themed restaurant where dishy waiters walked around dressed as sailors. Our waiter was a handsome fellow with a heavy charming French accent. The highlight of the dinner was when we ordered mojitos and I ordered one with champagne in it, aptly titled 'Bubble mojito'. Mr. Sailor Waiter repeated our order as follows, "Deux mojitos et un bebble. Oui?" After that I insisted on calling myself Bebble."

21st March

"Here I must mention and endorse the Lonely Planet as an I-Ching for travellers. In it was written very clearly how one could jump the queue at the Louvre by buying tickets at the Virgin Mega Store instead. Thus, we breezed through, okay, not exactly breezed through the line but atleast our wait wasn't longer than 30 minutes while others languished for eons outside the glass pyramid."

"The Louvre was not at all what I expected a museum to be; it was crowded, noisy and confusing. Our first goal was to pay our respect to the Mona Lisa which was much smaller than expected. I ended up taking more pictures of the crowd that stared at it agape than I did of the actual painting. After lunch in the over crowded self service cafeteria, we headed up to the less frequented Northern European sections. The lack of thronging masses was like a breath of fresh air."

22nd March

"I now know why it was good to be the King of France. The view from the top step of the grounds of Chateau des Versailles of the rolling battlements is spectacular. It is so majestic that you really do feel that you own all the land as far as the eye can see. It was magical walking in the grounds watching the play of sunlight and cloud shadow in the wind and the sky's reflection in the water of the fountains. Also adding to the atmosphere was the stately Baroque music. There was one piece especially with heavy downbow notes for the violins and lots of intricacy from the cellos, that I enjoyed. Dad bought himself a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice from the grounds and Mom made us wait there till 15:30 to witness the splendid fountain displays. A few photographs, many 'oohs' and a rainbow sighting later we headed back to the train station."

"The boat cruise along the Seine was perfect. The sky cleared up and the sun shone down. It was like a trip to the past and back. I enjoyed the sights. The guide on the boat was impressive as she spoke French, English, Spanish, Italian, German and Russian fluently, translating everything immediately. I saw the Notre Dame and learnt that its bells have names - Francois, Petite Sofie and big Emmanuel who is sounded only at important events and rings out in a loud F#. I learnt that D'Artagnan actually did live in Paris. I learnt that the oldest bridge in Paris is actually called Pont Neuf which means New Bridge and that second hand book sellers have been selling subversive banned literature there since it was built. I also heard that Joe Dassin song, 'Aux Champs Elysees'. Its so strange but everytime I walk on the Champs Elysees, I actually start humming that song."

23rd March

"The Metro station close to the Sacre Coeur is called Abssesses. I guess that means abyss in French because no other description better fits that station. The exit from the station was a wide spiral staircase that seemed to wind its up forever. Along the way, there were paintings and depictions of Parisian life above, which was quite pleasant. "

"It was a beautiful day outside and we walked up the gently ascending staircase to the Basilique Sacre-Coeur. Tourists and believers flocked everywhere but despite the thronging masses, it was beautiful. There was a spectacular view of Paris from the terrace half way up. Of course, the whole situation was enhanced by the harpist busking on the steps. I almost died of sheer joy looking out onto the City of Lights listening to Concerto de Aranjuez on the harp. One of those moments you want to capture for future nostalgias as Vikram Seth put it. Inside the Sacre-Coeur on Easter Sunday was a moving experience. It was crowded with a lot of disrespectful tourists, but somehow still blissful and calming. It reminded me very much of Tirupathi as there few places of worship where you are enveloped in such an atmosphere of calm despite the crowd."

"After lunch we walked around what seemed a shady part of town, near the metro station, Barbes Rochechouart. One metro ride later and we were in a completely different world - the peaceful suburb of La Muette, home to the Musee Marmottan Monet. Here for the second time in my life, I saw a Morisot up close and I confess I am in love. While Monet is the undisputed King of Impressionism, something about Morisot strikes a chord in me."

24th March

"I was up late as usual reading my Mansfield. The highlight of this trip has been my discovery of the Morisot and Mansfield Joys of Life. I was reading a story of a French writer who lives in Paris. The story describes his life, his apartment with sloping walls and views of the rooftops of Paris, the cafe lifestyle and I couldn't help but smile as I looked onto the sloping walls of my hotel room with its views of Parisian rooftops."

25th March

"Mom, Dad and I breakfasted in Cafe Pomme du Pain on Champs Elysees. We ate our croissants and coffee while sitting on the upper floor watch life float by on Champs Elysees and that was an awesome feeling. Watching the women with high heels stumble, the lost tourists unfurling the maps while busy Parisians went about their lives as usual. Watching the world go by. "

Lobbyists, Tintin and European Commission visits...

The drive to Brussels from Strasbourg took far longer than it should have. Our driver was a certifiable Hari Sadu. I remember how on the trip to Strasbourg he yelled at Mads because he thought Mads had dropped boiled egg on his seat, when actually it was Alex. The Rules of the Bus were as follows:
1) No Food.
2) No Drinks.
3) No using the microwave.
4) Stops at overpriced pit stops every two hours.
Oh well, you cant have everything, I suppose.. It was kinda cool the way we drove through three countries though - France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Brussels was a lot busier than Strasbourg. A lot of other parties to visit other than just European Union buildings. Our group was divided into two groups - staying at 2 different hotels - Manhattan and Arlequin. Hotel Manhattan where I was staying was a dingy old city hotel, two-star (you will see why this is relevant soon) which was in the red-light district and across the street from a strip club, which served us a stale roll for breakfast every morning. Hotel Arlequin where the others were staying was a three star, modern swank building, with a roof top breakfast lounge to envy. I think it is needless to say that we Manhattan people were jealous.

Anyway, the first day we arrived, we had a lecture by a Danish journalist who filled us in on the basic "wassup" with the European Union and how the future of any European Constitution hinges on Ireland's ratification of the Lisbon treaty. It was interesting to watch how the American students ask questions sometimes. Felt to me like they were challenging the speaker all the time.

The next morning we did a quite a bit of sight seeing the next morning. We walked everywhere from the Royal Palace to the Cathedral to the Tintin museum. That was fun. In the evening, we met a lobbyist for the Danish Shipowners Association who had prepared a powerpoint but unfortunately the hotel didnt have a projector so we had to imagine all his slides. And after that we went to Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office which had really good cookies. But not before Ole got us lost... :) That was really exciting for the Hong Kong students and understandably so.

In the evening, we all had a dinner in a restaurant on the restaurant street. Meriam had managed to in her adorable French get us a good deal so all 44 of us filled their restaurants. I sat next to Andrew and across from Oliver and Beth. And we participated in what was the Beth Challenge - getting Beth to talk to us. And she did. We got to know about her life, her hobbies, even her love life. And I am eager to see the beach in Hong Kong because a lot seems to happen there. Hmm.. I must explore this.

The next day was a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce. None of the speakers there were even American - one was British and the other was Italian but they did a good job teaching us about lobbying the European Parliament. That was a very good presentation, indeed. We loafed around for a bit after that. Thu, Meriam, Jessica Tou and I had the best hot chocolate ever at a place close to the Danish Embassy there. The speaker at the Danish Embassy successfully managed to put all of us to sleep with his exact literal translation of Danish proverbs into English.

On our final day, we visited the European Commission which was really cool. The chairs on which we were seated actually had microphones next to them with translation functions. We actually got to talk to some from the department of External Affairs on the EU's stand on Tibet and David and Jessica grilled him on the EU's stand on Taiwan. That was an awesome moment. The EU has no real foreign affairs policy. Its all just talk.

After that was over we had some free time to pay our homage to the chocolate shops and Belgian Waffle. But before we sank our waffles into any waffles, we went to see the Atomium and by we, I mean, Awika, JTou, Thais, Sofia and I.. Sofia was too cute because for some reason she couldnt stop smiling. The Atomium was cool, especially considering it was built in the 1950s. After that we headed to Manneken Piss, or as someone famously said, "That little piss.." because the waffle shop next to it is supposed to have the best waffles ever.. And it was true. I had one with white chocolate sauce and dark chocolate sauce. yum..

After that we went to buy chocolate from this cute chocolate shop where the Belgian lady got very excited when she found out I was from India and she told me how much she cried when she saw Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Bollywood gets everywhere. Just outside the shop was a little bazaar of sorts and it was a charming experience buying perfume from a perfumer actually from Grasse who was selling his perfumes in big vats. And they were really good and cheap too. He really knew his stuff. I made him smell the cherry blossom one that I liked and he was able to suggest a perfume that I really loved.

Nothing much after that. Just the trip back home, which was fairly uneventful except Justin and Andrew lost money gambling on a slot machine in the middle of Germany at 2 in the morning. After getting back on the bus though, Andrew and I started what came to be known as the Kelvin Challenge - similar to the Beth Challenge. It wasn't as successful though. The rest of the night was merely a musical chairs games of seats on the bus. Eventually though we reached Copenhagen, and there were teary goodbyes and hugs like we would never see each other again. A feeling of fellowship. Perfect.

Off to Germany for tequila flavoured beer...

Our study trip to Brussels and Strasbourg was perhaps the best first bonding experience we had in the GLOBE programme. We departed from Solbjerg Plads at midnight on the Saturday for Strasbourg and everyone had come prepared with their pillows and blankets. I suppose I was one of the only ones in our entire GLOBE class of 44 that was excited about the road trip to Strasbourg - that 14 hour long bus ride. As I told Razz (Rasmus) as we drove out of Copenhagen, who I ended up sitting next to for the whole trip, "I want to see what it feels like to drive on the Autobahn. I wonder how fast we will go." Razz burst my bubble though just by saying, "How fast do you think we can go in a bus?"
Anyways, as the trip got underway, the back row got progressively more drunk and our part of the bus swang between more chatty and less chatty. Finally though, I think a lot of people had dozed off when we stopped near the Danish-German border to refill the tank and a lot of disoriented GLOBErs got off wondering which planet they were on, let alone which country.

Our next pit stop was at breakfast time inside Germany, where for the first time, Meriam uttered the historic words of "Geghocten Aeg" which means boiled egg (I think). The rest of the bus ride was pretty uneventful. We watched a Danish film called The Flickering Lights and I finally understand what they mean by dark humour. I dont think I could get the humour in it. In my opinion, the highlight of that trip was crossing the bridge over the Rhine from Germany into France. After having heard so much of that historic river, I think that was really awesome.

Strasbourg is a really small town in the historic French district of Alsace. The reason we went there was because that was where the European Parliament was at the time. So we actually got to visit the European Parliament building which was awesome and talk to an MEP.

Jessica, Yvonne and I also visited the Strasbourg history museum with Ole, which was nice. It was great to go with him because that just meant that none of us had to read any of the signs. He just told us the history and we talked about our own family histories. It was a cosy time.

Another more social highlight from the trip was the night we were chilling and walked all the way to Germany to buy beer. Really not that far. In fact it was closer to go to Germany then it was to go into town from where our racy (literally, as it was called Hotel F1) hotel was. We sang, bought tequila flavoured beer, ran down hills, gave each other nicknames and chatted till 2 in the night. It was glorious and it was people from all three schools. Truly, an international feeling.