Paris

July 21st-25th (1st stop)

My first day in Europe kinda took me by surprise. I had finished working at camp for 5 weeks where I didn't have much time to think about anything else and then the day after I left Bowen island I ended up checking into a cheap french hotel and walking the streets of Paris. My first day in Paris was my only day alone in europe so far and it was a nice period to get acclimatized. Knowing that I would be seeing the traditional sites with Sarah and her friend Alex over the next few days I just walked around, past countless bakeries and sandwhich shops, listening to a language I hadn't heard in a while and to the constant hum of scooters and enjoying loads of monuments/church facades that date back to before my country was even a country. All this only 2 years after living in and learning about Calgary, a city of 1 million people that wasn't even discovered by pioneers until the 1870's. Let's just say I found it fitting when I walked past my first ever palm tree later that day and sat down in the Luxembourg gardens to listen to an ochestral play the Disney tune "A Whole New World". TV by the way does a really good job of portraying what palm trees look like, I wasn't even surprised when I saw one. Until I realized that Paris is farther north than Ottawa, aren't they a hot climate tree?

Over the next 4 days we, as predicted, saw most of the traditional sites, and took in everything in between. We enjoyed the outside, the inside and the view from the top of the Notre Dame cathedral all on seperate days. What it lacks in colour compared to the Notre Dame Bascilica in Montreal, it makes up for with history and its incredible detail. I won't bore you with any facts but one, it took 200 years to build. I'm talking years with 365 days each!

We also went on our first free tour, which we discovered isn't that strange of a thing in Europe. They toured us around the city, showed us loads of great sites and filled us with history and knowledge I may have been too lazy to look up myself. It was a great introduction of the city and also began an extensive World War lesson which was updated at nearly every european stop after Paris. The police department downtown still has bullet holes from WW2 which I found incredible.

Here are some of the other highlights:

-Ham and Cheese crepe: I had never even thought of a savoury crepe; I hope to try this with pancakes upon my return.
-Not the Louvre: if you spent 30 seconds on each piece in the Louvre it would take 68 days without pause to finish, so we surrendered in advance and didn't go.
-1900 World Exposition: Although I didn't attend, I wish that I had. Practically half of Paris was built for that exposition including the most beautiful bridge there, the equally impressive Grand and Petit palaces as well as Paris' metro system.
- Eiffel Tower: Oh! you've heard of it? well I liked it. We visited in the evening and its really nice up close and light up. Sitting there in front of it was also a strong reminder of how not in Canada I was.
-Staying dry: The weather was great and I was very tempted to jump in the Seine river since I travel in swimsuits until I discovered that still today, during especially heavy rainfall, city sludge is added to the mix.
- Signing the song "Champs Elysees" while walking down the same famous street and having someone close by join in.
-Tour story: Finding out that during the Germans' retreat, Hitler ordered a commander to have Paris decimated and the commander for whatever reason, staged it, saving pretty well the whole city.

Having a few days before meeting a friend in Berlin we picked up train tickets to Brussels for the next day and that was our visit to Paris in brief. We missed Versailles but I plan to see it before Canada happens again.