It turns out that it costs a lot more air miles to fly back to the United States from Casablanca, since it's in Africa, than from Europe, so we ended up going to Paris for one night in order to fly back more cheaply. In fact, there's actually a direct flight from Paris to Cleveland, which was really convenient. Most flights to Europe stop in Newark (at least on Continental), and not having that layover really saves a lot of hassel.
This was my fourth time in Paris, so it didn't matter that much that we didn't have a lot of time to see things. Paris is France's capital, one of the largest cities in Europe at almost 10 million inhabitants, and the most touristed city in the world. Downtown is divided by the river Seine into two halves: la rive droit (the right bank) and la rive gauche (the left bank), and one could easily spend weeks there and still not get to see everything. Since we only had one night, we spent most of it taking a boat cruise down the river Seine.
This was my fourth time in Paris, so it didn't matter that much that we didn't have a lot of time to see things. Paris is France's capital, one of the largest cities in Europe at almost 10 million inhabitants, and the most touristed city in the world. Downtown is divided by the river Seine into two halves: la rive droit (the right bank) and la rive gauche (the left bank), and one could easily spend weeks there and still not get to see everything. Since we only had one night, we spent most of it taking a boat cruise down the river Seine.
Here's a map of the city so you can kind of figure out where some of the main landmarks are located:
We took a taxi from the Charles de Gaulle airport to le Tour Eiffel, which was completed in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel for the World's Fair. The tower was actually almost torn down in 1909, but saved due to its use as a telegraphy antenna. Now, it's the symbol of Paris and the lines to go up it are very long. The first time I was in Paris, we waited hours in order to get to the top, so we didn't really feel like wasting all night doing it again this time around.
After dinner next to the Seine, we left on our boat cruise down the river:
We passed L'île de la Cité, an island in the middle of the city that is home to Notre Dame Cathedral, made famous through Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and Disney's movie of the same title.
One of the many bridges we went under on the Seine:
le Tour Eiffel:
Even though many people speak English in Paris, it's hard to get around not knowing any French. Through being in Morocco and Paris, my year of French II in high school started coming back to me little by little, though it's nowhere near the level of my Spanish or German. But hey, at dinner I did manage to ask for french fries by saying "Il y a pommes de terre?". I was proud of myself. =) Here are a few good words to know in French, in case you're going somewhere where they speak it:
Bonjour: Good morning
Bonsoir: Good evening
Merci: Thank You
De rien: You're welcome
Je voudrais...: I would like...
Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinc...: one, two, three, four, five
S'il vous plait: Please
French has a very archaic spelling system, like English, and several letters are not pronounced, mostly at the ends of words. S's and T's aren't pronounced at the end of words, for example, unless the following word starts with a vowel. It's hard to learn spelling and pronunciation in French at first, but pretty soon you get the hang of it. There's also a lot of cognates with Spanish, so sometimes I can get away with "french-ifying" Spanish words that I already know.
Bonjour: Good morning
Bonsoir: Good evening
Merci: Thank You
De rien: You're welcome
Je voudrais...: I would like...
Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinc...: one, two, three, four, five
S'il vous plait: Please
French has a very archaic spelling system, like English, and several letters are not pronounced, mostly at the ends of words. S's and T's aren't pronounced at the end of words, for example, unless the following word starts with a vowel. It's hard to learn spelling and pronunciation in French at first, but pretty soon you get the hang of it. There's also a lot of cognates with Spanish, so sometimes I can get away with "french-ifying" Spanish words that I already know.
After dinner next to the Seine, we left on our boat cruise down the river:
We passed L'île de la Cité, an island in the middle of the city that is home to Notre Dame Cathedral, made famous through Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and Disney's movie of the same title.
One of the many bridges we went under on the Seine:
On our way down the Seine, we noticed about 15 policemen looking at something on the docks and sidewalk next to the river. Then we noticed one of them holding up a body bag...uh...
Another shot of le Tour Eiffel at night, complete with cars passing in front:
And one more:
Anyway, after about an hour on the boat (actually a little more since one woman got sick and had to have an emergency evacuation to a hospital), we got back to le Tour Eiffel, which was at the moment having an impressive light show:
Another shot of le Tour Eiffel at night, complete with cars passing in front:
And one more:
It took us about 20 minutes of fighting with other tourists to flag down a taxi back to our airport hotel, but we finally made it back around midnight. Since this time around in Paris I didn't really get to see too much, I thought I'd post some pictures from a few years ago of the major sights.
The Louvre art museum, on the banks of the Seine:
A better view of Notre Dame, during the day:
The Moulin Rouge nightclub in Montmartre, on la rive droit, is now mostly the home of tourist shows reminiscent of Las Vegas:
Sacré Coeur Basilica is near the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre and overlooks the rest of Paris:
Champs Élysées, Paris' famed shopping street, with l'Arc de Triomphe silhouetted at its end at la Place de l'Étoile, a massive roundabout where over 10 streets come together:
One of the art nouveau styled entrances of the Paris' metro:
La Palais de Justice and Sainte Chapelle Cathedral:
Sainte Chapelle, known for its large proportion of stained glass, is in my opinion much nicer inside than the more visited Notre Dame Cathedral:
A better view of Notre Dame, during the day:
The Moulin Rouge nightclub in Montmartre, on la rive droit, is now mostly the home of tourist shows reminiscent of Las Vegas:
Sacré Coeur Basilica is near the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre and overlooks the rest of Paris:
Champs Élysées, Paris' famed shopping street, with l'Arc de Triomphe silhouetted at its end at la Place de l'Étoile, a massive roundabout where over 10 streets come together:
One of the art nouveau styled entrances of the Paris' metro:
La Palais de Justice and Sainte Chapelle Cathedral:
Sainte Chapelle, known for its large proportion of stained glass, is in my opinion much nicer inside than the more visited Notre Dame Cathedral:
Of course, that really only scratches the surface of Paris. It all depends on how much time you have there. We flew out of Paris Tuesday morning and I got back to Cleveland that afternoon. I'm still a bit jetlagged (I got up at 4:30am yesterday, being unable to sleep any later!), but I need to start getting ready for the upcoming school year. I will keep posting on this blog when I travel somewhere interesting, and if you want to keep reading it please keep it in your bookmarks as I will no longer be sending the summer email list notifications when I update. I hope you all take care and enjoy your last few weeks of summer!
Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris:
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