Hello, how are you?
Guess where I've been last weekend. Yup. Paris, the City of Love. Riiiiiiight.
What I am telling you maybe a bit different than what you expected. Even what I expected. But that's what I experienced. Maybe it's just another face of Paris, and it's certainly not the "lovely" part. But at least I found a great thing, one great thing.
Three of us - my friend Anne, Ira and myself went to Paris on 20 - 22 August 2010 by Rainbow tour bus. First fact, none of us had been to Paris. Second, we took the tour without program (cheapest one, 69 euro) - meant that we would be dropped in one place and we would have our own tour. They just gave us the map. Third, it's fasting month, so for me and Ira it would be another challenge.
Well, at least before I went, my friend Ratna gave me some clues and pointers on how we would do the tour. Basically, we might get lost but we would be lost together. So, no problem.
The trip from Hannover to Paris took about ten hours, starting 8 p.m. I broke my fasting and had
sahur on the bus. The long trip certainly made my bones crampped here and there.
Straight to the tour. In the morning, before they dropped us, we passed a place called red city. It's where movies Moulin Rouge and Amelie took place. I even saw
the Moulin Rouge itself. You know, at night maybe this street looks bright and glamorous and such, but during the day..ahem..not so much. It was even gloomy. It's like when you meet a beautiful lady with a load of make up and shinny outfit on the stage during night, where you feel amazed and intoxicated. But after the show, when she removes her make up and costumes, you just see an aging lady with wrinkles, tired and need a break or vacation to rejuvenate her spirit.
Or maybe I just make the wrong analogy.
So, we were then taken to Sacre Coeur. It's white church which looked like a mosque. That's how I saw it. It' s indeed very beautiful. It's sitting on a high place, looked so grand and amazing. Too bad it was not well cleaned, the surrounding, I mean. First time I went up to the stairs, the smell hit me hard. Someone peed in this place. No, some people. Coz the smell was everywhere. Oh, man. Not only that. Garbage scattered around. Hey hey hey...
My friend started to compare Paris to Deutschland, or at least Goettingen. You would not find such dirty scene in Deutschland, she said. This is a holly place and it shouldn't be dirty, she added. I nodded while keeping my nose closed due to the strong smell. Some people really need diapers.
Question raised, is this Paris or Pee-ris?
Oh yeah, before we go far, we had company for this "lost in translation" tour. His name is Carlos, a mexican boy (he just graduated from high school) and fortunately could speak French. We heard not so many people in Paris (want to) speak English, so we brought him along. He was alone anyway. So it's kind of win win solution.
We made a discussion about the route we would take in one of spot which didn't smell like toilet. We read the map and the metro - subway - directions. After this place, we decided to go to Louvre Museum.
If you think the only place that smells pee is Sacre Coeur yard, think again. Even in the subway, we smell that. Isn't lovely? Then the comparison between Paris and Deutschland was on again. The subway train, called Metro, is one of busiest transportation in town. They comes about every three minutes to six. And many people were on them. We suspect they were full of tourists, just like us coz we heard different languages and people with maps. Moreover it was weekend.
We arrived in Louvre Museum, the place where Robert Langdon of the Da Vinci Code started and ended his investigation. This museum was indeed so big and beautiful. We didn't buy ticket to enter the museum, just peeping from the glass the arts of the world there and walked through the door to the glass pyramids outside for pictures.
The beautiful things about this museum, you will find in websites or brochure. I will tell you "other" scenery. I thought only in Indonesia where some people sell things directly to customers. But hey, here around Louvre, we met some men offering cold mineral water for one euro with that specific selling tone, "one euro..one euro..one euro". And there's alternative beggars. These beggars - mostly women, were one step higher than the common ones, because the bring cards with many languages, depends on your nationality. When you speak English, they show you the card of, for instance "Please give me money, my mother is in hospital". When you speak other languange, they will show you the other card. I really wanted to speak javanese to her, so that she would make a new card. But, I was too busy taking pictures, so I ignored. Sorry.
It was hot sunny day and I began to feel thirsty. And oh we still had a whole day. Would I be strong enough? My friend Anne had already some problem with the heat. Her skin started to itch and her eye was a bit swollen. Good thing Ira brought medical equipments with her.
Next stop we went to Notre Dame. Oh, I almost forget. We went everywhere with metro. We bought one day ticket. It was actually 9.9 euro for adult. But since Carlos bought it for us, and the ticket guy thought all of us were under 26 years old, we got cheaper price. It's like 3.40 euro per person. Yaaaay...!
Back to Notre Dame. In this fierce temperature, many people were lining up to get to the church and climb up. The queue was even reached to the entrance. Our goal was photo shoot, so we didn't bother to get in. Reaching to the next agenda, lunch in the park, we went back to Tuilerie garden. This garden was like heaven for kids coz there were plenty of rides here, from carousel, ferris wheel, boom boom car, ect. And for the adults, mostly they enjoyed sitting under the trees, in the shadow due to the heat.
We looked for a seat under one of the maple trees in this artificial forest. Oh, what a relief to get a breeze. Combination of lack of sleep, tiredness, hunger and thirst, Ira and I began to feel sleepy, while Carlos and Anne had their lunch.
The idea of Paris tour in one day on foot sounded a bit ridiculous then. Yes, you can go to most places for short period of time, but you'll get broken legs after that. But, we were survivors. We could handle it. So, we moved again after got some rest.
Now, we were leading to Arc de Triomphe, the center of Place Charles de Gaulle. It's that big gate which led to one of the famous street, Champs de Elysees. This street is full of luxurious expensive butiques which we, common people, find it difficult to understand how they come to such crazy price. A 1,500 euro jacket is a joke, for me. I'd better use the money for a down payment of house mortgage.
Anyway, we did wanted to walk down along this sophisticated avenue, but you know what, due to our misreading the map, we took the very opposite street. Yup. And what we saw were only Honda, Yamaha and other autoshops. We realized that we were in the wrong place when we reached Palais des Congress, a big show-case for social, economic and culutral activities that we thought a mal. We went there anyway, just to find restroom. I needed to answer mother nature call. Actually, we have tried to look for toilet along the way. But here in Paris, we should be a customer of restaurant to get into the toilet, otherwise it's a no no eventhough on the street there's a sign of "toilet 50 m". But, at least in that Palais des Congress I found clean, beautiful restroom where I cound freshen up, and not rejected by waiter or receptionist. Hah!
Going to Paris without seeing Eiffel is not official. So we went. Many tourists were there. Literally. And street vendors were everywhere, mostly african people and arab (the faces look like ones). I wonder where the real Parisians are.
The Eiffel tower. Very famous monument where lovers go, women/men proposed, couple get married. Those wonderful drama. But here from the back (we, again, made a different turn), the view was not that dramatic. Beside the pee smell, the grass field was full of trashes. Looks like football field after the match where spectators left their stuffs. There are two explanations possible for this. One is, too many people - tourists that are reckless and not aware of the importance of cleanliness, or two, the city doesn't really care. For me, it's both. To clean such large landmark, we need good equipment. Harry Potter's broom is not sufficient to get rid of those garbage, but yet, that's what I saw. They still use that broom. It's surely great if it's the real Harry Potter's coz it can do magical stuffs and surely will clean very fast, but unfortunately not.
In Deustchland they have machine to sweep the street and people picking up trashes, but here? Ah, I am really dissapointed. Where do the money from the tourist go? Anne, again, did a comparison. I think the more we see and go, the more the comparison..hehe.
It is said on the train station that the one day ticket valid up to 5.30 p.m. And it was around 7 p.m already. Gambling, we punched the ticket to the machine when we went back to Champs de Elysee. It passed. Yes, so we didn't need to buy new ticket.
Since the first stop, I was the map reader, but after Eiffel, my battery was low, only 30% left. Ira joined the group of not fasting, by nature, so when I heard they ate juicy apples, I was in pain... Ira then became the next reader. I just hope I could end this day with glory of fasting after such long, hot, tiring journey.
We reached the meeting point for going home, Petit Palais. For your information, we would go back to Germany at 00.30 a.m. We actually subscribed for Paris in light tour at 11.30 p.m, to see Paris at night. Since it was still some hours to go, we decided to have dinner, and specially for me, breaking fasting. We stayed in the park up to 8.15 p.m near Petit Palais, and went for the meal nearby. This place was actually full of cafes and restaurants, but the price..oh..expensive. We walked and walked in desperation, until we saw a big letter M in yellow light. Oh, thank God, McDonald! I had been imagining ice cream all day. Sunday chocolate melting in my tongue... oh, yum yum.
Well, guess what, that M thing was a mistake. You can imagine how dissapointed and feeling silly we were when we realized it was a logo for Metro, not burger-fried chicken-french fries McDonald!
We had to walk again and I was nearly crying of hunger and thirst. Evey place seemed expensive and we didn't have anymore energy. We then decided to take japanese food. After queueing for a while, we got a table in a japanese restaurant with real japanese young men running it. This, is actually the great thing I mentioned above. Not the monuments, the artistic bulidings, the famous landmark. It's the eating tamagoyaki and chicken gyoza that really made my day.
They were super delicious (perhaps my fasting added more flavour to them). All the pain went away when the food crushed in my mouth. Plus, we got to use the toilet after that. Oh, heaven...
At 11.30 p.m we join the last tour, Paris at night. We were supposed to see some beautiful buildings in light during the trip. We even had chance to go out for photo shoot in some stops. But you know what? Once we sat on the bus, we slept. Yup. All the way. Paris at night was just a dream...
P.S. My friend did saw men peeing behind the trees and found (don't imagine) poo on one of subway tunnel.. Eww...
