(again)

Saturday, September 25th -- Paris, France

When I went to catch my train in Bordeaux, I ran into the Swedish girl, Helen. It turned out that she was headed for Paris as well. The TGV was quite fast, but not particularly awesome. A guy could get sick watching the landscape blur by, though. When we arrived in Paris, Helen and I booked into a hostel. I'd payed for two nights before seeing the place, and regretted it. It turned out to be a residence hall that rents out rooms during the summer when many of the students are gone. There was no life in the place at all. 

We had a beer and a sandwich in a local bar and then went and explored around Notre Dame. We had dinner in a nice restaurant complete with a nice bottle of wine (in Paris, gotta do it). 

The next morning, I decided that even though I'd paid for another night I was going to switch to another place to stay. With only a few days left in my vacation, I can't affored to be in a place that's no fun. I'm now staying a Jules Ferry, one of the main hostels in Paris. It's much more active here. I had fun getting here, though. The metro station didn't have a ticket machine that I could find, and I was in a rush (hostels fill up), so I jumped the turnstile. It was my first time traveling without paying on the Paris metro. I'd done it regularly in other cities, but things are more difficult in Paris. Getting off proved difficult, as I had to get through these doors that open briefly when you insert a ticket and then immediately shut again. I solved this problem by following VERY closely behind a person in front of my. I just barely got my backpack through in time. 

I checked into the hostel and then went to the Louvre. I didn't really want to go, but I felt somewhat duty bound. It was impressive, but there wasn't much I really liked except for some really nice ancient greek sculpture. The French art was to old for me -- it left off at about the point in time where I start getting interested. I saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The only impressive thing was that so many people were crowded around to see the paintings. 

Afterward I went to Musee d'Orsay and fell in love. What a great place! Exactly the kind of stuff I like. It was even better than usual, because there was a special exhibition of a bunch of paintings from the collection of a Dr. Barnes (don't know who he is, but he must be rich) in Philly. Many Renoirs, Monets, Picassos, etc. 

Now it was time to go souvenier shopping. I bought a T-shirt with the Paris metro on it and a Tintin shirt. I bought an old map of Paris from one of the booksellers that set up along the Seine. 

Back at the hostel I met some Americans. We talked about going to see some blues or jazz, but they didn't want to go out until the next day or so. I felt like going somewhere, so I decided to walk over to a jazz club called the New Morning. I'd heard it was pretty expensive, but I figured I'd go check it out anyway. When I got there, I saw that Kenny Neal, the guitar player I'd missed in Bordeaux, was playing. I decided it was fate and that I'd shell out the steep (110ff/$22) cover. At the door, I asked a man what time it was. "Quel heure et il?", I asked, in my best French. "About 8:30," came the response in English. Oh well, at least I tried. 

I had time for dinner, so I went to a Lebonese restaurant I'd seen on my way over. As I started to eat, I noticed that the people sitting at the next table were speaking English and appeared to be from the South. It turned out to be the band! I talked with the keyboard player a bit, and finished my meal 

Back at the club, I ran into the guy who I'd asked the time of. I ended up sitting with him and his wife and a friend of theirs. He was French, but his wife and their friend were from England. The show started, and Kenny could really play guitar! It turned out that he'd been on a tour of France and Africa and they were going back to Louisiana the next morning. Since it was their last day on the tour, they pulled out all the stops. Kenny played guitar, bass, harmonica, and sang well. His brothers played bass and keys. The drummer had played with James Cotton and the Steve Miller Band. It was a really high-energy, free-flowing concert. 

After the show, I walked back to the hostel. I chatted with some people for a while and then crashed. The next morning, I missed breakfast by about five minutes. I went to the Center de Pompidou. It's a really weird building with all of the plumbing on the outside. There was an architecture exhibit that didn't thrill me too much, but it also contained the Musee d'Art Moderne which I really enjoyed. Afterward I went to the Rodin museum. It was extremely impressive. It's located in a large house, and contains almost all of Rodin's famous works (including his famous "The Thinker"). The larger works are located in the gardens outside, and the smaller sculptures are in various rooms of the house. The museum also had several works by Rodin's student, Camille Claudelle, that I recognized from the movie of the same name. 

After leaving the museum, I went to the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery where many famous people are buried. The most popular grave is that of Jim Morrison, and it is never without a surrounding crowd of adoring fans. 

Hope you enjoyed my little tale, 

Mike 
 

Copyright (c) 1995, Mike Oliphant