When we first drove into Paris, I was disappointed. The city looked nothing like I had expected. The metro was old and confusing, and the streets were small and filled with perplexing traffic. I was surprised by the number of people that smoke in Europe, and especially Paris. I saw people of all ages, ethnicities, and classes smoking. During one dinner, I was sitting next to a man who was continuously blowing smoke onto my pizza, and it was not a pleasant experience. The smokers in Europe makes me wonder if they have the same level of anti-smoking education as schools do in the United States. I saw a lot of boarded up shops, homeless people, street vendors selling cheap and low quality wares, and some seemingly unsafe neighborhoods. Of course, these things exist in every major metropolitan area, but Paris is shown as a romantic city that is better than all other cities.
After the initial let down, I discovered the beauty of Paris. I saw things that I had dreamed of seeing for years: the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Pont Bir Hakiem (the bridge from Inception).
The style of the French people is beautiful and sophisticated, as are their buildings and their use of poetry. The Eiffel Tower was all that I dreamed it would be, except that it was very geared towards tourists with multiple street vendors and long ticket lines. The Louvre was incredibly extensive, so much so that I could go there five times and discover something new and wonderful with each visit. Katie Holman, Kelly Pilarski and I walked around for hours and only saw the Italian and Spanish paintings, sculptures from assorted areas around the globe, Napoleon III’s apartments, and a few other small sections. The diversity of people at both of these popular sites was astonishing. There were tourists from all around the world, speaking different languages and some wearing their traditional dress, like saris and dashikis. However, even with all of the diversity, we ended up sitting next to a group of Ohio State students at the Eiffel Tower. The university was right when they said that there are OSU students and alumni all over the world.
Everywhere I turned in Paris, there was a monument or plaque commemorating an event in French history. There was a memorial to an unknown soldier of World War I under l’Arc de Triumph that had an eternal flame and beautiful flowers. I saw multiple plaques on street corners in rememberance of resistance fighters who had been killed at that spot, not to mention the Memorial of the Deportation where I gave my site report. This memorial was in memory of everyone who was deported from France to Nazi concentration camps under the Vichy Regime, and it was located near Notre Dame.
The memorial to the unknown soldier
Paris was a fascinating and unique city, but don’t be fooled by the media. You probably won’t find true love under the Eiffel Tower.