Paris, France

A quick google search will reveal about 300 different government plans to release free wifi (pronounced ‘weefee’ in French) in all of the public places in Paris (parks, libraries, etc….) The truth is that these are very difficult to find (or login to). For these reasons, the posts might be fewer and further between for a while (or might be why I haven’t posted in a few days). If you’re counting on me to show you the world, then, I’m sorry for the delay.

This city is incredible. I’ve been in Paris since Saturday evening, but I still feel like I just got here. Julien’s grand-father happily greeted me at the door:

He’s been incredibly accommodating, providing me with everything! Well, besides internet… but, whatever. I couldn’t be too picky.

(I’d like to add, on the topic of Julien’s grand-father, that I’m becoming quite the photographer along this trip:) This, apparently, is what a physicist’s attempt at being deep must look like…  While we’re on that topic, why do people keep saying “oh, well, since you’re in the sciences, you must not get this-” when referring to some kind of art? I’m not that one-dimensional! I listen to quite a bit of music and read quite a lot, actually… I dunno, I’ve just heard that statement like 3 times this week….

The weather is wonderful – I think I’m going to have to figure out how to ditch my (p)leather jacket soon. It has so far still only rained once (the evening I landed in Paris, oddly).

Now, let’s talk Parisians: for every drunk in Dublin, there are about 4 or so people sitting together outside a cafe in Paris. This place is littered with terraces, which makes walking around both interesting and slightly awkward. The cafes are also extremely expensive – at about 7 Euros (over $10) per cup of coffee, it’s basically unaffordable (or at the very least, unjustifiable) on my budget.  It also makes using their free weefee very uncomfortable.
 
There are much fewer tourists here – wait, let me correct that: In Ireland, there were many tourists younger than me – college kids on Spring break, up to party on St. Paddy’s. Here, there are many old people walking around and taking pictures of the many sites.

Speaking of sites, the most amazing thing about this city is that it’s virtually impossible to walk for five minutes in any direction without hitting some kind of landmark or historic figure. For starters, here’s what my front door looks like:

Five minutes walking in any direction will reveal statues, obelisks, parks… too many things to show here. But seriously, though, where else can you walk just ten minutes in a straight line and then stumble on the Louvre: 
Or L’arc de Triomphe (ok, I kind of lie, this was about an hour away):

I also walked along the Seine river: I’m really crazy about these rivers, actually. I really enjoyed the Liffey in Dublin, too.

I haven’t gone to visit the Eiffel tower yet… Here’s me standing with it in the background, though: 
I don’t think I’m going to bother going to visit it, though… I’ve already been. Evidence (from circa New Year’s 2004):Uuumm…. yea, I think I am wearing a turtleneck here… I’m just as confused as you are…

By the way, from all of my walking in Dublin, I’ve become a walking machine. Admittedly, I had pains in my knees, legs and ankles for a few days a couple of weeks ago, but now I really have no problem walking for hours on end. It’s pretty awesome.

French Bixis!!!

Also, if you’ve ever wondered why Square Victoria metro looked so different and weird, now you know what they were trying to emulate:

People take their metros pretty seriously, here. They’re actually all decorated differently, which turns out to be really interesting:

Oh, and this one’s just for the pageviews:

This next section is purely me venting and bitching, so you can stop reading here without worrying about missing out on anything too important or interesting:

No post describing Paris would be complete without mentioning my traveling to Paris. In an effort to save money (like, what, 100 Euros?) I decided to fly from Shannon, Ireland instead of Dublin. I have one of those all-you-can-travel-3-month train passes afterall, so I might as well take advantage of it when I can.

So I booked a Ryanair flight from Shannon Airport to Paris-Beauvais. Shannon’s only about 2 hours from Dublin, and so I figured I’d catch a Dublin-Shannon train, and then fly right into Paris.

If only it were so simple. The first thing I learned is that “Paris-Beauvais” airport is not Paris. Beauvais is a small city 82 km North of Paris. I would have to take a 14 Euro shuttle into the city.

Another issue is that there is no train station in Shannon. I was forced to take a train to Limerick (switching at Limerick junction!) and catch a shuttle from the Limerick train station to Shannon Airport…

which I would have done if I had caught the 10:00 train at Dublin. Seeing as how I missed it, I ended up having to take a 37 Euro taxi to the airport. (In hindsight, it turns out that I would have made my flight with plenty of time to spare if I had caught the next shuttle since the flight left like an hour late… stupid Ryanair…)

The flight itself was pleasant enough; I spent it sitting beside Breda and Aindriù (Irish spelling of Andrew, apparently. The accent above the u is known as a ‘fadda’ in Irish):
Aindriù spent most of the flight kicking the seat in front of him and yelling. His grandmother, Brida, was clearly unimpressed.

So let’s do the math – save about 100 Euros, spend about 50, then waste (hmmm… 10AM to 8:30PM…) 10 hours in transit. I am never flying Ryan again.