19 Day Trip: Day One and Day Two Paris

 The last city on my trip was Paris. It was quite nice, which was a bit of a surprise to me as Paris never really sounded like a city that I would enjoy visiting. It turns out that there is a lot more to Paris than what everyone continually talks about (Romance and the Eiffel Tower mostly).

First Day

    Step one, when I arrived, was to get all of my crap to the hostel. As this was my last stop, it was all my stuff (the previous night I had stopped in Ghent to pick all of it up). My stuff was hefty (had about 24 Belgian beers so that added weight), and I was struggling to lift my stuff up a big staircase. Luckily a nice French man saw my struggle and commented on what I think was 'very heavy' (only spoke French), and I said 'Oui'. The nice man then proceeded to help me carry the bag up the stairs. I was very grateful for the help, and now thinking of it, I should have offered one of my Belgian beers for helping me. 

    Eventually, when I got to the hostel, I asked if I could drop my stuff off and check in later. As usual, they said yes, and they proceeded to help me put my things in their luggage room. I then asked whether the subways would be operational, and they replied that the subways are, but the police may later lock down public transport. The reason the police may do such a thing is that it was Saturday and yellow vest protestors were starting to pop up. Given this, I decided that it might be best to walk to the Notre Dame and tour it and walk back to the hostel.

    The first thing that I got to see on my way to Notre Dame was the yellow vest protesters around the Place de la République. I took a few photos from République, and then on my way to Notre-Dame, I encountered what looked like a peaceful yellow vest march. At the end of one street, I saw the police were starting to put up barricades, and I decided I should leave the area. Below I have included some photos of the protests and République, and later I will talk more about the effect of the yellow vest protests that I saw. 

The protests as seen from Republique

The march I saw before the riot police showed up

    I did eventually get to the Notre-Dame Cathedral and for those wondering this blog post took place in December 2018, so I saw the Cathedral before the fire on April 15, 2019. It is a magnificent building, and first I will show some photos and describe them.

This is a head-on look at the Notre-Dame

These are some of the statues that line the front of the Cathedral. If I remember correctly they are previous kings of Israel. It is called the Gallery of Kings

This, of course, is one of the beautiful stained glass windows of the Notre-Dame. These windows luckily survived the fire [1,2].

These are some clothes that I am guessing are worn by the 

Here are some interesting treasures that were inside the Cathedral. 

 Here is a statue inside the Cathedral

 These are a few more stained glass windows

Here is an interesting set up depicting a nice little town.

    Seeing the Notre-Dame Cathedral was a great experience. I was sad when I heard it was burning, and I hope that it can be restored to its previous glory.

    I toured a small market that was next to the Cathedral before heading back to the hostel. Once at the hostel, I checked in and moved my stuff to the room. Then I went done to cook up my supper, and I met an interesting woman. She was about half my size, but apparently a lot braver than me. She took a video of herself in the middle of a yellow vest protest. Contrast her bravery with me taking a photo from a couple of blocks away and trying to maintain that distance of a couple of blocks at all times 😂😂😂.

    After eating and having a local beer, I went off to sleep.

Day 2

    On the second day, I took advantage of the 5 euro breakfast at the hostel. After eating and visiting for a while, I made a be line back to the Notre-Dame cathedral to catch the free tour of Paris.

    The tour started at the Notre-Dame cathedral, but we did not go in because it would take a while. However, the tour guide did say some interesting things about the cathedral. She said that the statues on the front of the cathedral were all previous kings from the bible except for one, which is of the sculptor who redid the statues after the statues had their heads cut off during the French revolution. She also said that the middle door of the Notre-Dame was made with 19th-century technology. Now I have been having trouble finding references for these claims online, but it is good stories.

    The guide also showed a clock that was made by a drag queen king. The king would walk around in women's clothing, and even though people disapproved, they could not do anything since he was king. This clock is the Concierge clock, and I have included a photo of it below. I have had trouble finding a reference to back up this claim, but the tour guide told it with such vigour that I will go on believing it is true.

The clock

    The guide then took us to Pont Neuf. The guide said that the statues with horns were the husbands of wives that the current king was sleeping with. This is another claim I could not verify. The next place was the 'Art Bridge' that connects the art university and the Louvre. Readers may think of the 'Art Bridge' as the Love Bridge because many couples placed a padlock on as a symbol of there love. Over the years, the padlocks became too heavy for the bridge and produced aesthetic issues for locals [3]. Eventually, the padlocks were forced to go, and now it is illegal to put a padlock on the bridge. An outstanding history of this cultural phenomenon can be found at the following link:https://www.thetravel.com/pont-des-arts-can-you-still-do-love-locks-in-paris/.

    The last stop was the Louvre. The guide explained to us its history of being a fortress, and that Louis the XIV did not like it there. She then told me what door I should go into so as to avoid the lines. The entrance is below ground in a fancy mall. On top of that, I also did not need to wait in line for a ticket, because I was a European University Student and my ticket was my student ID. 

    What I found most exciting about the Louvre was the history. I got to see the Code of Hammurabi. There were also Sarcophagus, and I learned that the Egyptians and the Phoenicians used them. The ancient history part of the Louvre was much more profound than I expected, and I encourage the reader to check out more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre#Collections. I would talk more about the exciting stuff that I saw there, but it has been about a year and a half since I've been there, so my memory is not entirely clear. 

Here is a selection of photos from my tours of the Louvre.

Code of Hammurabi

Winged Lion Men from Assyria

Sarcophagi

    After touring the Louvre, I went to the Christmas Market to get something to eat. I then proceeded to tour around the Christmas Market, before I set out to the Eiffel Tower. I walked around the Eiffel Tower and took a few pictures while cautiously looking at what people were selling in the street (don't want them to catch your eye). I then decided to go and find an ATM so that I could withdraw some money. Finding a more usable ATM was more difficult than expected since many were broken or devoid of cash because of the Yellow Vest protests. Eventually, I did find a workable ATM, so I withdrew some money, got more food and went back to the Hostel.

Christmas Market

The Eiffel Tower

Some Yellow Vest protests damage

1. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/05-06/notre-dame-de-paris/
2. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/04/15/notre-dame-paris-burning-irreplaceable-artworks-inside-may-gone/3476611002/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_des_Arts