Paris, Part II
Here’s a secret about traveling: It’s not going to be 100% awesome the entire time. And that’s okay! Sometimes good stories come out of terrible situations. Awkward, scary, dull, or embarrassing moments can help to ground your trip in reality and make it all the more memorable.
Exhaustion from 2 weeks of backpacking (with an injured knee) had made me grumpy and hard to impress. So for the first couple of days, I didn’t see what all the hype surrounding Paris was about.
I enjoyed my time, I just didn’t feel any magic yet, for some reason.
It had been rainy and cold. I mainly took the Metro instead of walking so I didn’t get to see much of the city. I witnessed a young pickpocket on the train skillfully feeling around in people’s coats for an opportunity, and he’d looked right at me as he did so. I spent most of my time chowing down on delicious food I could barely afford.
Excerpt from my travel journal, dated August 19th, 2016:
I went to the Louvre today. I did my first audio guided tour. I connected my headphones to this little pen thing that I would point at an interactive map which would then give audio descriptions of artworks as well instructions on where to go next. The map included some of the greatest pieces in the collection.
The museum is huge, and a little overwhelming to visit in just one day!
Some of the highlights:
Winged Victory
I couldn’t take my eyes off the Winged Victory. It’s absolutely beautiful. How do you make marble look like soft chiffon fabric?
Da Vinci’s Madonna on the Rocks
My favorite Da Vinci.
Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
I could barely appreciate the painting because of the crowd and the large barrier. I once read a quote: “When it comes to seeing the Mona Lisa, you simply can’t. She has been sacrificed to the masses.”
Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa
My favorite from the French Romantic movement. Theodore Gericault nearly went mad while painting this. He shut himself in with cadavers and dying men to study their features and anatomy so he could capture the feeling of desperation in this piece.
Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People
It’s thought that this painting was Victor Hugo’s inspiration for the book, Les Miserables. Particularly, the little boy with a pistol is said to have inspired the character of Gavroche.
Jacques Louis David’s Coronation of Napoleon
This gigantic canvas depicts Napoleon’s coronation at the moment when Napoleon took the crown out of the pope’s hands and crowned himself instead. The level of detail is astounding.
I left the museum after I had been there for about 6 hours. I’d had enough.
I rested for a couple of hours and got ready to meet Philippe, a concert pianist I had met on Thursday.
To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about it. He seemed nice, but wasn’t extremely interesting. I thought maybe it was just the language barrier and I should go meet him anyway. It wasn’t going to be romantic – just a nice meal with a local.
The date didn’t go so well. He was late, for one thing. And he was dressed a little tacky. His denim jacket was a little too short and his shirt a little too tight. And his voice was annoyingly nasal.
But those were all just superficial observations. So I kept going anyway.
We went for coffee because he didn’t want to eat while he was on a diet. He wasn’t a very deep person and his topics of choice were shallow and boring. Later on, it became apparent that he had some sort of fetish for Asian girls and wasn’t really interested in me as a person.
He then invited me back to his place to “listen to him play the piano”. Right.
I politely declined and he lost all interest after that, yawning loudly and then suddenly remembering that he had to meet someone else. I paid for my coffee, and gratefully made my escape, buying myself a delicious coffee cake on the way home. I ate it back at the hostel.
It was the best part of the evening.
Life isn’t carefully curated like a museum or our Instagram feeds.
Traveling (like any part of life) comes with the awesome, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Embrace it, all of it.
Have a sense of humour when you look back on everything. At the very least, allow it to teach you and help you grow.
