J’aime Paris (and say it with a French accent)
Posted by Christa on May 6th, 2006
Right now I am sitting here in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France. I am awaiting my night flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. I had an amazing stopover in Paris. I met up with my old roommates who lived with me in Toronto from September ’05 to March ’06. They were on an internship and are now back in Paris. They picked me up and we started our adventure into the heart of Paris. We first went to Chatelet Les Halles, followed by a more modern looking building named Centre George Pompidou. We checked out Le Louvre, however did not go inside. It takes 2 full days to see all of the art in this museum, so I will have to come back to see the Mona Lisa. We saw beautiful gardens and stopped by my old roommates’ apartment. The first thing I noticed was how narrow everything was. The elevator in the apartment is a two person elevator. Two people! Their apartment had a beautiful view of the street. We grabbed roller blades from the apartment and took off to see more sites. Rollerblading through Paris was amazing. I felt thrilled yet nervous because of all the crevices and bumps in the road. There was a lot of flat ground, however some roads were made of interlocking stone. It reminded me of Quebec City, however even more beautiful. I saw the biggest building in France, which only has approximately 53 floors. We check out the Eiffel Tower, which was a beautiful site. I learned that the culture here is not as adamant about protecting the environment, as we are in Canada. They do not recycle and many people litter. When crossing the street, many people ignore crossing signs and are more assertive about crossing promptly. It is really easy to sneak on the subway (but I didn’t). Also the food is a lot more expensive than in Canada. We stopped for lunch at Chez Papa, which specializes in South-Western French cuisine. They offered such things as duck wings and liver. I had goat cheese salad, duck wings, and my first ever espresso. They drink espresso differently than what I have seen before. I put in 2 cubes of sugar and dipped a small bar of dark chocolate into my espresso. Of course we had some red wine with our lunch. I have developed a theory. Many of the people here drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and eat big meals, however you will rarely see a person who is overweight. Everything seems more narrow and smaller here, whether it be the streets, the elevators, the cars, etc. Back in North America, there is more room to live. Our cars seem bigger and our streets are wider. My theory relates to putting an animal in a small or a big cage. When you put certain animals in a small cage, they will only grow to be as big as the cage. When you put the same animal in a big cage, it will grow much bigger. This can be used to explain why so many people are fat in North America. Just joking!!!! I thought I would give you some light humour.
After a full day of sightseeing, we said goodbye and I headed back to the airport. I sit here now, waiting to board the plane, tired, yet excited for my next adventure.
