Paris!

This is me trying to keep my 'post once or twice a week' goal.

I just spent a week in Paris with Ella. It was an interesting experience: probably the first time I've been to a country and felt the need to speak their language (and therefore not feel like such a dirty tourist) and also the first time I've travelled somewhere without consulting a Lonely Planet guide first. I normally treat Lonely Planet guides like some treat the Bible. I read it over and over before a trip, making notes of what I want to do/visit, following up on recommendations, etc. This time, with Paris, I didn't have a LP guide. I'd decided to go to Paris, not because I really, really wanted to go, but more so because I figured I'd regret it if I don't, not knowing when I'll be back in this part of the world again.

I am really glad I went. I had a kind of... reserved sense of anticipation about going. Paris is such a hyped-up city: City of Light! City of Love! Go there and fall in love with a Frenchman in a beret while eating a croissant in line for the Eiffel Tower... Paris! Baguette!

I was also a nervous about the language barrier. At first I felt very self-conscious about my lingual-ignorance, but in the end I was able to say a few things in French (such as: 'I do not speak French' and 'Do you speak English?', both handy things to know how to say, haha). I learnt French for a few years in high school, and a lot of it came back to me in the few days I was there, so I'm quite motivated now to re-start learning it as a second language. It's funny how, on a journey where what I want to do is experience new and different places, I also want to fit in.

 

One thing that really struck me about Paris (and it's not that this hasn't struck me before, it just came up again) was how what I knew of/imagined Paris to be like measured up with how it actually is. It's like: you have this idea of a place, and that idea is made up of pictures of landmarks, movies you've seen and stories you've heard... and when you finally get there you realise that all these things are actually very small, specific places/things within this big net of a city. When you travel from one 'thing' to another you see the real bits in between, like the way the roads look, the way the people dress, the homeless people on the street, the different types of trees. So it's like connecting the dots. It's a very subjective thing. I've noticed the same thing with this whole exchange experience as well: I had this vague idea of how it would turn out, and it hasn't turned out like that at all.

I'll finish this brief blog with an obligatory picture of the Eiffel Tower :)