Paris: Take Two

I went to Paris yesterday.

This round, Paris was a lot more agreeable. So maybe I can see why people like it so much. I went with a hiking club from the MJC who usually meet the first Sunday of each month. They do a walk in Paris every year, and Jacques, the vice president of the MJC’s board of directors, invited me and Jennifer (the other intern from my university in Rouen who arrived last week) to come along.

When we were waiting on an overpass at 7:30 am for someone (I had no idea who) to drive by and pick us up, I wasn’t so sure about the whole thing. I didn’t really want to go back to Paris, though I did want to be sleeping. It’s about an hour and a half to Paris, and once we got there and got going, I was glad I went.

I didn’t have to plan anything, which was really nice. And I didn’t have to worry about getting lost. It was to someone else to navigate. Since being here, I finally understand why people travel with big tourist groups. Planning a trip is a lot of work.

Anyway, Jacques was the guide, although everyone in the group was anxious to answer questions and offer information. They told me about De Gaulle broadcasting from England; they told me we were walking through the chic part of Paris, so not all Parisians live like this; they told me about the two houses of their congress (and I told them about the United States’ Electoral College, which, thanks to the 2000 pres. elections, a lot of people here have heard of). They told me that there are no telephone poles in Paris—it’s all underground (and, that up into the seventies, there was a tube system underground, too, for delivering the mail that worked with vacuums—bank drive-in style). We looked at jewelry in the windows of the Place Vendôme. We saw the Eiffel Tower and walked along the Seine and went into the Garnier opera house. We went under the Arc de Triomphe. I have wondered for a long time how pedestrians get under the Arc. A mystery solved.

The memorial for those who died in the war with Algeria. Jacques fought in the war (but he didn’t die, so the memorial isn’t for him). He also worked in several countries, including Algeria, for France Telecom. That’s how he knew about the telephone lines under the streets.