A Tale of Two Cities, part 3

As I look forward to a second trip to France, I remember our first trip to Paris thirteen years ago.  After settling into the hotel, we like to get acclimated to the neighborhood.  It gives one a sense of place, especially if the neighborhood is not in a tourist area.  We were staying just north of the heart of the city, in a true residential neighborhood.  We found an appealing restaurant, but soon realized meal times in Paris are not so early as those for Americans with young children.  We picked up enough French to see the restaurant would not open for two hours.  We strolled the area as we waited, and made note of the location of the laundry facilities, the pharmacy, and tried to stop inside all the little shops that line the market street.  Rather than one all-inclusive market, we were charmed by the vegetable market, the cheese shop, the fish market, the flower shop, the meat market, the delicatessen (charcuterie), the bread shop, and the pastry market (patisseries).  Quaint little shops lined the centuries old urban Paris streets.  At the designated time, we returned to the restaurant, and ended the evening with a wonderful middle-eastern meal.  We spoke only English and Spanish, and they spoke only French and Arabic, so we ordered via gestures and smiles.  We unfortunately were to never have a classic French meal while on this trip (we ate middle-eastern, Chinese, Italian, even American), but we knew we would return one day, and would make up for the loss.  We made our way back to the hotel, to get some rest for the next day, a celebration for our daughter's fifth birthday.

Michael Eisner once explained that "as Americans, the word ‘Euro’ is believed to mean glamorous or exciting. For Europeans it turned out to be a term they associated with business, currency, and commerce. Renaming the park ‘Disneyland Paris’ was a way of identifying it with one of the most romantic and exciting cities in the world."  Whether associated with the word "Euro" or "Paris", it didn't matter to us.  Our daughter was turning five years old, and the only word that mattered was "Disneyland".   True, we were in the most romantic city in the world, but our first full day in Paris would be spent with the joyful sounds of children laughing.  We had just gotten to Paris from London, where our children patiently (and pleasantly) allowed us to enjoy a visit to see the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, and to sip afternoon tea at the Savoy Hotel.  We owed them. 

There are certain limits to the cultural experience one can get at Disneyland, but it was the first time I ever tried a chocolate croissant or popcorn sprinkled with sugar instead of salt.  And we truly had a lot of fun keeping up with the kids that day.  As we were celebrating our daughter's birthday, we capped it off with a special dinner at a fun restaurant nearby, including a rousing chorus of "Joyeux Anniversaire" from several of the wait staff, who carried her, grinning ear to ear, on their shoulders.

By Friday, we were ready to start seeing the real Paris.  Unlike Chicago, Paris is not completely flat -- it is topped by a large hill on the north end.  I'll spare you the related story of St. Denis, but perhaps you can look it up one day.  The hill and surrounding neighborhood is called Montmartre, which means mount of the martyrs -- though some say the name goes back to a pre-Christian dedication to the Roman god Mars.  The pinnacle of Montmartre is the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, and anyone with the spirit of challenge in their hearts will be tempted to climb the stairs to the top.  It's not a difficult walk; the view makes it worthwhile, and the return walk is all downhill.  With young children along for the walk, it took us longer than expected.  Though we enjoyed the view over Paris from the terrace of the basilica, it was not in the cards to go inside for a peek at the church.  It was getting late and we still had a long walk back down for the remainder of our sight-seeing.  Just before we started to descend, we spotted celebrity Rod Stewart leave the church and duck into his waiting limousine.  It seemed not everyone has the spirit of challenge in their hearts.

Our next stop was to the center of the city, for the Notre Dame cathedral.  From the plaza in front, we admired the architecture and pointed out all the interesting carvings to the children.  They didn't appreciate how the carvings told the story of the bible to the illiterate masses of the middle ages.  And while we worried that bringing children to the inside of the cathedral could result in some disrespectful noise, the children suddenly (and miraculously?) fell asleep in their prams.  My wife and I enjoyed the sights and silence of the sacred space as the children slept. 

When we left the church, we crossed the river and walked to the Louvre museum, once the royal palace.  With the kids having just woken from their naps, we realized we would not be able to see this world famous museum from the inside.  Our goal was to get to the Eiffel Towel by sunset, and we would not have time to the enjoy the Louvre with just 15 minutes available.  We would have to imagine the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, and promise ourselves to come back one day.  We continued down the Champs-Élysées to the iconic Arc de Triomphe, which is far larger than it seems from photographs.  We took the underground pedway to get to arc, which sits in the center of the largest traffic circle I've ever seen.  The artistic detail on the arc was incredible.  Visitors are allowed to go to the top of the monument, but the clock was ticking and we were determined to view the city from the Eiffel Tower during daylight.

Just in time, we reached the Eiffel Tower and ascended.  The views were gorgeous, the experience magical.  We watched the sun set over the city.  After dark, the Eiffel Tower is self-illuminated.  It is covered with thousands of flashing lights, like a Christmas tree made from an enormous Erector Set.  It was getting quite late by that time, and after a very full day, we found the nearest Metro station and made our way back to the hotel.  Although we saw many highlights of Paris, we knew there was more -- much more -- to uncover about France.  We knew we would return.  We just did not know when.  The answer, it turns out, is Friday.