OK, so we’ve eaten dinner. We’re all dressed up (Jordan’s getting some mileage out of that wedding jacket!) and in the magical city of light and love, Paris. We’re infected with a feeling of being alive and being in an exciting new place. We knew that everything was up the river from us, so we decided to start walking north and see the magical city at night.
We had no idea how magical it would be. It took about 35 seconds for Jordan to fall in love with Paris, and another 2 seconds to start bitching about how shitty the city planning is in Los Angeles.
If only we had a camera with us that night to capture the beautiful light and the sunset, lighting the monuments and classical architecture with red and orange highlights. The river, slowly moving through the heart of the city. Young couples everywhere. People coming home from work, or dinner with friends. Scooters zipping by. People chatting at sidewalk cafes. Cobblestone squares. Art deco Metro stations. As we walk, we pass amazing old buildings on all sides. They are so elaborate, made of huge stone blocks, intricate and permanent and just incredible. Impossible to build today. Soon we are at the Louvre. We walk the grounds, into the Jardin des Tuileries. Large expanses of grass in the dark evening. Quiet pools. Statues in the darkness. Behind us, the guards are shutting things down, closing down the property.
Katie remembers that there’s a ferris wheel on the river, so that becomes our new mission: to ride the slow ferris wheel on the bank of the Seine. We talk to several people who ought to know, and none have any idea what we’re talking about. Apparently “Ferris wheel” isn’t a term that the French use. In the end, Jordan sketches one in the dirt, and a security guard finally realizes what we’re asking. Bad news – the ferris wheel won’t be set up for another month. Mission denied.
That doesn’t stop our night. We walk off the grounds to a bridge across the Seine – the Pont de la Concorde. We sit on the stone railing of the bridge and watch the water go by… the people having dinner on the roof of a houseboat below us… tourists wave from a boat that slips under the bridge. Paris has an entire city department devoted to illuminating the city at night, to making it beautiful. Does any American city have something similar? The Parisians are clearly masters of the art. We are calm and rested and at peace in a beautiful city. Can life get much better?
Finally the hour catches up to us and we grow tired. We decide to head back to the hotel. We get on a local bus and ride, the Seine not even a block on our right. The city rolls past us. A woman on the bus is eyeing us. Yes, we’re American tourists. You can probably tell us from a mile away. But tonight, we don’t care. We’re just people, appreciating a beautiful city. Only one more stop to go. The woman gets off. She stares at Katie from outside the bus. Katie stares at her, worried she’s about to be insulted. The woman turns and points. Katie looks – the woman is pointing to the Eiffel Tower. It’s lit up, with flashing lights running all the way up and down the Tower. It’s breathtaking, an incredible sight! (they do it for 10 minutes at the beginning of each night hour.) The woman smiles at us and the bus pulls away. Not an insult at all, she just knew we were new to the city and that we would appreciate those magical, twinkling lights – she was right. Thank you, strange French lady!
Finally, it’s our stop. Apparently in France, you get off the bus by using the rear doors. Ignorant of the basic protocol, we tried to get out the front and messed the whole system up!
