I chose to do my closing post after I returned home so that I could gather my thoughts on the plane.  I needed to sort out what exactly I brought home from Paris that I didn’t have when I arrived last Saturday.  I remember on my application that I stated my desire to go to Paris was to experience the city from a writer’s perspective because I am an English major with a history minor. The French Revolution has come alive for me in ways that I did not anticipate.

Louis XIV at Versailles

The first thing the trip has done has kindled an interest in the monarchy, beginning with Louis XIV creating this fantastical world.  At the Shakepeare and Co. bookstore, I bought a book by John Baxter called “A Year in Paris” and he writes that tourists “see in their [the Bourbon kings] vulgarity the Kardashians writ large.”  And I will have to take that writer’s word for it since I don’t follow that family.  While in the gift shop at Versailles, I bought a book about Marie Antionette’s living quarters. I am glad that we were able to see the end of her life at the Conciergerie.  It is the personalities that draw me into the story of the French Revolution.

The clock at Musee d’Orsay

     My second impression of Paris  has been how many small restaurants–really good family-run restaurants from all appearances–and retail shops there are.  Why is it that Paris can support businesses like this and a city like Atlanta cannot? I’m sure there must be some financial/tax explanations but I also think the answer surely has something to do with the fact that Paris is a walkable city with an unbelievable transit system.  Paris is not a Food Desert without access to protein sources and vegetables.  And then there are the boulangeries and all the fresh bread.  All of this almost cancels out how many people still smoke cigarettes in Paris. While this may not seem to have anything to do with the French Revolution, I think it does.  The people who survived the Reign of Terror somehow managed to create this vibrant city life that for 200 years has been unlike almost any city in Europe. 

     

Medusa on plaque inside Conciergerie

     I think what this trip has given me is an eye for the small things, the little details about Paris.  Like “why is it called the Latin Quarter?” (Because the Sorbonne is here and Latin was the language in which students were given instruction.) I found myself looking up at the buildings for the historical plaques. (Megan found the best one: the house Hemingway lived in.) Dr. McLeod and I talked about the homeless population in Paris and how it compared to Atlanta. The Metro is (apparently) a lot more tolerant about “overnighters” sleeping on the ledges in the stations than MARTA. And speaking of the Metro, I learned to be quick on the exit and enter.  This isn’t like MARTA where you can stand in the door for 20 seconds. 

I will put all of these things in the story I write about Paris. Including our 12 second hot water shower button.  I’m not sure if that will go in the good experience column or not.