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Post date: Jun 06, 2017 1:3:25 PM
This is Jordan! You’ll remember Jordan from my adventures in New Zealand, he was my trusty field assistant. Since traveling together through middle earth, we’ve also become close friends. I need another field assistant to go to Scotland on this years collecting trip, so I asked Jordan to come to Europe for three months. But it turns out we’re only in Scotland for a month… so we have 2 months to travel and work together on things in Halle!
First trip, Paris! My friend Hannah and her boyfriend were going to be in town, so we popped over for 4 days to join them. We stayed at a terrible AirBnB that could only be recommended because it was close to the Sacre Coeur.
I’ve done Paris a few times (understatement) so I’ve done all the touristy things. But since Jordan has never been to Europe, he wanted to go full tourist. It was nice showing him the city, and how excited he gets seeing things that I take for granted.
We enjoyed the view from the Sacre Coeur so much that we went there three times for various picnics. Also, we enjoyed french food, and wine so much we basically picnicked all over the city.
Cool street art near the Sacre Coeur.
First thing, Jordan wanted to go to Notre Dame. Again (This will be a theme in this post) I have been there a dozen times, so I waited patiently outside and listened to some podcasts.
Still a pretty grand view.
And then we lunched.
We also did the Eiffel Tower (of course). Jordan was excited to go to the top, but as anyone who has ever toured Paris will tell you, you really only need to go to the top of the eiffel tower once in your lifetime. After that you’ll realize how overrated the experience is, and never need to do it ever again.
Jordan waited in line for 2 hours to get up to the top. I waited and read a book in the grass for 3 hours at the bottom. We finished the experience off with a lovely picnic. And Jordan agrees he never wants to climb the tower ever ever ever ever again.
But he did want to be a dork and take photos of the tower.
I obliged.
I prefer to go to the top of Arc du Triomphe, which gives you an equally stunning view without having to wait as long, or pay as much. But by the time we got there, Jordan was done standing in line. So we just sat and enjoyed the view.
Baptiste is very French and I had never seen him in his element. But he was glowing the whole time in Paris. Hannah, as always, was wonderful. She’s one of my best friends and getting to spend time with her was excellent. We drank wine, we ate food and good times were had.
One of the few things I wanted to do on this trip was the Jardin de Luxemburg. I’m a huge Hemmingway fan, and this was one of the many places he frequented in Paris. Moreover, it was an unbearably hot and sticky day. We ate ice cream in the shade and put our feet in the pond/giant fountain above. There were little kids playing with the boats all around the lake, each boat had a flag and a country name on it. There was even a pirate ship!
While the Jardin de Luxemburg was a lovely respite from the heat, my favorite part of the trip was the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. I read an article about it about a week before we went, and I wanted to see it in person. Moreover, after a few days walking around Paris we were both craving some downtime (both here not meaning Jordan and myself, but my two feet). We brought a picnic (as usual) and some wine (also as usual).
The park has an astonishing number of hills, and a number of trails, both clearly sculpted out of the landscape. There were joggers everywhere. The whole park was designed by Eiffel, but rather than his tower, this park was mostly crowded with Parisians.
At the top of the park is this lovely gazebo that gives an epic view of the city.
Like a true outdoorsman, Buttes Chaumont was Jordan’s favorite spot in Paris. From most vantages you couldn’t tell you were in the city. But near the gazebo, there was this lovely rock outcrop that made me want to curl up and drink some wine while enjoying the view.
However, Jordan wanted a view that was greener, so we found a different spot (not hard to find).
On Saturday night we were invited to Baptiste’s parents place for his birthday party. I’m going to need a moment to talk about the cake his dad made. It had nutella, and chartreuse, it had happiness, it was one of the singular most delicious cakes I have ever eaten. None of these words do it justice.
The rest of the party was also awesome. The food was magnificent, the wine was lovely and the company was excellent. Baptiste has great friends and really nice parents, and the house party was a truly french experience through and through.
Sunday morning early we went to the Louvre. Unbeknownst to me, the Louvre is on Jordan’s bucket list, and is somewhere he’s wanted to see for years. People had been recommending various things for us to see for a few days/weeks, so we had narrowed in on the Egyptian exhibit and the Mesopotamia exhibit.
The grandeur of the Louvre always shocks me; and I spent most of this trip wandering around looking at the rooms, rather than looking at what was in them. I was trying to imagine living in such a luxurious place, what life would be like.
And of course we went to see the big three, and Jordan remarked that he doesn’t get what art becomes famous. Why is the Venus de Milo such a big deal?
Why does the Mona Lisa has a fan group around her like Beyonce?
That being said there was no question when it came to the Winged Victory. She is stunning and it looks like the thin sheets are barely clinging to her as she sails off. But it’s not a thin sheet, it’s not a bared body, it’s stone. It’s strange to see such a harsh material have such effervescent qualities.
The guy above cracked me up, he hauled a piano out to the middle of a bridge to play for the people. So very Paris.
After one last night drinking on the bank of the Siene, and one last night staring at the Eiffel tower, and one too many bottles of wine, we wrapped up and headed home.
But I was most thrilled to have shared this Parisian experience with these people.
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