Weekend in Paris

Spent a weekend in Paris a few weeks ago, and have been wanting to blog about it ever since I got back.

Paris really wasn't very high on my list of cities to visit while I'm here*. However, a girl who lives on my floor (of my building) was driving back to Paris for the weekend and wanting people to go with her so I thought why not. I had already visited Paris 5 years ago when I was England for a month, and wasn't that impressed with it. The one thing I really can't stand is how much people make it out to be: "ooh Paris, thats so romantic" "oh wow, your going to Paris". I didn't think it was that worth its hype from the last time I was there. But with petrol being split 4 of us, and with a friend in Paris, I thought it wouldn't be too expensive to check out for a weekend.

As we entered the Greater Paris area, I was struck at how much of a population centre it was. Central Paris has 2 million while Greater Paris has about 10-12 million people. This was a huge difference in population coming in from Amsterdam. I've never been a big fan of huge population centres, like Manila, Hong Kong, and Paris wasn't any different at first. One of the girls had never been to Paris before and she was just ogling at Paris and going on about how pretty everything was. Exactly what i didn't want to hear.

The second day I was there, I walked around the main touristic sights of Paris. I was staying at Rue Montague, I nice walking thoroughfare where many (bourgeious) Parisians do their shopping. From there, I walked to Les Halle, Musee Du Lourve, Jardin Des Tuilleries, Grand Palais and Hotel Des Invalides before meeting up with Josh. I have to say I was quite impressed with the, not the sights in and of themselves, but with the amount of history, and significance, that lay behind these buildings. Some of them were incredibly grand and harked back to some era in French history. I can't imagine how these places must have looked back in their heyday. While in Jardin Des Tuilleries, I took a break to read on French history from my guidebook. The few pages did no justice to the glorious history that lay behind the country. And therein lay the problem about visiting France, you can't properly appreciate the sights unless you know the history behind them. And yet French history is much like Gorgonzola cheese, its simply overwhelming. At least for the ordinary person.

Furthermore, its not as if French history is the only bit. The Musee Du Lourve showcases arts and antiquities from the Ancient world. The Musee D'Orsay exhibits French art from the 19th century while Centre Pompidou houses modern art. I know jack-all about art! I'm guessing that the average person reading this know just as much art and history as my soccer boots. So what explains the throngs of people who line up to enter the Notre Dame Cathedral, or the scores of Japanese tourists who are literally crowded around the Mona Lisa to admire it. None of these people know anything. Why are they there?

This is what really annoys me about France. Its so over-rated. Not that it shouldn't be high on the tourist circuit. But its just that its a bit too high. I passed by some incredibly beautiful buildings while walking through Paris: La Beurs Du Commerce, the Grand Palais. None of these buildings had anyone admiring or taking photos of. They were just there in the background. More importantly, they were never made into tourist attractions, or marketed for their architectural/historical significance to tourists. I should stop going on about Paris.

By the time I was about to leave Paris, I was really beginning to appreciate the city for what it is. Much of central Paris was built in the 19th century. And as I reflected upon that, it kinda me of how of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. How? There, there were villages that were erected right next to colossus monuments that were 800-1,200 years old. It seemed like such a shame that the Cambodians were living in the backyard of a civilisation of some different era. Paris reminds of this. You have a mass of people living in the remnants of a 19th century civilisation. I don't know if it was just because it was a short holiday, but I wasn't that happy to be leaving Paris when we did.

Especially after getting back into Amsterdam, I started to appreciate the subtle differences between the two cities. Its amazing to think that there is no way that one can truly compare a city to another. Each develops in its own way: Paris very much through the riches of monarchy and Amsterdam through the prosperity of trade and investment. Each of these circumstances result in a city that is so unique to another. If possible(and if its cheap), I'd like to spend more time just getting a better feel for the city of Paris.

However, let there be no doubt: Paris is over-rated.



*Actually such a list doesn't really exist, as I wasn't planning on doing that much travelling while I was here.