Love Lockdown

College orientation in America is often full of dreadful icebreakers, awkwardly forced small talk, and packed with information that should be common knowledge at ages 18-22. Orientation in France, however has taken me on all of the excursions I have been the most excited about. On Thursday, the group of us went to see Notre Dame on a walking tour. Now I know I always say how cheesy guided tours are, but this three-hour tour of popular Parisian sights showed me spots in Paris I wouldn’t have even know to look for. Notre Dame was breathtakingly beautiful. Learning about how it was built and all the math and science that was necessary for the cathedral to turn out so magnificent was mind blowing. The knowledge that was used during building was so advanced and precise in every detail from acoustics to the meaning behind the stained glass, to the actual height and bones of the structure. The only disappointing part of the tour was not seeing Quasimodo or Esmeralda. Go figure, they’re on vacation when I’m here.

            The tour took us all over, showing us street performers, French ice cream, prominent buildings, famous hotels, restaurants and street vendors. My favorite place in Paris so far is the bridge holding thousands of locks latched on to the fences on either side of the street. Aside from how beautiful they all look, the meaning and stories behind them are what makes this sight so much more moving. When you are Paris with your lover, you carve your names into a lock and find a place to lock it shut on the fence. This way, no matter what, you will always be in love in Paris and when you return, you can visit your lock. Trust me, Nicholas Sparks has nothing on this bridge.

            After the walking tour, we took a boat ride on the river Seine where we were able to relax and enjoy the scenic view on the famous river. On our way home, we took the Metro where we unknowingly walked right into a concert held by a few street performers that captivated an audience of roughly one hundred people. Although we were exhausted, we could not pass up such a lively event. The performers were singing American music recognizable to all of us. We joined in the dancing and by the time we encouraged others to join, we had created a sort of flash mob. In the world we live in now where it seems people and society are taking a bad turn and not practicing acceptance and tolerance of one another, it was truly amazing to look around and see such a huge, diverse group of strangers dancing with another not caring about race, age, ethnicity, or being late to wherever they had been rushing off to on a Thursday evening. In that moment, everyone only wanted to be alive and carefree. My moment ended abruptly when the singer decided he thought I looked like I could carry a tune and asked me to sing with him to Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”. Obviously hesitant, I thought for a moment and decided if not now, then when? I would not be having the trip I set out to have if I turn down opportunities to get out of my own head and do something crazy. I walked over and sang the duet and thought how very proud of myself I was for not thinking and just doing, and also how very happy I was knowing I wouldn’t see the audience ever again.

            The next day was a tour I could not wait for. We had a private tour of Versailles followed by lunch in the gardens and a self guided tour of the public rooms and hall of mirrors. We had to take two trains to get to the palace, and we were scheduled to leave at 8:30 AM. When we got there, it was so much more magnificent than I had ever imagined. I have never seen such a huge estate before. The gate was covered in gold leaf and the entire building seemed to sparkle. Every square inch was adorned by moldings, paintings or sculptures making every room as lavish and extravagant as possible. On the private tour, we were able to view the private apartments including bedrooms, boudoirs, bathrooms, libraries, and dinging rooms. My favorite private quarter was the opera house. I expected it to be a small stage with seating for a group of a couple hundred people, but it turned out to be a full-blown opera house with ground seating, balconies and a mezzanine level. I decided Marie Antoinette and I would have definitely gotten along. The gardens were perfectly manicured and housed incredible statues and fountains. We ran into several characters visiting the gardens, and being young Americans and all, we could not pass up the opportunity to use them as photo bombs in our pictures (included in photos attached). It was a great day and I must say the palace exceeded my already high expectations.

            After learning that Friday night is the big night to go out in Paris, we decided to ignore how exhausted we were, pull ourselves together and hit a few bars. We went out with students from St. John’s, making our group about fifty or so people. We all got on the metro, and found our way to some fun bars. Thankfully, these venues turned out to be much more my scene than our night out at the club on Wednesday. The first bar we went to was a pub with a huge bar and a small dance floor. A few beers in, it quickly became my favorite place in the world. Being out in Paris so far made me realize that compared to the eligible men in America (or at least Chicago) it seems here, men were taught to be more assertive and make the first move. I happily obliged to an English gentleman and was pleased with my decision when I found myself laughing all night, and being one of the cute pairs holding hands and kissing late at night on the streets in Paris. For whatever reason, public displays of affection are not obnoxious at all in Paris. In fact, it seems like it fits.

            The night ended after the second bar that gave the feeling of being in a dungeon. To get in, you had to walk down spiral stairs and through a hallway with narrow walls and a low ceiling made of stone. The doors were wooden and had bars over the windows. It made me feel like I was in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, minus the whole men in eyeliner thing. We left around 3:30 and after goodbyes, got home around 4AM. The next day we took it easy and went shopping and grabbed lunch during the day. In the evening, we tried to go out in this area of town we heard was fun and full of people our age. What we didn’t know was, this was only the case for people our age with ambitions to be prostitutes, pimps, or drug dealers. We left quickly, and late dinner and drinks at 2 AM. This option turned out to be much more appealing than being undressed with guy’s eyes, cat called, and groped in a sketchy part of town.

  On Sunday we bought tickets to an all day music festival I heard about from the Englishman on Friday. It was called Rock en Seine (basically Paris’s Lollapalooza) and it featured bands such as: Passion Pit, Foster the People, Little Dragon, Kimbra, Green Day, Black Keys, Beach House, and many more. Sunday was the last day of the three-day event. The festival was a blast, and it was fun meeting all sorts of people and seeing American bands playing internationally. By the time we left, we could barely walk, partially due to the fact that our legs were exhausted, and partially because of alcohol. Our lungs were completely full of smoke and dirt that was kicked up and hovering in the air. Not a good look. Nevertheless, it was the perfect ending to our summer vacation, as classes began the next morning at 9AM. I went to bed more tired than I ever thought possible and excited for my fall semester to begin.