Bonjour Europa!

October 13, 2009

On September 26, I said sayonara to Japan and hello to London. I was greeted by an obnoxious customs officer, who was reluctant to let me into the country and made me sit through 10 minutes of pedantic lecturing before he did. In London I met up with Minju, which was really great after being apart for 3 months.

We only had two days in London, but we made the most of it. We spent most of our time checking out the area around the Thames River, including the London Eye (seeing, but not riding), the Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I also saw St. Paul’s, my first European church. I always thought that seeing churches in Europe sounded kind of boring, but St. Paul’s blew me away. It is huge and cavernous and seems to go on forever. It also had some incredibly detailed and intricate artwork. I was impressed.

We got our shopping fix at the overcrowded Camden Market and we visited Westminster and admired Big Ben as the sun was setting. We also visited Wimbledon, which is a quieter residential area of London. The only downside to London was that I found the Londoners to be quite rude (this was made worse by the fact that I had just come from Japan, the most polite country on Earth). Besides the people, I really enjoyed the city and was struck by how old it felt. The architecture has a permanence to it that you can’t find in North America. I will also be checking out London just before I fly back to Canada, so more to come then!

From London, we traveled to Lyon, where Minju is studying this semester at the Jean Moulin University. Lyon was nice because it gave me a chance to finally settle into a place. I unpacked my backpack for the first time on the trip! In Lyon, I had to come back to reality for a bit and I spent some time working on my grad school applications. Aside from working at the library, I spent my time touring the city with Minju and soaking in the French culture. Fresh baguettes and croissants became a daily ritual and I ate crepes and many cheeses that I had never heard of before.

Lyon was interesting because it operates nearly exclusively en francais. I had a chance to put my minimal French into action and luckily the locals were accommodating enough to put up with my horrible French accent. At times (most times), it wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.

In Lyon, we spent a lot time hanging out near the beautiful Rhone river, which runs through the center of the city. We also spent time exploring Presq’ile (the downtown area) and Vieux Lyon (the old part of the city). Vieux Lyon is the France that I envisioned. It is full of small creperies, boulangeries and patisseries, and has many outdoor tables where people sip coffee, eat crepes, and, of course, smoke. The cobblestone streets and old buildings give the old town a very different atmosphere from the rest of the city. Another famous area of Lyon is Fourviere, where we checked part of a Latin mass at the Basilique de la Notre-Dame de Fourviere and admired two spectacular ancient Roman amphitheatres.

Minju and I also took a day trip to the tiny town of Perouges, which is a completely medieval city that was built in the 15th century. Perouges was really cool to see, and it is incredible that it so well preserved. The highlights were the town fortress and the lookout tower.

After soaking in Lyon, we headed to Paris for a 5 day whirlwind tour of the city. In Paris, I had my first ever Couchsurfing experience, and it was a great one! We stayed with a really nice guy named Mathieu who showed us the city, took us for beers (22 euro per pitcher…ouch!), took us to a small concert, and watched movies with us. It was a great experience having the opportunity to stay with a local and to experience some things that the typical tourist wouldn’t. For example, Mathieu took us to a great local outdoor market where we bought ingredients for dinner. While this might not sound too exciting, it was really cool to see the differences in how the French shop for groceries compared to Canada. In France, there is more focus on buying foods that are fresh and local, rather than buying things that are preserved and packaged. In short, it’s a much more environmental and healthy approach.

We made sure to visit the two iconic sites of Paris: the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Despite the crowds of tourists, it was still amazing to see these symbols that are so commonly connected to France. I was impressed by the sheer size of the Arc and its beautiful stone carvings. The Arc leads to the Champs D’Elysées, which is the 5th Avenue of Paris. It is a beautiful street to walk down, as it is lined with well kept trees and has sidewalks that are nearly as wide as the road itself. In general, Paris is a great walking city since the distances between sites in the downtown are quite short. It was great to see the Eiffel Tower. We climbed up to the second level and took in the view of downtown Paris. The tower itself looks quite industrial up close and is far from pretty, but from a distance it looks beautiful. It was originally intended to be a temporary structure, but it stayed up and has become the most well known symbol of Paris.

We also did our best to get a taste of the city’s incredible art collection. We visited The Louvre, The Rodin Museum, and the Centre Pompidou, which is a modern art museum. I really enjoyed the Rodin Museum. The museum had a cool layout: the sculptures were on display outside in a beautifully maintained garden. I especially enjoyed The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. The Gates of Hell blew me away with their incredible detail and with the haunting feeling that they gave off. The construction of the massive gates would have been a huge undertaking. While the Rodin Museum was small and self-contained the Louvre was the exact opposite. We spent nearly six hours exploring and probably saw less than half of the exhibits. At the Louvre, we saw the Mona Lisa, which was cool to see, but I didn’t find it as spectacular as everyone makes it out to be. I actually found the massive painting behind the Mona much more impressive. My favourite part of the museum was a collection of large 18th and 19th century French paintings. We saw Minju’s favourite painting, “Liberty Leading the People” by Delacroix (the Viva La Vida album cover). I really liked “The Coronation of Napolean.” The event was important because it was the first time that the Pope did not crown a King, and marked a clear separation between Church and State. The Louvre was good to see, but at times the size of it was overwhelming. Pompidou was a fun museum and I really enjoyed it. As with most modern art museums, I didn’t like about 60% of the stuff, was indifferent towards 20%, and really liked the other 20%.

I also visited the Pantheon, which houses the incredible Foucault Pendulum. The Pendulum hangs from the highest point in the Pantheon (220 feet) and was used by Foucault in 1851 to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. It is the one of the most famous large scale public science demonstrations, so naturally I was excited to see it and think about it. The pendulum bob rotates by 11 degrees per hour, and because of its size, the rotation is clearly visible. The Pantheon also has a crypt which houses some of France’s most important political and intellectual heroes.

Some other highlights of Paris include visiting Notre Dame Cathedral, feeding baguette to the birds outside the Louvre, seeing the original Statue of Liberty at the Jardin du Luxembourg, walking along the Seine River, browsing Shakespeare and Company (possibly the best bookstore in the world) and visiting Montmatre and Sacre-Coeur. I really enjoyed our time in Paris. It is a beautiful city throughout and it is hard to find a part that you will not enjoy.

Special thanks to Mathieu for being such a great host!

-M