Paris Hold The Key To Her Heart

“If It’s For Free, It’s For Me”

The first day I was in Paris, as a group we collectively decided to split off and meet back up at the Eiffel Tower for the light show at night. Georges and I went to this quaint Chinese restaurant off the Champs de Elysee. Afterwards we headed over my means of the metro. As we headed over towards the Eiffel Tower we saw a ton of people selling extremely cheap mini replicas of the Eiffel Tower. At one point we noticed them beginning to pack up, looking nervously around as if anticipating something. Suddenly on the corner with which we were standing the police pulled up behind the “vendors”. As soon as they did this the two men selling these souvenirs booked it out of there. In their hurry, one of them dropped a lot of his merchandise. For about a minute a group of us stared at it until one of the police nodded and gestured to us to take it. After that it was a free-for-all. Together, Georges and I made out with two big eiffel towers and six mini keychains. After this incident we began to “stalk” the police trying to see if we could scrounge up anymore free souvenirs for friends. However we had no such luck. We did get to see the “light show” of the Eiffel Tower. It was breathtaking. The architectural skeleton and design of the Tower itself was astonishing. This was the perfect ending to the beginning of my adventures in Paris.

My Random Fun Facts Inspired by The Louvre

Must Annunciation paintings in which you see that are painted during, or around, the Renaissance era will almost always be in the same location. This is because during the Renaissance, at the end of this outside corridor there was a small door, or opening of Churches and orphanages. People would drop off “unwanted” children, or rather, children they could not sufficiently support and love, and let the nuns raise them and find them a home. This symbolism and care of Mary (taking a child that was not necessarily hers; adopting Jesus in a manner of speaking) coincides perfectly with the symbolism and purpose of this area.

Egyptians are attributed with creating many things and being the inspiration and jumping off point of many other civilizations; anatomically proportioned sculptures for the Greeks, Clerestories (an architectural technique used in churches and other structures as a mechanism to illuminated an area) for the Islamic culture, and giving the contrapposto (the structural stance in which weight shifted forward on one foot) to the Greeks. One thing which many people forget that the Egyptians gave us was beer. They were the first civilization to create such. Our proof of this comes from some of the first Sumerian tablets which were discovered. These tablets had drawings on them, much like Egyptian hieroglyphs, which depict the recipe (ingredients ) to make the substance, and how to do such.

The Metro

Most cities, or countries for that matter, have very similar public transportation systems, whether they be above ground or below ground: They all have multiple lines with a couple of transfer points to allow for easier navigating, and the underground metro’s almost always have an odor which has trace amounts of urine. However, the customs which proceed these different systems are very different. In Washington D.C., it is customary to let the person off the metro rail, or bus, before proceeding to enter; people waiting can catch another train to get to their destination but those waiting to get off cannot. Furthermore, once people get on the train, they are urged to more to the center as to not clog the doorway to allow easier entrance and exits from the train. In France, people generally stand right in front of the door being a nuisance to those behind them who are forced to push and shove their way on. The last difference in customs that I’ve noticed is that in Rhode Island, D.C., and Philly’s public transportations do not allow food on their buses, however, in France they have vending machines and even people selling “fresh” (and I use the term loosely) produce. To me all these things seem strange which is normal since I am used to the ways things are back in the States. If the roles were switch however, I’m sure the French would view our public transportation customs as just as strange.