Life in the Toon: Paris

With a quick turnaround from Italy, Drew and I travelled to Paris, France for a quick weekend trip. Luckily, the flight manager, who looks exactly like Hank from Breaking Bad, sympathized with me and moved me into an extra legroom. Made for a much more comfortable flight. We landed in Paris at about 6 pm, so we managed to see the Arc de Triomphe at night and walk along the Champs Élysées and looked at all the expensive shops that we can’t afford. I think I saw four Louis Vuitton’s in a mile radius. At the end of the Champs, we settled into our hostel to get ready for an early rise the next day.

Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and the Parisian Catacombs were on the itinerary for the next day. I felt like Quasimodo but without the hunch when we went up the towers of Notre Dame. I think the view from Notre Dame is one of the best in the city because you can clearly see the Eiffel Tower as well as the rest of Paris. The Pantheon is very close to Notre Dame and you can walk across the famous Lock Bridge to cross the Seine and be at the Pantheon. Drew was excited to see the Lock Bridge until we realized that all of the locks have been removed from the bridge. Cool to see nonetheless. The Pantheon is home to a pretty impressive crypt. Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Marie and Pierre Curie are all entombed in the Pantheon. The Catacombs are as interesting as they are creepy. If you’ve seen the movie As Above, So Below, you definitely get that sort of vibe in the Catacombs except without the hallucinations and entrance to hell part.

We toured the Louvre the day after, which is amazing. I feel like a fine arts major after seeing Michelangelo’s David and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in a span of two weeks. I was a bit disappointed at the Louvre because one of my favorite paintings, Pandemonium by John Martin was taken down for restoration while I was there. But the Louvre is full of enough beautiful art that you can explore it for hours and not get bored. We saved the Eiffel Tower for our last night in Paris. For some reason, the lawn was closed off by fencing. It’s usually very nice to just sit on the lawn and hang out at the base of the tower for a while. Paris is a huge city with cramped metros and expensive food, but it is lovely.