Paris sera toujours Paris

Here I am, writing from Paris. Amazing, eh? My first hours in Paris have been very special. Back in 2002 I arrived to this city to study for one year. So my first day I came here with all my baggage, I put them on my bed and I thought: “What should I do now?”. It occurred to me then to take the metro and go to Étoile, better known as the place where you will find the Arc de Triomphe.

My first day in Paris in 2009 I decided that, since it worked the first time, I should do the same. So, once again, I went to Étoile, and I stared at the Arc de Triomphe. It was a funny feeling, more than 6 years later! I took a picture of the thing (that is, the arc) and I decided to go down the Champs Elysées, and capture a bit of the Parisian atmosphere. That makes a 3 km walk, maybe a little bit more. In 2 hours this is all I saw (didn’t properly visit anything):

La Défense

Champs Elysées

Palais Royal

Assemblée Nationale

Pont Alexandre III (my favorite bridge in Paris!)

Les Invalides

Musée d’Orsay

Musée du Louvre

Notre Dame de Paris

Pont des Arts

And yes, of course, I saw the Eiffel tower!

Great promenade, but my body was in pain. I forgot the wind in Paris, and how difficult it is to keep your hair in place with a decent look! I’ll have to find a solution for that, maybe I’ll start wearing a hat, like many others do in this city, because it’s quite frustrating to leave home with nice and clean hair and after 5 minutes on the street you look like Cameron Diaz in the movie “Being John Malkovich”.

I have to tell you also about my 3 new best friends: my umbrella, my winter coat and my street guide. Paris is cold compared to Barcelona, and the risk of rain is high almost every day, so I’ll have to get used to carry my umbrella again (not nice, it makes the purse heavier). But the street guide… Oh yes, we are becoming best friends! It’s ok to have a tourist’s guide if you don’t plan to stay long in Paris, but when you live here you really do need a serious map of the city. Now I have mine, and I’m sure it’s going to be very very useful. This little book is my best friend now!

My first impressions on the city haven’t changed. Paris is still Paris, which is good. I do need to improve my French accent urgently, as I hate to hear my too strong Spanish accent when I speak, and if I can hear it, just imagine the French… And I don’t want to be one of those people that never truly get integrated in a new country. So I have a lot of work to do.

It’s not only the accent; I have also to memorize once again the metros, directions, neighborhoods, streets, etc… My new little book (my best friend!) will help me in the following weeks with that. So far I have no TV, therefore there’s no excuse. I know how to get to every tourist place in the city, but this is not what I need on my day to day.

Finally, I’ll mention two points that we are going to call “Actualité française”. First of all, former Président de la République Jacques Chirac has recently published his autobiography. That’s ok, everybody does that, however some corruption cases involving him have been brought to the public light at the same time. Is it done on purpose? Who knows, but I’m interested, so I’ll keep you posted.

And number two for the “Actualité française”: l’identité française ( = French identity). It seems there’s a huge debate on the streets concerning what’s the French identity, and from what I hear the debate is being nourished by the Président de la République himself, monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy. I have to investigate this one as well, and it’ll take time until I have access to different opinions from French people. Mmm, I guess I’ll have to have my own opinion on this subject one of these days…

And that will be all! À la prochaine!

PS1: It’s been only a few days in here, and I’m starting to have trouble to write in English. I need English speakers around me! Will find someone…

PS2: For those that read my previous post, when I saw the Eiffel tower for the first time, of course… I smiled :).