The Paris Trilogy continues – Part 3

En français s’il te plait !

Eh ben ouai, je peux bien écrire en français mais la plupart de mes lecteurs ne comprendraient pas ce que je dis. Et c’est plus facile pour moi de m’exprimer en français quand je suis quelque part ou on parle français. Ma connaissance du français est un peu bizarre. Je comprends presque tout. Je comprends les blagues culturelles, je comprends les discours politiques, je peux lire des livres et regarder des émissions de télé … MAIS quand quelqu’un me pose une question simple, c’est compliqué.

I’ll continue in English for now if that’s okay. It doesn’t take me much longer to type in French, but my brain starts hurting and I’m probably making a ton of mistakes. Fun fact though, the Swiss keyboard comes with all those interesting letters, and we learn to type using them: ü/è, ö/é and ä/à are on the same key. If my keyboard is set to French, I get èéà and have to hit shift for üöä. If my keyboard is set to German, it’s the other way round. Personally, I don’t change the keyboard settings as it’s easier to just hit shift. Still fun fact. Also, the Germans and the French have different keyboards. That’s Europe for you.

My plans for Saturday had been to just hang out and take in that Paris feeling, walking around, tracking down the statues of liberty and maybe stopping at a little French café. Then my Arc de Triomphe ticket got cancelled, that famous cemetery was closed, and I had also found a language museum. Plans change.

Because the Arc de Triomphe opens late (10 AM is late if you want to explore), I decided to go to the Grande Arche de la Défense. It’s right at the end of metro line 1, so that was very convenient. I had seen all those new buildings in the distance the day before, but not really thought about it too much. Then I remembered that somebody had told me about the Grande Arche just a few days earlier.

And tell you what that thing’s huge – it’s 110 meters high (360 ft). I assumed it would be big. I mean the name Grande Arche suggests as much, but this was much bigger than I’d expected. There used to be a roof terrace at some point, but that’s closed now. The Grande Arche is 4 km from the Arc de Triomphe straight down the street and on the other side of the Arc de Triomphe the road continues down to the Place de la Concorde. It’s all one straight line.

Visibility was not great when I was there, but I did enjoy walking around the Défense area and climbed the steps up to the bottom of the arch. I also liked the metro station. Very modern and it looked like they had more variety when it came to ready-made salads than elsewhere. Still didn’t spot one that was vegan. I’d like my salad cheese free, please. I know I’m Swiss, but there’s cheese and then there’s salad – the two just don’t mix. It’s also where I bought my very first demi-baguette.

I didn’t feel like walking 2.5 miles to the Arc de Triomphe, so I got back on the metro and managed to find the underground access to the Arc. If you just want to look around, you can totally do that without a ticket. There was a line on the left and people were just randomly joining it. What I’ve learned though is that I never join a line unless I know what it’s for. This one was for people without a ticket or something like that. When I got to the front to ask what was going on, I was asked if I wanted to go to the top – yes; then if I had a ticket – yes, again; and I was able to go right up the steps. No waiting. Could be different during peak season …

Back up on street level I got in a very short line to go up. It was a two-minute wait for bag checks. Now, here’s the deal. Technically there is an elevator if you’re not mobile enough to climb all those steps but it’s probably best to double-check beforehand. Some people were waiting outside the door to the elevator but I didn’t see anybody actually using it.

I walked up and was surprised that I didn’t need a break. I just kept going. There’s a total of 284 steps to get to the very top, but you do get a bit of a rest when you get up to a small exhibit a bit more than half way up. This is also where they are hiding a gift shop.

Once you get to the top you have a view down the Champs Elysée to the Place de la Concorde, you see how close the Eiffel Tower is, you can look up towards the Grande Arche or see Sacre Cœur up on the hill in the distance. I love how a lot of the roads start at the Arc de Triomphe and radiate out into the city. That made for some nice pictures as well.

No need to worry about the stairs getting tight with people going up and down the same ones. They are completely separate. You go up one side and down the other. I thought the system worked really well. I still wouldn’t want to be there in the summer or any time it gets crowded, but that’s a different story.

When I was done looking around, I headed for the Cimetière de Père-Lachaise. The door right next to the metro exit was open today. I really didn’t care about any of the famous people who were buried there, so I just walked around a bit. Some of the graves where huge and I was amazed at how much people were willing to spend for their family members to be comfortable after death. I’d kind of assumed that the cemetery was an old one that was no longer in use, but I did find some recent graves as well. Who knew?

After the bones in the catacombs this felt weird as well. My body started reacting. That’s when I figured it was time to leave. It’s a beautiful area and I understand why it’s become a tourist attraction. It does feel a bit weird to visit a cemetery without knowing anybody who’s buried there. As I mentioned, I didn’t see any of the famous graves but that was a very conscious decision. I saw some other things I really didn’t want to see, but nevermind …

Remember that language museum I told you about? That’s where I headed next. And that’s where things got really interesting. I’m totally gonna leave it here for today. Yes, I am that mean.

See you next time at the language museum.