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Last tango in Paris

Andy and I stayed in the hostel till Friday. That’s when we met up with Matthieu, who we would be staying with for a few days. He first took us to the ruins of a small Roman arena. It appeared to be a park because there were a lot of people around acting as though it were a park.

He then took us to a garden-type place for lunch. There was a crepe stand there, so we had some crepes. The French do love their crepes, and they love to have Nutella with their sweet crepes. We sat on a bench to eat, and it was good because the weather was nice.

After that, we decided to go back to Matthieu’s home because it’s pretty far from Paris. He lives in Montigny-le-Brettoneaux, which is near Versailles. We took the train there, and it took over an hour. Once we were at his house (actually a condo), we settled in and got to know his family a bit.

They’re like an American family. The mom is caring, the dad is goofy. He has two sisters, ages 16 and 1 (one). The older one like to play The Sims 3, and the baby likes to run around and yell and/or cry. They all love “Step by Step” and have taped a lot of episodes. (I wonder where the French guy is from in the French dubbed version.) Their English was much better than our French, so when we weren’t speaking in Esperanto with Matthieu, we were communicating in English with his parents.

I had never spent a significant amount of time in a non-Anglophone country, so I didn’t know what to expect in the way of customs. When dinnertime rolled around, I got to find out a bit. For dinner was a sort of zucchini-in-sauce-type-thing served over rice, with scrambled eggs on the side and I believe bread as well. The cups they drank out of were pretty small, and they only ever filled them halfway, so I followed suit. After dinner we tasted some cheeses, and the mother presented a traditional Breton cake. It was kind of squidgy and I think had prunes in it, but I liked it.

Also that night, I watched a French movie (subtitled in English) with Matthieu. It was called La Doublure, and it reminded me a lot of other European movies I had seen (not that many) in that it was all about the plot rather than, say, stuff blowing up.

On Saturday, the three of us went to Paris. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. Admission was €3.50, which wasn’t too bad at all. The first thing I noticed about the Eiffel Tower, besides how big it is, is how brown it is. You can kind of see in pictures that it has a bronze hue, but up close, you can fully imagine the total brownness. In fact, I saw signs saying that the tower was currently undergoing its 19th paint job. Apparently it has to be repainted every few years.

The tower has three floors. It’s quite a walk up to the first one (well, it was for me), but the view is worth it.

The second floor was about as long of a walk, but have a look. Actually, this picture might also be from the first floor. I can’t really tell.

At the second floor, there are ticket machines. Yes, you have to pay more to go to the top. It’s the same amount you paid for your ticket the first time, which depends on how old you are and stuff like that. But what a beautiful view there is.

From there, you take an elevator to the top floor, which is the smallest of the three. It was pretty crowded with other spectators. The lower part of the top floor is indoors and gives the directions and distances to major cities around the world. The top part is, well, as high as you can go. It’s pretty unbelievably high up.

The Eiffel Tower isn’t just about looking at the scenery. It has a couple of restaurants, a Ben & Jerry’s, and (of course) and official store where you can buy Eiffel Tower anything at an insanely high price.

Walking (and elevatoring) down the tower isn’t nearly as bad. It seemed to go by rather quickly. Before I knew it, we were back on the ground. We decided to go to a nearby plaza and have some crepes for lunch. Each of us got a crepe with bananas and Nutella. Pretty dang delicious. The Eiffel Tower was still in view from where we were sitting. Here’s a nice shot of it.

The next and last sight I wanted to see was Notre Dame, so we stopped there for a little while.

Then, we went home and had a frozen pizza for dinner. It was a little different in that it had a sort of hollandaise sauce instead of tomato sauce, but it was good. The French seem to eat their pizza with a fork and knife. I didn’t feel too out of place because I sometimes do that too.

We were kind of in a hurry to eat because we were about to go to the movies. Matthieu’s mom took the three of us to see Star Trek, a movie I had already seen twice but was willing to see again. French movie theaters specify whether a foreign film is the “original version” (subtitled in French) or the “French version” (dubbed in French). Earlier, I had been confused when I heard that the movie theater was playing the “original version” of Star Trek. Also, going to the movies in France is hella expensive. I think my ticket was €9.50 or something like that, which Matthieu’s mom graciously paid. It seems that you can buy a pass that gets you in to a large number of movies at an overall discount.

The European elections were Sunday, so in the morning, Andy and I went with Matthieu’s family to the local polling place. They explained to us that the candidates were commnunists, fascists, and everyone in between. There was also a pro-Esperanto party, which was really awesome. The way they vote in France is pretty interesting. Each party prints a sheet with its list of candidates. To vote, you secretly place one of the sheets into an envelope and put that into the ballot box. Sounds pretty foolproof to me. (When we talked about voting with Matthieu’s parents, they remembered that we were from Florida and mentioned the 2000 election. We can never live it down.)

Later that day, Matthieu took us to the Palace of Versailles. Even though it was being partially renovated, what we could see of the place was spectacular. Just look at the gates.

There were lots of bedrooms and sitting rooms and other fancy rooms with paintings and such. One of the most historically important rooms was the Hall of Mirrors, where many important things have happened.

When we went home, we watched another French movie, which Wikipedia says is being remade by Hollywood, possibly with Steve Carrell.

Which brings us to Monday. We went with Matthieu to a train station in Paris, where he helped us get tickets for our next destination: Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain. He had to talk to the clerk for us because the clerk didn’t speak English. We wanted to leave Tuesday morning or afternoon, but the next train would be Tuesday night. We decided not to pay extra for beds. So tonight, instead of spending the night in Vitoria, we’ll be on a train.

Matthieu had to be off for a final exam, so he left. In search of decent food, shelter from the rain, and free Wi-Fi, Andy and I eventually found a Starbucks near the station, where we camped out for a few hours. Matthieu came back to visit for a while, but then he had to go home.

Finally, it was time to meet our host for the night and our first Pasporta Servo host. Actually, we had met him briefly at last week’s Cafe Esperanto event. He lives in an apartment in the heart of Paris’s 20th arrondissement. (The fightin’ 20th!) After settling in and having a chat with our host, Andy and I went out to a grocery store and a bakery to get food for dinner. We got a good haul, and Andy ended up making broccoli, mashed potatoes, and tortellini for dinner.

Today is our last day in France. Andy tried to make an omelet, but it turned into scrambled eggs. I wanted to go to the Louvre today, but I found out that it’s closed on Tuesdays. I think instead we’ll walk around a bit and go to the famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where many great Frenchmen and Jim Morrison are buried. Then, tonight, it’s off to Spain.