I arrived in Paris at the Aeroport Roissy – Charles de Gaulle to find the ticket machines for the train tickets to Paris to be completely impossible. “Card declined – call your bank.” I had to remind myself that I did not want to behave as another passenger on my plane, who got very angry about having to move seats because the plane type was changed last minute. And the positive attitude worked – after two different machines and five or six trials my card was finally accepted and I could leave the airport. Initially I had thought that it would never happen. Hence I have an advice for people who arrive in CDG: mind every sign that appears on your way, because in order to get on the airport-internal metro system and from there to the real train station you don’t want to miss a single one! I got on the RER B and asked myself if I had really arrived in the supposedly most romantic city in the world. The 36 minute trainride certainly doesn’t make for a good first impression – all you see are ugly grafitti tags and, in the distance, the social housing projects of the suburbs.
Luckily this picture changes once you arrive in the city centre! Changing to the metro at Chatelet -Les Halles and arriving at the Bastille station assures you that Paris might not be as overestimated as you begin to think on the RER B! The Place de la Bastille is beautiful. However, being a history buff and living just behind the Place de la Bastille also makes you think about what actually happened here on the 17th of July 1789. This was were one of the decisive moments that started the French revolution came about; the prison and fortress that used to be here was stormed. The prison only contained seven prisoners at the time, and the major reason it was stormed was because it contained more than 13,000 kilos of gunpowder. Besides, the Bastille was a symbol of royal tyranny.
It is estimated that a crowd of less than 1,000 people were present that day. They came in the morning and demanded the surrender of the prison and the handover of arms and gunpowder. Two of them were admitted into the fortress to negotiate. As the negoations dragged on however, the crowd became impatient and in the early afternoon it accessed the outer courtyard. This was when the actual fighting began. It has never been determined who fired the first shoot. 99 people died in this fight. The commander of the garrison at the Bastille, Bernard René Jourdan, marquis de Launay, was dragged to the Hôtel de Ville (still the town hall of Paris) – which would have been a trip of about 20 minutes on foot. Outside Hôtel de Ville people began to discuss his fate until the badly beaten de Launey said “Enough. Let me die!” He then kicked a pastry chef in the groin and was stabbed until he fell to the street. His head was sawn of, fixed on a pike and carried through the streets. The French national holiday – the Bastille day – commemorates the Fête de la Fédération which was held in 1790 to remember the attack on the Bastille, as this anniversary was seen as a symbol of the uprising of a modern French nation.
The Opéra National de Bastille – the Opera of the people – was opened on the 14th of July 1989, the bicentennial of the attack on the Bastille. This very modern building, whose exterior is made entirely out of glass, was designed by Carlos Ott. He also designed the Torre de las Telecomunicaciones, also known as Torre Antel situated at the Montevideo Bay in Uraguay, as well as the national banks of both Abu Dabi and Dubai and has an altogether really impressive resumé.
Today the area around the Bastille, called le Marais, is fortunately much more peaceful. It is supposedly the neighbourhood of gays and jews. I haven’t seen that much evidence of the first (so far it certainly doesn’t ressemble the gay neighbourhood of Madrid), but there can be no doubt about the second. Just opposite the building there is a large Synagogue and jewish kids are playing in the street wearing their yamulkas.
During this week I have not had time to explore much. On Monday I began my four week language course at the Ecole de Langue Français pour Étrangers in the charming Villa Ballu in the 9th arrondissement. This is a really intensive course. Three hours in the morning in a group of four and two hours in the afternoon with only one other person plus a good deal of homework. If you need to learn French really fast this is the place to be, but at 765 Euro a week it comes with a price tag two-three times as high than most other schools here. My opinion: It is so worth it!
Even though my schedule has been really busy this week, I have however had time to indulge in some of the advantages of living in Paris. I had the pleasure of enjoying a nice lunch in the garden of the Musee de la Vie Romantique (the Museum of Romantic Life); an onion quiche and a very good salad based on carrots and green lentils. Definitely worth the price tag that comes with it (12 euroes excluding beverages). I have also discovered a nice boulangerie in the near vicinity of the school and sampled the quiche lorraine, the croissants, pain au raisins and flan nature. However I try to adhere to the ideas of Mireille Guiliano which only confirms the wisdom of my wise mum. Guiliano wrote the book “Why French Women Don’t Get Fat.” She thinks that Americans (and a lot of other people) overeat and try to compensate by exhausting themselves at the gym. Her idea is pretty simple; indulge in delicious foods of a good quality, but stick to small quantities, since the first bite is always the best anyway! It’s a book that’s worth reading. Her writing style is funny. And her perspective on the problem of people becoming increasingly fat is a very refreshing alternative to the majority of diet books, which do nothing to increase your quality of life.
A few curious facts so far: some police officers ride mountainbikes (this is definetely my style of transportation!) and even more strange, some transport themselves by rollerscates! When paying in some shops don’t be surprised if you first have to go to one corner of a shop and have a bill made for your purchases and then have to go to the other in order to pay for them!
