paris pleasures

Just about everything: the Louvre, the Orsay, the Cluny, the Eiffel Tower, the Pigalle district, the Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, the cemetary, the Dali museum... I am so glad I have the time to spend in Paris (even though it is very expensive, because every day I find something new I want to see.)

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Definitely get a metro ticket because you'll need it a lot more than you think you will. Walking is good, but it always takes longer than you think.

This place was recommened to me by several people, but I found it very lacking. The staff was rude, the reception process was disorganized. After three nights there they told me that i hadn't paid for my room and would have to leave. I had the receipt to show them, which was good because otherwise they would have moved me to their hotel, which I hear is very dirty. Everyone I talked to who has stayed there has gotten bedbug bites. The people who stay there come there in groups for the bar, so they already have their groups (they're not interested in making new friends in other words).

The bar is a problem because it lets all kinds of people into the hostel, mostly local men who come there to pick up the female backpackers. the courtyard is nice, but when it rains there is no where to go. the rooms are okay, crowded, but who really uses them for anything but sleep anyway? the showers were always hot, but if you have a room that opens into the courtyard you have to share a shower and toilet with just about everyone.

On the other hand there are lots of places to buy food and do laundry around. There are nice cafes and restaurants nearby, and the Eiffel Tower is a twenty minutes walk. Every night there is usually a group from the hostel who walks there to see it lit up. But the people who stay there, and the average accomadations make it not worth the money.

I would have never considered going to Chartres if someone in my hostel hadn't told me about it, but I loved going, and would reccomend it to anyone. It's a beautiful little town, about an hour by train from Paris. The train is easy to catch, and it goes through versaille, so you can stop off there, and then catch a later train to chartres. The town is small and very walkable, everything is close by the station. The cathedral is visible from all over and you can pretty much follow it without a map. Today I was there and it was stormy and windy. The cathedral looked so beautiful, but I couldn't figure out how to get in, so I walked around it first. The wind was blowing stronger and stronger, and I finally found the door to get inside. As I opened it, the wind almost blew the door away, and it slammed shut behind me.

The cathedral was almost completely silent, and what struck me first was the incredible vastness of it. The ceilings are high and domed. As i walked a few steps in the organ music started and filled the whole church. Chartres is famous for its stained glass windows, especially the blue color in them. They are beautiful and the detail in them is amazing. I read somewhere that the cathedral is built over an ancient druid worhsipping ground, and lots of their ancient practices influenced the design of the altars and the floor work.

I paid the 2.50 euro to walk up to the bell tower, where you can get an amazing view of the town of chartres. The wind was blowing me almost off the roof, and the clouds were swirling all over the sky, which made everything look very dramatic.

I loved the cathedral in Chartres much more than the Notre Dame of Paris. For one thing it's not such a tourist spot, so there isn't a camera flash going off every few seconds, or a jumble of conversations, or huge lines to get anywhere. It's also beautiful, and the stained glass is truly a wonder.

This cemetary is worth going to, if only because the entrance is free, even though you might want to pay the 1.50 Euro for a map. Jim Morrison's grave is great, it inspired me to leave a poem at his grave. (I was not the only one doing this -- I saw people leave everything from five page letters to joints to flowers.) But i liked seeing oscar wilde's tomb even better. the structure is covered with lipstick prints, and the plaque that is attached to the grave makes the whole thing hilarious. There is an excerpt from one of his poems on the back of the tomb, a very appropriate thing to have there.