Rachel's in Germany!: Paris part 4

Just realized that all this time I've had my blog text in a sans-serif font, which is extremely hard on the eyes. I changed it to a serif font--hopefully that will make things easier for you all to read! Anyone in favor of a white background instead of black, please let me know.

Petra and Marni came to City Light with me this morning! It was cool. We brought a lentil salad to share, because this week the Ropers were busy moving into their new house and Janos & Anja were out of town at the Calvary Chapel missions conference, and they needed help with the lunch for after the service.

Exciting news! Joey and Janos finally found a building to meet at! Ironically, it is actually just a few buildings down from Martin & Ivanna's house where the church has been meeting, at the youth center. Starting next week the church service will be there. So this was our last week at Martin & Ivanna's. We all signed a card to thank them for their hospitality in opening their house. We also had a big food party afterwards. The service was good too--we had a guest teacher today, Pastor Edmund from CC Dusseldorf, and he taught out of Genesis 26 about trusting and obeying God during the tests of life.

Indra came home this afternoon from visiting her paternal grandma (who lives near Köln). She, Marni, and I decided to have our previously scheduled chocolate night. Petra is going to Morocco tomorrow, so she wasn't able to participate, but it was still fun. We watched the Chocolat movie and ate the assorted chocolates her maternal grandparents had sent her. There were probably around 40 chocolates and WE ATE ALL OF THEM. I think I had maybe around ten or twelve, though I wasn't counting. Marni and Indra definitely ate more of them than I did. (Like I've said before, Marni's chocolate tolerance is incredibly high.) They were really good chocolates too. The pralines were absolutely amazing, though actually I think my other favorites were the white chocolate ones with lemon cream and sour-cherry-cream fillings. Definitely enhanced the movie experience.

Good grief, I've got to finish writing about Paris. London is coming up on Thursday! (What on earth was I thinking, scheduling two weeklong trips back-to-back like that?!?) I sincerely hope I will get a chance to blog in London, so I don't get so behind. Though I'll confess it was nice while I was in Paris to have a break from it for a week . . .

Anyway, on with the contes du voyage (travel tales). Writing about this trip is great in a way, because I feel like it's letting me relive it a second time. :)

Note: Photos are at the bottom.

Day 5: May 26, 2014

The rain was back that morning. I made sure to be on time for breakfast--I had almost been denied access to the food the day before because I had come in right at 9:30, just as breakfast time was ending. The kitchen lady had tried to tell me it was too late and that I couldn't eat, but after I gave her an "oh, s'il vous plaît?" with puppy-dog eyes, to my relief, she agreed to let me get food as long as I was quick. But every day after that, I made sure to be down there by 9:15. I didn't want to miss out on that bread with jam and butter!

Anyway, after breakfast I got on the Metro and took it to the Pont de l'Alma, one of the bridges near the Eiffel Tower. (The bridge, I later learned, is named in commemoration of the Battle of Alma, which was the first French & English victory over Russia in the Crimean War in 1854.) On the south side of this bridge is the entrance for the tour of the Égouts de Paris (Paris sewers). Being a Victor Hugo geek, I couldn't really go to Paris and not see the sewers--after all, they were only the setting for the most famous scene in Les Misérables. Plus, I had been slightly underimpressed with the catacombs (though they were cool, I think the tourist hype made them out to be more exciting than they actually were) and I wanted to see an underground view of Paris that was a little more under the radar.

The sewer tour did not disappoint. It actually turned out to be one of the most interesting things I did while I was in Paris. And it was also very uncrowded--I got there about ten minutes before it opened for the day, and the only people in line were me, maybe ten others, and two big elementary school groups. The school kids had a tour guide, but if you are an individual visitor you just follow the signs and the little pamphlet and do a self-guided tour. Basically it takes you through one little section of the sewer system along the Seine and tells you about the history of the sewers, the modern sewer system, the type of equipment that is used to clean the sewers, and the environmental and engineering aspects of sewer management. It sounds boring, but it actually wasn't at all. The displays were really simple, multi-lingual, and informative, and they even had some interactive ones geared toward kids that explained the basics of how the system works and answered the "where does the water go once I flush the toilet?" or "where does the storm drain water go when it rains?" questions. They had one little section of tunnel that showed what the old sewer tunnels looked like before the remodel in the mid-1800s, and there were all the different sewer-cleaning machines on display as well as dummies modeling the protective gear worn by égoutiers (sewer workers). My favorite part was the section that explained the development of the city from Roman times to the modern day and the ways the sewer development was tied in with it. Of course, there was also a mention of the famous sewer-escape scene from Les Mis.

I actually learned a lot about both the Paris sewer system and the urban development of Paris, and just about sewer work in general. The most fun and interesting things I found out were:

On one of the support pillars of the Pont de l'Alma outside the sewer, there is a statue of a soldier. When the Seine floods, the citizens use the statue to measure the height of the water. During the big flood of 1910, the water came up to the statue's neck!
Around Paris, there are green-painted drinking fountains with Classical-style figures holding up a fancy roof-looking thing. The water pours down in the middle, and you can fill your water bottle. These fountains were designed by Sir Richard Wallace and first instituted in the 1870s. Today there are 113 of them. Originally, citizens drank from a cup that was attached to the fountain by a chain, but they got rid of this at some point because they realized it wasn't hygienic!
The sewer worker's getup includes boots, gloves, a hard hat and head lamp, a safety harness, and an emergency breathing mask. This equipment is essential for protection in the dark, wet, and unsanitary conditions of the sewer.
The new design for the sewer passages during the remodel under Napoleon III put one pipe along each side of the tunnel: one carrying clean water, and the other carrying used or dirty water.
In the early 1600s, King Henri IV commissioned a hydraulic pump to be built at the Pont Neuf to draw drinking water out of the Seine. The pump was nicknamed "La Samaritaine." Though it's long gone now, there is still a building called La Samaritaine at the Pont Neuf, in the approximate location of the original pump.
When Victor Hugo was writing Les Misérables, he got the head sewer inspector (who was a friend of his) to make him a map of the sewer network, so that the famous scene with Jean Valjean's escape from the barricade would be based on real information!
Plenty of personal items have been found in the sewer over the years, including two very nice swords still in their sheaths. Imagine being a stylish young cavalier and losing your sword down the sewer . . . bummer!
One of the coolest things they use to clean the sand and silt out of the sewer passages is a floating ball (made of either iron or wood, depending on size) that is just slightly smaller than the tunnel. They use a heavy flow of water to flush the ball through the passage, and as it spins along, it pushes the sand in front of it.
Over time, various methods have been used to spread out the sewer water so it won't pollute the Seine downstream. The open fields where the water was diverted during the early 20th century were so well fertilized that they grew freakishly large vegetables!
Today, Paris has the only sewer system of its kind in the world. It is a spectacular feat of engineering and planning which was developed out of the necessity of sustaining clean water for a huge population. All 2100 km of the sewer passages are accessible for inspection by workers.
The sewer workforce is made up of several hundred individuals (mostly men, not sure if there are any women) who maintain the passages. It is a job that the workers take great pride in, and very often the tradition of sewer work is passed on from father to son.

I have to say, I came out of the tour with a much deeper appreciation and gratitude for all those sewer workers in Paris, Hamburg, and back home in California who put in so much effort so we can have flushing toilets, running water, and clean streets. Their job isn't an easy, safe, or glamorous one, but it's got to be one of the most important in an entire city. So here's to all the unsung heroes of urban life: the sewer workers. And kudos to you, "Daddy Craig" Donals, for devoting your entire life to sewer work! I have a new admiration for you!

After I emerged from the tour (with a bit of a stink in my clothes, I'll admit--that sewer water flowing under the metal grills below you is real and unfiltered!), I had a quick lunch and then walked back along the river to the Hôtel des Invalides. It is still in use as a care facility for disabled soldiers, but it also houses the army museum and a few other things, and around the other side of it is the chapel where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried. Though technically, it is NOT a chapel--it's way too big and ridiculous to be called that. Try "shrine." There is a big, super-grandiose and super-ornate altar with both white and black marble and all this gold, and in the center under the dome, a huge round hole in the floor (like where the pendulum is at the Griffith Observatory in L.A.), and when you look down, Napoleon's sarcophagus is on the lower level, surrounded by Classical statues. The sarcophagus is probably fifteen times as large as Napoleon himself was. Funny how he spent his whole life building up this amazing empire and had all these monuments and paintings done to commemorate himself, but he died just like everyone else . . . as they say, death is the great equalizer, and that's true no matter how spectacular of a tomb you end up buried in.

I also walked past the Rodin Museum, which is right next to Invalides, but it was closed (most museums in Europe are open on weekends, but closed either Monday or Tuesday). I did have a quick peek through the fence into the sculpture garden, and it looked nice. Maybe next time I get to Paris, I will be able to go back there.

After Invalides, I took the Metro to the Opéra Garnier. It was kind of rainy and gloomy at that point and I was getting tired, so I didn't spend a lot of time there. I went into the gift shop for a few minutes (some nice stuff, but really expensive!) and walked around the outside. The tour was like 8 or 10 euros, and as much as I wanted to see the interior (particularly the fancy ballroom where they sing "Masquerade" in Phantom of the Opera), I didn't feel like spending the time or money. So I got back on the Metro and continued my itinerary. I had made a tentative plan in the morning to visit the Opéra, Basilica of Sacré-Coeur, and the three main train stations in the northern part of the city, because I could sort of do a loop and hit them one after the other. The next spot in line after the Opéra was the Gare St. Lazare. This station turned out not to be particularly exciting--the front part has been redone and feels like a shopping mall or something--though the interior platform area where the trains go in and out still looks mostly the same as it looked when Monet did his famous painting of it.

Next I took the Metro to the Montmartre district to visit Sacré-Coeur. There was a looooong spiral staircase going out of the Metro because the stop was deep underneath the hill where the basilica is. I didn't realize there was an elevator until I had gotten to the top of the stairway and saw all the other people getting off. Oh well, at least my legs got a workout!

The neighborhood around Sacré-Coeur is meant to be quaint with the old neighborhood feel, I think, but it was kind of touristy. In the square outside the Metro stop there was a carousel and a stand with fair food, like at the Eiffel Tower. I was feeling super low on energy, so I sat on a bench and devoured the remainder of my snacks. While I was sitting there, a couple of ladies came into the square with a girl who looked around my age or maybe a little younger. They were doing a model photoshoot. The girl was wearing fancy high heels, skinny jeans, and a knit shrug top, and of course she had a ton of makeup on and the ladies kept arranging her hair every thirty seconds. All I could think of was an autobiography I had read back home just before I came overseas, about a woman who had once been a model before she was a Christian. She had said in the book that the time she spent in Paris had been some of the worst months of her life. Everything was based on how she looked and how much she weighed, and she had felt like nothing about her was genuine. I wondered if this girl, who was so young and pretty and dressed so stylishly for the camera, felt the same way. Did she wish she could just sit on a bench and eat a snack and be a nobody, like I was doing? In a way, it kind of made me sad to watch the whole thing.

After a few minutes the ladies and the girl moved on to a different location, and I wound around the little streets and climbed the stairs up the hillside to Sacre Coeur. (Boy, there were a lot of steps! But I wasn't going to be lazy and take the tram lift thingy.) Lots of people were sitting on the front stairway leading up to the basilica, admiring the view out over the city.

I decided to look at the view afterwards and went into the basilica first. Sacré-Coeur really is a pretty amazing building--very different from the Gothic style, but impressive nonetheless. It is more square and has multiple domes and a very high ceiling, kind of a combination of Byzantine and Romanesque elements. No photos were allowed, so I drew for a while instead. Vespers started while I was there and I did very discreetly take out my camera and make a few recordings of the music for Indra to hear. She loves the sound of voices echoing in a big church, and she told me I had to visit Sacré-Coeur for her. I figured an audio recording of the choir of nuns singing would be the best thing to bring back for her.

I stayed until almost 6:45, but finally left because I had to go to the bathroom and also I still wanted to visit the Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est. So I went back outside and admired the view over the city for a couple of minutes. There was a guy performing all kinds of tricks with a soccer ball, and the whole crowd on the steps couldn't help but watch him. This guy was so amazing! He could bounce the ball off his hands, his feet, his elbows, his head, his back, and pretty much every other part of his body, and he could also balance it on his foot while he was lying down. He could spin it on the tip of his finger, even while he was walking along the top of the little fence next to him. He even climbed the light post and held the ball balanced on his foot while he climbed up, and then did all these acrobatic maneuvers while hanging onto the light post and simultaneously still balancing the ball! He was like the Cat in the Hat: "But that is not all, oh no, that is not all . . . " It was absolutely unbelievable!

I finally went back down the hill, because my bladder had officially entered emergency mode. (Thankfully there were toilettes just at the bottom of the hill.) Then I looked at my map and decided to walk to the Gare du Nord, because it wasn't far. I was glad it was still plenty light out though, because Montmartre, at least this section of it, isn't the nicest area. Northeastern Paris, from what I could tell, is a bit more run-down and has more dicey neighborhoods than the central and southern parts. Thankfully it wasn't far to the Gare du Nord, and when I went in I liked it because it was reminiscent of the station in the Hugo movie. I went up to the second-level balcony to draw, and then I saw it: the open piano. They have them in train stations and airports--anyone can sit down and play. At that moment I knew I had to seize the opportunity. When was I ever going to have a chance like this again? And I didn't have to think twice about which song to choose. (Joanna and Emily, you get three guesses, and your first two don't count.)

That's right, I had to play the Hugo theme. Because I was in a train station. In Paris. In one of the stations that Brian Selznick used for reference for the drawings for the book. So really, I couldn't play anything else.

Not sure if anyone even took notice of me, but I liked it better that way. It was more just the personal satisfaction of actually getting to do it. For me, it was a true Paris moment: sitting at a piano with this happy little French waltz echoing (at least I imagined it was echoing) through the station as people rushed back and forth with their luggage and got on and off the trains. Soooooo awesome!!!!!

I also drew the big wooden-framed clock on the balcony, but by then it was almost 9 (it definitely did not feel that late though!) and so I figured I'd better go. I found a crêpe place outside the station and had a late dinner of nutella-and-banana crêpe. Then I walked down the street to the Gare de l'Est (it is surprisingly close to the Gare du Nord--not sure why they're practically next to each other) to see it before going back to my hostel.

The Gare de l'Est was pretty! It felt fancier than the Gare du Nord. There is a beautifully patterned window in the front of it which I wanted to draw. So I went inside, positioned myself, and took out my sketchbook. No sooner had I gotten the basic shapes blocked in than a black guy who was maybe in his late twenties came up to me. He started talking to me in French, and I replied (in very broken French) that I didn't know much French. That didn't seem to bother him though--he kept on talking to me. I caught probably 50 percent of what he was saying. He told me he was from Senegal, and I tried to explain that I was from the U.S., that I was studying in Germany, and that I was just in Paris for the week. Then he asked if I wanted to go out for a drink, and when I said no, he started telling me that he had fallen in love with me. I attempted to explain that I wasn't interested and that I didn't feel the same way about him, but I met with little success because I have forgotten so much of the French I learned in school and I couldn't think of the words to help me say what I wanted to say. We went back and forth for about ten minutes: him asking if he could walk me back to my hostel, me saying no, I was going to stay and draw for a while first, him saying again that he wanted to go out with me, that he had fallen in love with me, me telling him no, I didn't want a boyfriend right now, I was busy with other things, him asking if I ever wanted to get married, me telling him maybe later but not now, etc. It was ridiculous! I was just thinking, "Good grief, he is not taking the hint!" Finally he said (in French), "So we will go now?" I gave him a firm "No, I am going to draw right now," and then just picked up my pencil again and resorted to the I'm-ignoring-you tactic. To my utter relief, he finally said "okay" and walked away. The whole situation was funny, but just so ridiculous! Figures that my experience in the city of romance would be arguing with some random guy from Senegal that I wasn't going to go out with him . . .

Anyway, I hadn't been drawing for five minutes when another guy came up to me and asked, in a very flat American accent, "Um, do you speak English?" I told him yes, and he said he was trying to find out where the Gare de Lyon was. I said, "Sure, I know right where it is. I was there yesterday." He answered, "Oh good, you speak, like, perfect English." I kind of laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm from California. Where are you from?" He said, "Chicago."

It turned out his name was John and he was just in Paris for seven or eight hours while he waited for his connecting train to Barcelona. He wanted to walk around for the night and just explore, since he had no hostel booked, but he didn't know the city at all. So I gave him a few pointers and we talked about traveling and places we had been. It was much better than the previous conversation with the guy from Senegal! While we were talking, a homeless lady came up to us and asked if we had any food because she hadn't eaten in a long time. I was actually ready with a croissant, because I had bought one that morning specifically to give to someone who was begging. There are so many people begging in Paris, and sometimes whole families live on the street. I had been seeing all of them and feeling bad, but I don't feel super comfortable giving money to random beggars on the street. So I had bought a croissant that I could offer if I was approached by someone homeless. I had kept it all day and hadn't given it out. So when the lady came up to us, I was like, "I have a croissant!" and eagerly fished it out of my backpack and gave it to her.

Let's just say, it took me almost an hour to finish that drawing of the window.

I took the Metro back to my hostel because it was late, after 11 o' clock. It had been a long day. But it was a good one!

Argh, I'm still not done with this recap!!! More tomorrow I guess . . . here are photos of Day 5.

From old sewers to new: Inside les égouts

A sewer tunnel and cleaning equipment, with real sewer water flowing through it

Iron cleaning ball for large sewer passages (guess it rolls through the tunnel like that giant boulder in Indiana Jones)

Hôtel des Invalides

Invalides courtyard . . . it's a big building!

The Invalides "chapel"

Napoleon's sarcophagus is in that big hole on the right side

Very large, very ornate

And here is Napoleon's sarcophagus. Ridiculously huge!

The hilltop scene at Sacré-Coeur

This guy had mad skills!

And the view of Paris was amazing! (Unfortunately the trees to the right blocked the Eiffel Tower . . . the building sticking up on the far right is the Tour Montparnasse.