Back To Shore

Part II will be up tomorrow, I think. I hope anyway….

Well, not quite. Obviously. But it’s here now

We left the Louvre after a few hours once we found an exit. No kidding. We came out to lovely blue sky.

While I was trying to snap a few photos my camera battery ran out and I realized I had left my extra charged camera batteries in the hotel. I guess the lack of sleep, exhaustion and excess of sensory input in the museum led to me having a tiny meltdown. I guess because my battery had obviously also run out. I managed to handle it quite well though, I think. Some deep breath, some “me-time” while my friend was looking for yet another gig-buddy we had made plans to meet up with. After that tiny – internal – meltdown I then just went with the flow, because there was nothing, I could do about it. I had to make do with my phone camera for the rest of the day and that was fine as well. I’ve come a long way. Go me!

We (friend, gig-buddy & gig-buddy’s friend) strolled around for a bit looking for place to have lunch before they were heading on to the next stop on their tour. Even so many years in – this fandom – I sometimes still marvel about how many people I’ve met and stayed on friendly terms with. I haven’t seen this one since 2018 (!! mostly due to the pandemic of course) and it was so nice to catch up for a bit.

The rest of the day we spent walking across the Seine…

…and across the Île de la Cité, the central island. With of course Notre Dame as the main interest of ours. It was about 3 weeks before the official re-opening and it still looked (and probably looks) not quite finished on the outside. All the more reason to go back at some point soon.

We kept strolling further along on the island, had coffee and crepes someplace and then went to check off another item of the “must see” list. Champs-Élysées and of course Arc de Triomphe.

We took the metro to our final destination / highlight, but got off one stop too early, which meant more walking. I don’t really want to moan, but we walked quite a bit on that day.

That final highlight: Taking the elevator up the Eiffel Tower. At night. Which was as amazing as it sounds and it was the moment I got a tiny bit mad at myself for forgetting to bring the extra batteries. My phone camera works ok at night, but not really well. Another reason to come back, though I doubt I’ll do the elevator thing once again. It was cool, but also very crowded and it took soooo long to get up. You’re taking various elevators in fact. It was a great experience. But once in a lifetime, I think. I will definitely come back for more photos from the ground though.

After that we … yes, walked to the closest metro stop on our line, which was not as close as we had liked, but nothing we could do about that. When we finally got back to our hotel I ended up with 27.00o steps (~ 21,5 km) on my Garmin watch. It was worth it though and I’ll definitely be back. Some day (soon).

I’ve been back from this short stint as “Travelling Fangirl” for over a month now. A busy month, tiring, overwhelming with too much stuff to do and too many thoughts to think. And that’s just in my personal / professional life. Then there is of course so much going on – to have thoughts on – all over the world as well. But not on here. This weekend feels like a good time to recall one of my favourite quotes from my favourite musical:

The world’s a mess, Charlie.
Small flashes of joys, that’s all any of us can hope for.

So let me tell you about the French flash of joy in November 2024. In two parts again, because it feels like there are too many photos for one post.

In the late 1990s I did two weekend trips to Paris with a friend using the service of a commercial travel company: on a bus with a group of people we didn’t know. Hard to imagine these days to travel like that, but it was the 1990s. You didn’t book hotels, trains, flights on your own on the internet yet. I admit I don’t recall all that much from those trips and I wasn’t really interested in going back. I don’t speak French. I also remember some of the French museum etc. staff in Paris as being kind of snobby and not really welcoming. A couple of years ago I started to change my mind and thought it might be nice to visit once more but then I never had a good reason to or was not motivated enough to make plans.

Then Frank Turner made the decision for me 😉 I’m only half joking. I’m glad that him playing shows all over Europe gives me the incentive or the little push I obviously sometimes need to make up my mind. So, after Antwerp my friend and I got on the train to go to Paris.

In hindsight we might have been overthinking the whole how to get a metropass thing. I know I had. It was easy, though the few-days tourist metro pass is just a tiny slip of paper. I mean, come on: What’s wrong with a proper sized (paper) card like other cities do it :-)?

We headed to our hotel, dropped off our stuff and went back on the metro to go up north to Montmartre to meet up with a gig buddy I’ve known since 2015 or 2016. They live in Paris and were coming to the show of course but also wanted to show us around a bit. Hence Montmartre. We didn’t have a lot of time, but took the funicular up to the cathedral, had a look inside, strolled around a bit.

After that we headed back to where the venue for the night’s show was, had something to eat, wen to see a great Frank Turner show. I never sweated as much at a Frank show as I did that night, I think. Holy shit, but it was a great gig.

The day after was hardcore touristy day. As you do when you’re only in Paris for a day. First on the list: The Mona Lisa. Of course. Thanks to my friend’s amazing planning and preparation we didn’t have to wait in line to get in or to go see the Mona Lisa for all that long. When I had a look out the window at some point, I was so glad my friend was so prepared.

I think it’s time to admit that I wasn’t really prepared for the Paris trip, tourist wise. The weeks before the trip had been busy at work and stuff, like most of the year had been. I was happy to just tag along with my friend to be honest and get a sense of the city again. Thus I had no real idea of what the Louvre would look inside. You can spent hours walking around just looking at the building as such and not at any piece of art exhibited there. I mean…

Here are a few more of the ceiling. Every single room was so opulent and different and just breathtaking.

Then of course: the one and only: Mona Lisa. There were quite a few people in the room and in front of the painting, but there was no queue and it actually was easy to get to take “the” photo but also just take a moment with it.

After we checked that of our list we went back to the galleries we just hurried through on our way in. A few of the highlights: The Coronation of Napoleon. I needed to take a photo for that relevant section in my Lyrical History of Mankind post, obviously.

Another one: This because… France!

Here are more photos of the Louvre highlights. I think this first visit – because I will definitely go back to Paris hopefully in the next few years – was supposed to see and check off the “must see” items. Now that I have some idea of the museum as such, I can focus on just one section of the museum next time. But we wanted to have a look at the highlights, so we did.

So much to see in the Greek and Roman Galleries and the Egyptian of course. So so much…

Part II will be up tomorrow, I think. I hope anyway….