My Parisian Predicament

France. The mere mention of the land of Monet, Hugo, and Zinedine Zidane (for all of you soccer lovers out there) brings to mind the smell of buttery croissants, the sounds of Edith Piaf's enchanting melodies, and the sight of the sun shining through the lattice ironwork of the Eiffel Tower.

Yet after stepping outside of Charles de Gaulle International Airport the first thing I felt was cold. I opened my suitcase and pulled out the windbreaker that I had only packed because my mom told me that I might feel cold at night. I thought I had paid for a ticket to Paris, not London. Little did I know that the majority of my time spent in France would be with the companionship of rain and my North Face. But I didn't cast away my hopes. I had faith in Google and it told me that the next two days or so were supposed to be sunny, perfect for those amazing shots of the Eiffel Tower we see on travel websites. 

So there I was, suitcase in hand, looking forward to a relatively short metro ride. However, there were the strikes, which are a series of peaceful protests by disgruntled public transportation workers that has almost become a Parisian tradition. I thought that this would only cause a minor delay, but what was supposed to be a 45-minute subway ride turned out to be a 2 hour bus ride and then a 15-minute subway ride followed by what felt like a ten minute walk hauling a 20 pound suitcase in the pouring rain. Suffice it to say, the bus ride taught me that angry Parisians have a powerful command of French swear words.

We decided to take a walk along the Seine and I immediately noted that the river was flowing really fast. When I asked my teacher why it was like that, I also learned that the banks of the Seine were the highest that they'd been since the Great Flood of 1910. As a result, we found out that the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay were closed as well as river cruises. So we worked around that. I visited other museums and we did get to see the Eiffel Tower, except without the sunny background I had imagined.

Perhaps this wasn't the ideal Parisian experience I was hoping for, but I was grateful for what I was able to see. I do want to return to Paris and visit the sights I missed, but the experience I had showed me a very different side of Paris. Apart from my vitamin D deficiency, I learned that it's not always "La Vie en Rose" for Parisians. The strikes affected my travel plans and the plans of many others, but perhaps that is the idea. If the workers are not happy with the way their employers treat them, then the workers are making the customers unhappy as well. As a result, the employers are taking notice and agree to listen to the protesters grievances. Will it work?  We'll have to wait and see.

L'Arc du Triomphe

                                            Mandatory (but mediocre) picture of La Tour Eiffel

                                                              Entrance to the Sorbonne

                              Remnants of a flare used during a strike at a Parisian train station