As if to be writing a postcard, I spent the week reading “Wish You Were Here”. This is a beautiful book that shows the reader around the different Arrondissements of Paris. Arrondissements are formally named neighborhoods in Paris. I read several of these sections before coming to Paris and have since reread the others and reviewed the arrondissements that mean something to me.

Aaron took Taj and I to see Le Tavern du Cluny to hear live Gypsy Jazz. Aww so beautiful.

I am getting familiar to Arrondissements one, two, five and six. The author of this book tells about the the ‘pockets of calm’ that can be found amid all the buzzing activity (15). This seemed natural to me that certain areas would be quieter than others but it really surprised me to hear the birds sing in the trees in front of the Eiffel Tower as if, and in reality, they own the treed area. I have found Paris to be completely developed but that there are still areas that belong to nature, preserved. When I stepped in to my room here I went to the window to see the view. I opened the windowed doors and peered out past the wrought iron railing and experienced my first ‘spot of time’. My window faces the center of the building and my view is of rooftops and a very small courtyard below. The walls are beige and the roofs light gray. The occasional red flower living in the window boxes are the only noticeable color. There is no sound of traffic unless there is reason for a police call close by. The soundscape here at my window is very different from the rest of Paris. It is the sound of birds chirping and the hotel staff chatting. There is a drone which I have identified as maybe a heating or air furnace. I can’t express the calming strength this spot has over me. How, with the population (over 2 million), is it possible to have this type of soundscape?

This is the view from my room

It may sound like I’d never leave my I room but of course I did. I am gawking at every turn of a block. Just before leaving home I began realizing that after I cover all of the wonders of Paris I would feel let down, that the wonder was no longer there, that I’d seen all there was to see. Like when you spend too long at Disneyland and the magic disappears. This city has so much to offer in the way of new experience that it will not happen. It is so refreshing to know that there is somewhere in world that can capture my attention infinitely. This may be due to the vast and varied visitors the city.
This area is about 6000 years old. A Celtic tribe settled here to fish along the Seine and called this lle de la Cite. About 300 years later the Romans took over and changed the name to Lutetia. After about 200 hundred years the name was changed to Paris (after the local tribe). Paris was eventually invaded by Childeric the Frank in 464. 300 years later Vikings invaded and took their turn pillaging in the 9th century. It wasn’t until the 12th century that Paris began to take shape with the Notre Dame cathedral being built, establishing a center of religious and government life (16, 17).
With so many stories about how Paris was first established I couldn’t possibly cover them all so I’ll tell about a most beautiful place, the Place de l’ Opera. I think think the people of Paris wanted it. I always thought of Napoleon as a ‘bigger than life’ type of person, giving France its reputation for the continued lavish lifestyles of the rich and noble but then I learned about the building of Place de l’ Opera. It was built during the fall of Napoleon and during the Franco-Prussian war. To make matters more difficult there was a subterranean lake beneath it (made famous by the “Phantom of the Opera” play). There were other difficulties but nothing that stopped the building. Velvet, marble and gold were gathered for the building and cherubs and nymphs were carved. The grand staircase was completed in time for the inauguration in 1875. I think this enormous effort speaks to the wishes of the people of Paris. Apparently, Napoleon wasn’t the only one that liked things to be grand.

One other tidbit I learned about this opera house is that in1993 there is a man called Opera Honey who needed a place to keep his beehive until he could take it to his home in the country so he put it on the Opera house rooftop. A week later he discovered that it was overflowing with honey. Now they sell Opera Honey in the gift shop (139).

I hope to see this place sometime this week.
Rai
Measom, Christopher. Paris: Wish You Were Here. New York, NY: Welcome, 2008. Print.