mardi 15 avril 2008
Determined to get lost, I decided to do a bit of random exploration today.
A friend of mine, Rick, is here in Paris. He just arrived a week ago and will be staying for five months. Unlike me, who will return to work after two months, he quit his job to make a complete change. Now that is courage.
I asked him to pick a number between 1 and 15 and a letter; I got 6 and L. Looking on the metro map, I was to explore one of the final stops of line 6 - either Charles-de-Gaulle Etoile or Nation. Since there is no L in Nation, we headed out toward the touristique destination in the 16ème arrondissement, home of the Arc de Triomphe.
Since the goal was to get lost, we wandered around for two hours, checking out small hidden alleyways, pointing out tourists that stick out like a sore pouce, and not making fun of them too much. I wonder if anyone was pointing at the two of us and our cameras.
Other than the largest boulevards and avenues, Paris is built so that it is impossible to see far down any street; the view is always obstructed by some architecture several streets down. Even the boulevards and avenues end in circular "places," which typically features monuments like the Arc de Triomphe or some famous colonne (column).
In the process of getting lost, we found Parc de Monceau, a famous park in the 8ème arrondissement. Although tiny compared to Central Park, it was still landscaped beautifully (see the picture of the garden), with lots of joggers taking advantage of the environment. One thing I've noticed in Paris is that in general people don't jog on the streets. Perhaps there may be one or two çà et là (here and there), but definitely not like in San Francisco.
At the end of the day, after a satisfying exploration of the area, I wondered if we really got lost or if we just wandered. In order to get lost, do you need to be going somewhere? And if you don't have a specific destination, are you just exploring? So perhaps I didn't get los, but I did explore. And during the process, I did a strip tease in front of the Arc de Triomphe. Don't get too excited, I stripped off my coat.
