Paris New Year

Paris was quiet this New Year’s – or rather it was for us at any rate. After a scrumptious meal at home early in the evening, followed by watching Saving Private Ryan, we were planning on grabbing our bottle of champagne, camera and heading out for the Eiffel tower an hour or so before midnight.

Well the weather continued lousy all day, with rain off and on into the evening. We were considering alternatives such as taking the Metro to the Pont Neuf Bridge and watching the fireworks from there. (We weren’t terribly worried about our monthly Metro passes expiring at midnight since all city transportation was free all night long.)

For reasons that still remain unclear to me even now, about 10:30 or so last evening I started looking online for information about the fireworks display and would you believe I came across blog entries and forum discussions claiming that there were no fireworks planned in Paris! In fact, come to find out later in the evening that fireworks are banned in the city. They had a big blow-off a couple of years back when the city made a play for the 2012 Olympics and of course back in 1999-2000. That’s it. (photo: Pont de Sully, I believe.)

Well the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place: bad weather, no fireworks, so we opted to stay home, and take our champagne out on the balcony and toast the New Year. Which is exactly what we did. And good thing too since we were also able to catch the Global Edition of "the Daily Show with Jon Stewart" at 11:30 p.m. . . .

Like many others we slept in New Year’s Day – and were greeted by a gorgeous blue sky and such sun as we hadn’t seen since we were in Strasbourg. What a grand way to begin the New Year, we thought, and after being apartment-bound for a week or more, what a day to grab our coats and head out for a walk. So we did. We strolled up to the Jardin des Plantes where we cut through to the Seine and then strolled along the Seine to Notre Dame, basking in the sun along with tens of thousands of other like-minded folks.

From Notre Dame we walked to the downstream end of the Ile de la Cite, to the Pont Neuf, and crossed to the right bank where we soon found a place to have a bite of lunch. We parked ourselves by a sun-filled window and watched humanity strolling by us along the river.

After lunch we walked through the Louvre, or rather through the grounds since the museum was closed. As we entered our the Tuileries my eye caught sight of the underground entrance to the Carrousel du Louvre , the large underground mall complex right beneath the Louvre and Tuileries. Since we had never been there before we thought now is as good a time as any to check this place out so down we went.

Two things struck me when we came to the bottom of the wide staircase: how new everything seemed to be and part of an old wall system – that’s right they have dug out some of the original 14-16th century walls and exposed them for the casual passerby. (And gives you a good idea of how built up the area is today.) As we walked down one of the numerous passageways we came out into a large atrium open to the sky with passages and shops radiating out in several different directions. There are numerous legitimate theaters, stores, restaurants, underground parking, you name it it’s probably down there. Oh, and wonderful public restrooms.


After we surfaced we walked to the end of the Tuileries and my eye (again) caught sight of something off to the river side of the garden, something I had not noticed before. In a city which seems to revel in playing tricks on the eyes of the casual observer, in a city filled with artwork virtually on every street corner, I was nonetheless surprised to see something I couldn’t believe: a large tree that had apparently fallen on its side. But something just didn’t look right. And as we approached it for a closer look everything fell into place. It was in fact not made out of wood but out of metal; it was yet another piece of art.


Seeing this, almost exactly five months to the day after we arrived in the city of light, it just seemed to define for me anyway, everything that is Paris: quirkiness, whimsy, and yet serious artwork, of course, but also imagination at work everywhere here, sometimes so much that you can almost hear it humming on the streets. It was just about this time that I heard Susan say to me I suppose but seemingly to no one in particular, “This city is really cool.” That pretty much summarizes it for me too. This place is tres cool.

Granted, it’s not home, it’s not where we are from, it’s not where our friends or families live, all that is true. But I think it is clear now that we will miss this city after we’re gone.

Happy New Year, bonne annee and buon capodanno to you all!

Wish you were here,

Steve