A series of misfortunes to prove one's love of Paris

Friday, October 30, 2009

A series of misfortunes to prove one's love of Paris

They say Paris does not love everyone. And I wonder what kind of people should Paris love.

From my first landing in the romantic heartland more than a decade ago, I have loved Paris. I adored the Louvre, the light that filtered down the cavernous Musee d'Orsay, the sumptuous croque-monsieur, even the rough, irregular cobble stones that formed intricate patterns on Paris's streets.

When I had a chance to return to Paris last week, however, I found some tough sides to the loveable city. It began on the very first day. After some 12-hour flight, I arrived at the hotel early in the morning to be told there would be no hot water until 11:30am.

"It's not our fault. It affects the whole district,'' a hotel staff said, apparently as a reassuring gesture.

The sogginess of autumn, grey sky and drizzle did not help the mood. The next day, I flew south to Montpelier, where they say the sun always shines and the weather is much warmer than in Paris. Guess what? The plane descended down into thick banks of rain clouds. ``The storm is coming,'' a local told me, a scuba mask in his hand. ``It's very rare here. I was still swimming in the sea yesterday,'' he said, again probably as a reassuring attempt.

After viewing wind-swept vineyards in the rain, I went back to the airport to go back to Paris. ``The flight was cancelled,'' the check-in staff promptly told me. Luckily I didn't have to stay overnight. I only had to go back to watching the rain-splattered glass wall of Montpelier airport for one more hour.

Back to Paris, I found all the big museums I so loved were all crowded. Long lines at the Louvre. Longer queues at Musee d'Orsay. It's disappointing not to be able to revisit these places as I always thought there must be so many corners of the Louvre that I have never seen. It would have been, well, reassuring somehow to go back and stand at the same place I used to at the d'Orsay and appreciate its elegant beauty. Anyway, I decided to trek out of the city center and try the smaller Musee Picasso. It was a rainy day and the roads in Le Marais were small and circuitous. My coat was wet and my hair plastered to my face when I arrived at a pair of completely closed doors. The museum is closed for repair until 2012.

At that time, I began to think that perhaps Paris no longer loves me. The next day, however, I gathered the spirit and walked a few blocks to the closest museum, one for Rodin.

It turned out to be a totally lovely hotel-cum-museum, with a vast garden where masterpieces as The Thinker, The Gates of Hell or The Burghers of Calais were on display. Inside was an impressive -- the largest actually -- collection of works on which Rodin's powerful touches were evident. I was moved when looking closely at such well-known pieces as The Kiss, The Age of Bronze or The Walking Man and lesser-known ones as The Sound of Farewell and Camille Claudale busts and sketches.

I fell in love with Paris again after the museum visit. Looking back, I suppose what they said is probably true -- that Paris doesn't love everyone. But if you are flexible enough, open-minded enough and show your willingness to adapt to circumstances, Paris will yield her love to you, even if it's a tough one.

Read comment

Comment 1

jean louis SIMON

date : 30/10/2009 time : 13:34

Nice piece Atiya You will be always welcome in Paris. As a true parisian I , myself experience the same relationship with my hometown Kind regards Jean-Louis

Comment 2

David Swartzentruber

date : 30/10/2009 time : 19:46

Nice story about your Paris stay. I suggest trying Lyon, Burgundy,the world's greatest red wine (Bourgogne) and lovely people, great food. The people are farmers and down-to-earth. French food- c'est magnifique.

Comment 3

fabienne

date : 30/10/2009 time : 19:55

Love is resilient. Beautiful account of a town that easily loses its charms when you live an everyday life there. Now, I can only enjoy it at a distance.

Comment 4

Francois Abhay

date : 01/11/2009 time : 07:46

Dear Atiya, Yes Paris is beautiful. But as David suggested, Burgundy is also nice to visit. Especially the great wine cellars. The producers will be very happy to let you taste their " chef d'oeuvre ". Thank you once again for your love in France. Francois

Comment 5

pierre corso

date : 01/11/2009 time : 08:32

Paris n'est pas different de Bangkok ,ma chère. Il y a des jours moroses ,surtout quand on est seul.
heureusement pour les touristes,il y a tant de belles choses à voir et apprécier en Thaïlande .

Comment 6

Peter

date : 01/11/2009 time : 08:50

Hello;
We were in Paris the end of October last year. The weather was fantastic. It was warm and the feeling of so called l'ete indien was there. The trees leaves in Paris were yellow and orange. I could not believe that I can have "foliage" in Paris and no one nor any magazine ever mentioned about how beautiful it is! I love Paris.

Comment 7

dboston

date : 02/11/2009 time : 00:46

Agree to all those lovely things about Paris. But what is the purpose of this article ? It's a journey of one feels passionately about one place. What does it make a difference ? A travel guide or self-served ego of one person ? How Bangkok Post let this non-sense be published ? For some of us ( including Parisians ) who have a chance to see and experience Paris are fortunate. But for many ( I mean many )in this country who only hear Paris by its name, it means nothing. Nothing ! Let's take one girl from Isarn to Paris and show her how beautiful it is - and see the look on her face when she first sees Eiffel Tower. And that's a difference you can make and write about it, Khun Atiya. Just my one cent :-)

Comment 8

apichart chitamitara

date : 02/11/2009 time : 04:28

I have to admire French who co-made with mother nature France as a very beautiful country as it is now. I only visited a tiny part of France once this year in the end of February for business but had just enough time to see some of Paris charms such as the Louvre,the Eiffel tower,the Notre Dame cathedral including seeing the famous night show on the world famous Champs Elysees avenue. Especially the Louvre impressed me a lot for its collections and well display eventhough many artifacts were initially from many parts of the world. I visited the Versailles on the way back from Angers, a pretty town a few hours drive southwest of Paris. I told myself that I will visit France again to know more of its people and the country in depth. Knowing that France is a great country however looking from outside and from pieces of history during colonization period, the French had done quite unfair treatments to many countries including Thailand. Look at those countries which were under British colony how they excel today comparing to the ones under France before---no match. Thailand was very fortunate avoiding from being colonized due to the best diplomatic moves of King Rama the V however we lost the most land during his reign. He emulated Bangkok from Paris city plan and also judiciary system,landmark buildings from Italy, mixed government and military system from British, Germany and Russia. This is all of my short perspectives.

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