The second time I was in Paris was work-related. At the time, I worked at the US Embassy and they sent a colleague and myself to a one-week course about running a computer centre that was held at a branch of the US Embassy in Paris. In the meantime I started using slide films for my photos, so I had a desire to retake pictures of all the things I had already visited in Paris. When the working day was over, I would go back to the hotel, change and then run around the city like crazy in order to take the photos. For this purpose, I had only an hour or two every day, because afterwards I was to meet up with other trainees in order to go out. That second stay in Paris was unforgettable because of the craziest combination of people that constituted a group I was in. In addition to the two of us from Serbia, there was a French woman, an American and an Austrian. For a few days we were joined by a couple (a Norwegian guy and a Thai girl) who stayed at the same hotel as we did. Never before and never after did I laugh more and was more silly with people whom I knew so little.
But, I have to say that during our free time, following the lectures and practices, the group was not only being silly while eating and drinking. We even managed to go for a brief tourist visit. Namely, one day we got tickets for Bateaux Mouches, which is a generic name for a large river boat with a completely open upper deck that takes tourists for a visit of Paris as seen from the Seine. The boat passes under numerous bridges and around two islands, one of which, Ile d' la Cite, is where the church of Notre Dame is located.
Bateaux Mouches and the Alexander III bridge
What was very good that second time around was that I came to Paris a couple of days before the beginning of the course, so I managed to go to Versailles again, where I particularly enjoy visiting the King’s Suite. The famous Palace of Versailles has to thank Louis XIII for its beginnings and although Louis XV and Louis XVI also lived in it and gave their contribution, it was Louis XIV who needs to be thanked for the magnificence of the palace, the park and the fountains. This is the man who should be the first lesson about what self-confidence means. Well, admittedly, he was a king and that certainly helps. But, there have been many other kings and not all of them have fared great. This one was a self-confidence prodigy. Some people may call this an over-inflated ego, but that would be a question of pettiness – potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto! I’m talking about Louis XIV, whose historic nickname is the Sun King (!) and who said the infamous: “The state, it is I!” So, it was precisely him who felt like having a grand palace with parks and fountains (the fashion of the time dictated that without a fountain in your backyard you were a nobody) in the place where the ground was too wet, but without regular water courses. Did that stop him in his design? Oh, no! The soil was replaced and drained, and the water pumps were installed where necessary in order for the fountains to operate. Admittedly not all the time, it was not technically possible after all, but they would start working in all their beauty right at the moment when the king and his entourage would be walking by.
The Palace of Versailles was also the venue where a number of different treaties have been signed, but one of the most important ones is the Versailles Peace Treaty of 28 June 1919 which put a final end to WWI. Or so it was thought... There were some who disagreed with the Treaty and who decided, a couple of decades later, to have its practical annulment.
Today, the Palace of Versailles is a beautiful tourist destination near Paris. A visit to the palace entails a tour of most of the building, including the Hall of Mirrors from which there is a beautiful view towards the gigantic park and the fountains that are behind the palace. It is also possible to visit the park itself, as well as some other buildings and structures that can be found across the area of 800 hectares (the palace itself has the floor area of almost 7 hectares!!!!!). The entire complex is maintained and kept at the highest possible level and it indeed deserves at least one entire day.
Versailles, a detail from the palace’s park
Versailles, a detail from the palace’s park
As for the King’s private suite, it was necessary for me to join one of the small groups set up right there, within the palace itself. The groups were either for French- or for English-speaking visitors. It was not possible to visit the rooms belonging to this part of the palace on one’s own. Even today, the King’s Suite which served this purpose at the time of Louis XV is visited separately and it is necessary to consult the website of the palace in order to get the information about it. The rooms are located around the central court that can be seen from the front side of the palace called the Marble Court.
Versailles, the Marble Court around which spreads the King’s Suite
The next day, which was also free, I went to Euro Disney (nowadays it is called Disneyland Paris) which was opened just a couple of months before my visit to Paris. It was summer and the crowds were huge, so on a couple of occasions I had to wait in line for more than an hour in order to get to some attraction and it was all fantastically funny, imaginative and greatly done, but the ride would take just a few minutes, so that the ratio between the waiting period and the fun part was not good at all. I don’t know if anything has been done about this, but I’ve never been to any amusement parks since. I don’t like crowds. Both my inner child and my adult self know how to play and have fun without waiting in lines.
Paris, Euro Disney
Paris, Euro Disney
And finally, that visit to Paris was at the time when Concorde was still flying. For those who do not know what I’m talking about, it was the only passenger plane that flew on regular lines at supersonic speeds. It was thanks to it that Phil Collins played both in London and in Philadelphia on the same day when the famous Live Aid was organized back in 1985. When among my photos from Paris I ran into the photo of Concorde which I took from the plane on my way back home, I couldn’t resist putting this brief memory into my story.
Paris, Concorde at the airport runway
Meanwhile I was in Paris only one more time, but very briefly and actually only in passing. I had a plane ticket that made a connection with the Paris-New York flight the following day and that included a room at a hotel near the airport, which was nice. Such arrangement allowed me to have a couple of hours of daylight and after leaving my things at the hotel, I took a train to the St. Michel station in the Latin Quarter, which is on the left bank of the Seine. From there, I walked to the church of Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cite, then moved to the right bank and made a large circle that passed by the Louvre, across the Place Vendome, beside the church Madeleine and over the Place de la Concorde. Then I started along the Champs-Elysees, only to turn left at some point in the direction of the Trocadero square and Palais de Chaillot from where there is a stunning view at the Eiffel Tower, and then on to the Arc de Triomphe and again down the Champs-Elysees. This was when it started to get dark and I was ready to go back to the hotel. And that was it, but it was not wasted time, for I saw that it was possible to “visit” a large portion of the most significant sights in Paris in two hours! Provided you walk fast.
And then more than 20 years passed. Dule, my friend from Paris, has retired in the meantime and then started to come to Belgrade more often. As he lives very near me, we see each other regularly, but Paris as a destination actually never figured in our chatting.
Then, relatively recently, Paris started to appear in my thoughts more and more often as a fine place that I could perhaps revisit. At the beginning of the year, my private circumstances were rather complicated, but then they started to clear up and I took advantage of my first free period, bought a ticket and booked accommodation. Before the trip I saw that the forecast predicted cloudy weather during my stay, but I realized that this didn’t matter at all. I wanted and I needed a vacation and a change, so I started in a very laid-back manner with no plan as to what in fact I would like to do during that week.
Although a lot of time had passed since my previous stay in Paris, I didn’t think about whether the city had changed much during that period. Moreover, I took the same guidebook I used the first time around, some 30 years ago! As it would turn out later, practically nothing has changed as far as some places of interest for a tourist were concerned and the guidebook actually served me quite well to remind me of some details. But, during my travels I always try to keep my eyes open and to be as aware as possible about the events and details that I come across.
Thus, on my way from the airport towards the centre of Paris, I saw from the bus some shacks made of pieces of cupboards or whatever. The proper name, I guess, is “informal settlement.” There are those, of course, in my country as well, but I don’t know why, perhaps because I was abroad and then I’m more aware of such things, yet I took a mental note of that line of shacks that stretched along a very busy road and that reminded me of Mumbai in India, with a difference that it is always warm there. Big cities, realistically or merely through a hope, offer larger possibilities and therefore they attract different people. And these people carry along their different destinies.
At the final station of the airport bus, I was greeted by Dule and less than an hour after my arrival in Paris I was already sitting with my friends in a bar drinking champagne. Very French, indeed! I became slightly tipsy from it and felt like dozing off, but Dule took me to his bowling club in the Forest of Vincennes so I had a strong coffee there that woke me up a little. This livening up was caused not only by the coffee, but also by the friends of Dule whom I met there and on account of whom I had to try to activate my basic French. Still, I greatly enjoyed at some point when I was just standing on the side listening to them talking. Of course, I didn’t understand much, but I was slowly getting used to the sounds of this melodic language. Melodic language, of course, but provided it is spoken by the people who know how!
The plan was that I spent the first night at a cute, recently renovated hotel right across the street from the building in which Dule and Jacqueline live. So, after the visit to the bowling club, I went to the room, refreshed a little and then the three of us went for a dinner at the younger generation of friends’ who also live close by. Namely, Jacqueline and Dule have a son, Alexandre, married to Natasha, and they have two super cute girls. As I knew the female part of the family since they had come to Belgrade several times and I know Alexandre ever since he was a child, the reunion was very happy and relaxed. We started with all kinds of stories, but somehow in the end it was mostly Alexandre and I philosophising about all sorts of things. The wine with snacks started at once, followed by a main course and a sweet pie, but I particularly enjoyed several kinds of cheese which French serve as a dessert. Needless to say, I had to try them all and they were all fantastic. And thus, with a lot of joy, chatting and laughter, as is becoming when friends get together, the evening came to its end eventually and I was exceptionally happy and filled with positive emotions. Coming to Paris was the perfect thing to do!