Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Day 0 - Paris

all this time, your whole life
you've been diggin in, sticking it out
put together something that could turn it around
Clear As Day - Parson Jones

My pilgrimage to see the world took me back to Europe this year. Not my first choice. Last year I was actually planning to go to Alaska with some days to spend in Seattle. As I was planning, at the back of my mind there's this thought, but all of this was not gonna happen if Trump became president - haha like that's gonna happen :D It did happen and just like that, the whole planning was thrown out. Was it overly dramatic of me to cancel going to America way back then in November 2024? Perhaps, but looking at where we are right now, I think that's not so silly right? It's scary for me that foreigners with legal status or visa in America could get picked up and be deported easily. Even kids with US citizenship are being kicked out of the country; that doesn't even make sense. The current US goverment is making those kids be illegal in the country they're being thrown into because did they go there with a passport so at least they could be on tourist visa? This is such a mess and it's so scary. One may argue why should it be scary for you if you're not breaking the law? Well, I just can't. Then there's of course the tariff, why go to a country where things are going to get more expensive or perhaps scarce? All and all, America is just not good right now that I think it's not overly dramatic if we avoid America for the time being.

So with America out, where to next. I did consider Canada, but in the end I randomly settled on Bergen. Why? To see the fjords, though I also thought you may not be so amused by that, because I've been on a number of boat rides and they usually tend to be quite boring for me. Then I added Copenhagen to the trip. Why? Well, I usually add places just because I find there's a direct transport from the city I'll be in. So Copenhagen was added. What really sold this trip was finding out that I could set it in a way that let me have a long enough layover in Paris that would allow me to visit the d'Orsay museum which is something that I really really wanted to do. In fact, that's perhaps the number one thing that I wanted to do on this trip. Then of course I got greedy and I wanted to add the l'Orangerie and a stop by at the Eiffel tower on top of visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral which was on the way. With so many things I wanted to do, one may ask why didn't you just stay in Paris for a few days? I do want to go to Versailles and visit Monet's house again, but I just didn't feel like it. Yes, it is a strange thing not wanting to spend more time in Paris. The thought of me dragging my big suitcase in Gare du Nord really put me off. I must have done it on my first / last trip to France and yet I had no memory of it, I must have blocked or erased it completely :D Anyways, my transit time in Paris was over 10 and a half hours and the timing should work, tight but it's possible to do all if there's no delay and such. So how did I do?

I arrived on Good Friday. Got a window seat on the plane and this fucking annoyed me. When you do online check-in in Air France / KLM, somehow they charge you if you want to change seat even on the same class, what the fuck?!? I then realized, it might be free if you do check-in at the airport in their machines, but by then most of the seats might be not available anyway :( So anyways window seat and I don't think it's healthy, but I didn't get up once to pee in that over 12-hour flight. I'm pretty sure it's not healthy. When the plane landed it was still dark outside. I could kinda made out the Eiffel Tower as we were approaching the airport, the illuminated A shape. Passing immigration was easy enough thank God. The officer asked me why I was exiting when I should be in transit; her colleague next to her had to correct her English first when she asked me the question :D I told her that I had a long transit and I would come back to the airport later. My fingerprints worked, so again thank God. Immigration was long though that by the time I was out, it was already bright outside. Found the train station and train easy enough and my card worked, so off I went.

First stop was Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame station. I arrived there just before 8 AM, which means the cathedral just opened. There's already a line of people moving, but they were all moving and so there's not really a queue, I could just follow the line and got in. Getting in, it was bright inside and felt a bit new, really quite different from the dark cathedral that I remember from my last visit. My research told me there should be a mass at 8 AM and there were congregants sitting in the middle aisle waiting for it, but no such mass. I wonder if the schedule is different on Good Friday. Anyways so I could walk around freely without feeling awkward because the last time I was there, there was a mass going on. I can't say I know for sure what's different with the Cathedral, maybe there's just more things that I discovered on this visit, like these depictions of Jesus' life. Really didn't notice it last time.

It was really great being able to visit this Cathedral and I'm really thankful to God. I'm glad that it's still standing and it's looking really great.

After I exited, I started taking pictures of the Cathedral from the outside and restoration works are still going on and you can see it from the side. One thing I also really wanted to do in this trip was taking more pictures of the gargoyles but I didn't do good :( In fact, I feel like I might be getting worse in taking pictures, if ever I was a slight bit good or okay :(

I spent longer than planned in the Cathedral, but I thought I could proceed with the next part of the plan and that is to go see the Louvre pyramid and then walk through all the jardins / gardens to go to the l'Orangerie. This is when fate said no to my plan. First being the typical me, I walked the wrong way so I had to backtrack. Then on the station, somehow the gate didn't want to open on me :( By the way, I studied a lot for every trip and I knew the transport pass that I should get, but somehow I was paying more than what my research told me. This is because I got a physical card. I didn't know if I made a mistake somewhere or really it's the case. I guess maybe if I've just downloaded the app and loaded it there then I could save some money, but I'm averse to apps. So anyways, at the station the gate wouldn't open on me. I needed to ask the staff but the only staff there was currently helping a Spanish family and she was talking on the phone with her colleague it seemed to solve the issue. I'm impressed that the staff could speak Spanish fluently and also English but not really impressed with how long she took to solve the issue. It was like over 20 minutes :( My issue was solved fast though, thankfully nothing was wrong with my card, I just didn't move fast enough and she had to manually open the gate for me. My problem was solved in about 3 minutes and yet the wait was really a waste of time, arrrghh. Anyways so I made it to see the Louvre pyramid and when I got there, I was like why did you want to get here in the first place, it's really nothing special. It's just I kinda wanted to see the places I visited last, you know. I think it's not 9 AM yet and the queue was long. I was like geez people, did you not book online ticket.

Seeing all the people in the queue was enough to make me want to get out there quick. So I walked pass the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and saw this view below and I was like, it's already quite late and I couldn't walk all the way to the l'Orangerie, the obelisk looked quite far, so I needed to drop this.

What's with the l'Orangerie fascination? Well because it houses one of Monet's Water Lilies, the big ones, which one day during my research my brain told me girl you already saw a version of it in MoMA. Yep, I forget things. So anyways, I was like okay, today the l'Orangerie is not for me. I still had time before my 10:30 booking slot for d'Orsay so I thought let's go to the Eiffel Tower first. I needed to cross the Seine for this and these police happened to pass by.

Arriving at the Eiffel Tower, I was shooketh. I don't know how long this has happened. They put an enclosure around the tower that you could not just walk into it. When I was last there, you could walk under it, but now it's a no. It's quite disappointing really. The queue over here was even crazier and way way longer. I was like pity these people who wanted to get in. It may not be worth it, but with the enclosure perhaps this is the only way to get close. I don't know man, I feel I would be so disappointed as a first time tourist to Paris. Paris is really that popular, there's just too many people.

To avoid waiting time for d'Orsay, I booked the ticket online for 10:30 AM. It freaking cost more to buy your ticket online, arrrggh Paris. Even with a booked time slot, there's quite a line that morning but it moved pretty okay. The museum is packed. Found the lockers and found one that's available, I'm loving that it's digital with no physical key and free. I couldn't stand the people, the groups with their guides, but what could I do right. I could only appreciate the fact of how blessed I was that I could be there and do this thing that I really wanted. As you walked in, you see the main hall with sculptures and the galleries to the left and right side of it. There's also the clock on wall.

I really love d'Orsay. I was perhaps most stunned to see Whistler's Mother by James McNeill Whistler there. I didn't know it's housed here, so it was a really nice surprise. What's with this painting, well if you have watched Mr. Bean's movie, you would know the painting.

Here are the rest of the pictures from d'Orsay. They had an exhibition about Arts on the Street. Then the top floor was again packed with people because that is where many of the famous paintings are and here too I saw some version of Monet's Water Lilies. Then it started to dawn on me that I already saw some of these too because one year they were on loan to the National Museum of Singapore. On the top floor, there's also the other clock of d'Orsay and it was swarmed with people, ugh such a turn off. Moving on down, they had galleries that house the furnitures of the Parisian art collectors and as mentioned there are the many interesting sculptures, the one below is Hercules Killing the Birds of Lake Stymphalis by Antoine Bourdelle, 1909.

There's this one room I entered in which was beautiful with chandelier and all and the young guy staff by the door was like, this room is only for people with kids. I was like, okaaay, let me get one picture and off I went. After looking at the sculptures, I decided to call it the day. Took a picture of the rhino outside because that's what I remembered of d'Orsay from my last visit to Paris. By the way, around 2 PM when I left, the queue to get in seemed to be lesser. So maybe visiting d'Orsay on a late afternoon is better. When I was last in Paris, it was 14 years ago. I was 29 then. I wondered if my french now is better than then, but alas I think my french is still bad. This time around, I was even more shy to speak it. I decided to just get back to the airport earlier than planned but a good thing I did because darn it, security check was long. Airport security check in Europe tend to be long and I feel they need more staff. My bag even had to go through another check where I needed to wait for a staff to come and he opened it up and swabbed it for explosive traces I suppose. Look, I'm just thankful I made it for my flight. The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful. On arriving, I found the train easily and got to my hotel with only the slight confusion. The hotel room didn't really make me happy though, but I was thankful that I made it safely. I don't know if I will ever get to Paris or France again. I'm at this point in my life where I see things as this might be my last. Not that I think I'm gonna die soon, but I'm just seeing that certain part of my life may need to conclude and this may affect my ability to apply for visa, arrrghh stupid weak Indonesian passport. That being said, I feel pretty contented about the day I had in Paris. If it's the last time, then I feel like it's okay. I'm just thankful to God all around. For pictures from Paris and mostly the Notre Dame, see this. For pictures from Musée d'Orsay, see this, though I know it's stupid of me to take pictures of these paintings badly when you can get a better look at it from their website, that is if you can get it to load. Another option is Google Arts & Culture.

:) eKa @ 10:43:00 PM •