Europe Trip Recap 1, Paris - 20/22 First Story.

I think more than half of the images that come to mind with 'Paris' — the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, the image of a city of freedom and romance — turned out to be true. Fortunately there was no pickpocketing, but even so it was a bit hard to feel safe in this city. Should I say I went around tense for no reason; at any rate, I'd like to organize a few of the characteristics I picked up from this city.

1. A City Atmosphere with Lots of Music but Little Pop

Even after moving on to other cities, these two pieces of music still echo in my head. These pieces were the signal flares telling me I'd arrived in the city of 'Paris.' Probably without this music I wouldn't have felt it even having come to Paris, and thanks to this music I was able to enjoy the trip.

I shot this music when, after boarding the 'Metro' in Paris, someone played music inside the subway. Among the Paris Metro there are lines that go around outside, so it happened to suit it well, should I say... Until this music, honestly my body and mind had been a bit tired, but thanks to this music I had a change of mood and felt perfectly that I'd arrived at a travel destination, should I say..

I went to the Louvre again on January 1st, and that day the Louvre happened to be 'closed,' but curiously there was some unidentified violin master. Thanks to that violin master I was able to create one such wonderful video, which makes me quite happy.

Music in Paris was the beginning and the end of the trip. Because the moment I left Paris, it became uncannily hard to hear music ever again. It was hard to hear music on London's streets. On Paris's streets, oddly enough, I heard it really often. That was truly a joy. The shops didn't play music loudly. On the streets there are only people's voices and the sound of instruments people play. 'Street instrument playing' that makes you forget even the sound of cars — this was the greatest joy I felt during the trip.

2. Quite Expensive Prices..

Hmm, I don't know how much France's minimum wage is. Looking it up, 12.81 dollars is roughly about 11 euros, it seems. Assuming you work at the minimum hourly wage receiving 11 euros, France's foods are, hmm... yeah, considering the wage, they seem like prices you can manage. But from a traveler's standpoint they were quite expensive. Britain has very high currency value so that's that, but in Paris's case the biggest problem is food. Going to most restaurants, the food all exceeds 10 euros, so it was a travel period where choosing readily wasn't easy. You could solve meals with crêpes or sandwiches, but doing so doesn't recharge energy enough, so 'sufficient' food was needed; thinking that way, Paris seems to have been really hard to make a living in. Let me just write down the things I remember.

Big Mac meal - 6.6 euros / Starbucks americano tall size - 2.90 euros, Costa americano tall size - 2.95 euros /, in the case of crêpes, at the most decent and cheap-looking place in the Sorbonne university district it started from 2 euros, but on the streets of Saint-Michel it started from 4 euros / coffee prices at cafés, in the case of espresso, I even saw it as low as 1.8 euros. But if you try to eat pizza or pasta it starts from at least 10 euros, and too many restaurants offered course meals, where mostly you could eat from around 12–14 euros..

Water prices weren't expensive based on 1.5 liters, and the sandwiches sold at markets were a bit expensive. Sandwiches were distributed starting from 3 euros up to 5 euros, and comparing with Britain, where sandwiches range from 2 pounds to 3 pounds, it works out that Britain's sandwich prices are a bit cheaper. Alcohol prices weren't that expensive in France, but since I drank only one day in France to begin with, I didn't spend much money.

It seems prices felt expensive probably because of 'restaurant' prices. Coffee prices weren't to the point you could feel they were cheap.

3. Famous Tourist Spots

I'd really been very interested in art, but actually this time it was a bit less so. This time the trip of viewing artworks was actually largely on the 'back burner.' Since this trip's concept was broadly 'cathedrals' and 'everyday life,' I think that's all the more why. In that sense, Notre-Dame Cathedral seems to have given me great meaning. Going there, I happened to be able to see a Notre-Dame choir performance. There was a banner inside the cathedral saying there'd be an event on the 21st, which was the weekend before Christmas week, and I guess that was it. Of course, since it was French I couldn't properly understand a single thing, but among them a few songs were songs I'd heard while at the cathedral, so maybe that's why the Korean lyrics came to mind too, and it was really nice.

Notre-Dame Cathedral has a lot of stories. Still, among them the representative story is, I think, Victor Hugo's novel 'Notre-Dame de Paris'; hmm, the story I'd read in Notre-Dame de Paris became not that important once I actually went inside the cathedral. Of course I did try to look for a space where Quasimodo could hide out, but the cathedral itself was so huge and majestic, and with the choir even performing, all the presence of mind for that vanished. The cathedral was truly beautiful. The interior structure where Gothic style stands out and the exterior entrance are really easy to remember. As it happened, that day the wind was just right and the sky was clear, so the cathedral shone even more, which was even nicer. Most of the people inside the cathedral were tourists, but so what — for a cathedral this large, which took over 100 years to build, it's only natural that tourists would flock, I thought.

When will I get to see that choir performance again? Probably even if I stop by the cathedral once more, the chance of being able to see the choir would be slim, and in front of the altar at that, all the more so.

As for the Eiffel Tower and the Obelisk, hmm, they didn't move me much. Still, the Eiffel Tower was a place that made me feel that I was indeed in 'Paris.' There were really, really so many people that going there you'd see all sorts of people. There were people continually trying to take unusual photos, people taking family photos, people taking couple photos, and in the midst of it there were even police riding bikes. Certainly, after the terror attacks, maybe thinking about strengthening security, there were many police on bikes, police on horses, and police on standby all over, which made me think it was fortunate. Paris's night view is exactly the night view we see in movies. Maybe because there's not much difference, I thought a travel destination is a travel destination after all..

I hope the buildings I saw stay intact until I go again. If by chance they were destroyed it'd be very regrettable; the feeling of seeing the empty space when I go again would be so utterly hollow, so I only hope they stay safe.

Since I don't think I'll be writing about food anyway — it was so expensive — in the next Paris piece I'll wrap up the Paris writing with a story about the museums, the subway stations, and a bit of the leisure life in Paris.