New Year's Eve in Paris

When I planned this trip, I had three objectives that drove my itinerary:

• Tapas and drinks with my friend Isaac on my birthday
• Christmas Eve Mass with the Pope
• New Year's Eve under the Eiffel Tower

On my birthday, I visited three museums before meeting up with Isaac. We went to one more museum, then spent the evening going to several places, eating tapas, drinking wine, and getting to know each other's cultures (and lives) better. Objective: Achieved!

For Christmas Eve, I'd called things early and headed up to the UK, giving up my tickets to mass with the Pope. I don't regret this one bit. I attended the Sunday Blessing by the Pope and then Vespers' Mass at St. Peter's Basilica later that evening. Fewer crowds, less standing in line, and I was able to rest a little longer before my final push. Given my current cold, it was probably one of the smarter things I did during this entire trip. Objective: Failed!

That left the goal of spending New Year's Eve under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Spoiler alert: It didn't happen. Instead, I did better. Objective: Improved!

And that's really, really okay. By the time midnight came around, Brian and I had already traveled four hours via train, walked 17 miles, and seen and done so much. Including going to the Eiffel Tower.

It had been a Very Busy Day(tm).

We arrived at the Gare du Nord train station, which was roughly a two-mile hike from our hotel, situated on the Seine across the bridge from Notre Dame. By now you realize that two miles isn't a big deal for me. It is, however, unfun when carrying a 20-pound backpack and a 10-pound shoulder bag... while sick. 

(Look, I'm going to be complaining a lot over the next few posts about being sick. It's rare that I actually get sick-sick - not counting allergies - and this was easily the worst that I've felt in years. Had I not been on vacation and a stubborn idiot, I would have spent all of last week in bed whinging. So, I'm being a total baby about it, and it's going to show up a lot on my posts about Paris. Feel free to tell Brian that he was a total saint for putting up with me during this time. I agree.)

Anyway, we walked from the train station to the hotel partially because of the train strike, but also because it was for the most part a nice walk. I mean, the area around that train station is a bit sketch, but a few blocks away, we got a pretty good feel for what Paris is like without the tourists. Since pretty much everywhere else we went that day we saw mostly tourists, it was nice. 

The hotel was a delight, even if the elevator was a bit small... and slow. But the building was old, quirky, fun, and interesting. Our room had a ceiling so low that I worried that Brian would bump his head on the massive beams that crossed it. (He didn't.) And our view was extraordinary.

After unloading our bags, we headed out to see what we could see. Turns out in Paris, there's a lot to see.

Okay, let's take a step back for a second here. Before I left for this trip, Paris was sort of my throw-away city. I planned to travel to multiple capital cities, so it made sense to include Paris. On top of that, it was an easy hub to fly out of, and a million friends of mine have gone on and on about how incredible Paris is. For me, however, it held minimal appeal. It seemed to be yet another major city, where most of the history was in the past couple of hundred years. Cool, I was sure, but not really my kind of thing. So, my expectations were pretty low. 

I was told that I needed to experience it to fully understand. As it turns out, having now experienced it, I'm more interested in going back to experience much more of it. 

We walked out of the hotel, across the Seine, and towards the Saint Chapelle Chapel. The line had been mostly small when we'd walked by, and we knew that it closed early. Only we didn't know that it would close earlier than the posted time because they didn't allow people to buy tickets to enter with just an hour left to see it. Over the course of our time in Paris, we tried to see Saint Chapelle every day. When it wasn't closed, the line was insane. We never made it inside.

So, we walked on. We turned to the Eiffel Tower, as we'd gotten a glimpse of it from the Seine. Along the Seine, one can choose to walk up at the street level or down at the river level where motorized vehicles aren't allowed. We choose the lower route.

We approached the monument from the East, meaning that the setting sun lit it from behind. It was breathtaking.

The grounds around the tower hustled and bustled with hucksters and tourists alike. For the first time, I felt a bit of unease about how many people had gathered. For a number of reasons, we opted not to go up into the tower and instead walked around it.

It turns out that when I'm sick and exhausted, my paranoia plays up. Being in large crowds of people in Paris - where multiple terrorist attacks have taken place in exactly these situations - made me... skittish. Yeah, okay, that's downplaying how I was feeling. As Brian and I walked around Paris and the crowds grew with the sun going down, I knew that I would not be okay in a crunch. Thankfully, Brian had already said that he would be okay if we didn't stay out until midnight, so I didn't feel too guilty for asking to head back earlier than we'd initially intended. For now, though, we plowed on to the Arc de Triomphe.

The walk to the Arc was rather unsettling. Not only were the streets filled with people, but the police presence was obvious and ubiquitous. There seemed to be a constant cacophony of sirens and lights on the relatively short walk from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc, especially along the Place du Trocadero where people sat waiting to see the fireworks at midnight. 

On top of this, my cold medicine was beginning to wear off so my sinuses were throbbing and chest felt tight. We wended our way through the crowds and finally made it to the Arc. The crowds weren't quite as crazy on our approach and I managed to get a couple of really beautiful shots of it.

We walked on, having heard that the Sacre Coeur may be the best place to watch the fireworks. As we walked past the major road leading up to the Arc de Triomphe, lined in beautifully illuminated trees - and filling with police and people - I felt my heart in my throat. My pace increased and my head throbbed worse. 

One can know that logically, nothing is going to happen. Or be like Brian who takes it as it comes, feeling like he can't do anything about it anyway, so why worry? It appears that I am not that person. The lower the sun sunk, the more people we encountered, the more I felt the panic rise. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm claustrophobic at the best of times, and these were definitely not those times. People towered over me, and if Brian weren't so tall, I know that I would have lost him several times. Thankfully, he's not only tall, but also conscientious and made sure that I was within site the whole time.

As we left most of the crowds behind, I realized that I may have pushed myself too hard already. I felt weak, light-headed, and sick to my stomach. I suggested stopping for food - and a break from walking. Brian agreed, and then suggested a McDonald's that was on our route. Not because he wanted McDonald's, but because it was likely to have an English menu, be open, and have a bathroom. At this moment in time, I was willing to break my one rule for the trip: No US chain restaurants. 

Thankfully, the restaurant wasn't open, so it didn't happen. Instead, we went to a pizza restaurant on the same street. After a solid hour and a bit more of resting, eating, and just being, we both felt better. Time to head on to Sacre Coeur. This included a trip through a lovely park where we stopped to rest and enjoy the quiet.

Had I known this walk would be up a million stairs, I may have stayed at the park longer. I didn't, so off we went. I am so glad that we did. What a stunning cathedral with a more beautiful view of the city. 

This cathedral was different from most of the others that I'd gone into. Most of those had been empty of people except for tourists, with few kneeling in the pews. This church, however, had as many or more congregants as visitors. Every inner chapel had at least one person kneeling in prayer, though most had quite a few more. Additionally, we saw those touching a statue in prayer, which touched my heart. The throngs of people praying made the massive space feel intimate and inclusive.

Leaving the church, we stepped outside to look once more at the view before heading back to the hotel. By this time, it was coming up on 10pm, and I was fading fast. Down, down, down the stairs we went.

One would think that we'd already hit it out of the ballpark with our walk. We'd seen four of the major tourist attractions in Paris in one go. What more could we want?

When you go to Paris, see those attractions, preferably at sunset. I can't recommend that enough. And then, after a leisurely dinner while the sun sinks completely away, walk over to the Louvre. We did that. Not on purpose; we just happened on it as we walked back to the hotel from Sacre Coeur. And wow. Nothing could have prepared me for the exquisite beauty of the Louvre at night.

We didn't get back to our room until after 11pm as we simply couldn't be rushed to leave the Louvre. But by then, my headache made thought nearly impossible, and my feet and back screamed at me. I took a long, hot shower, downed the last of my medicine from the UK, and crawled into bed. A glass of red wine on the bedside table, I felt better than I had in hours.

Funny thing about hotel rooms that overlook the Seine and Notre Dame. There are almost always people hanging out on the streets near them. Especially at nearly midnight on New Years Eve. So, despite my desire for sleep, when midnight came, we heard the fireworks, the shouts from below, and Brian went to the window to see them. I got up, too, because come on. How do you not? And from our hotel room overlooking the Seine, we watched the fireworks over the Arc de Triomphe, and cheered with the crowds below who were staring at the Notre Dame. 

No, I didn't celebrate New Years Eve under the Eiffel Tower, but that's okay. There was a better way that hadn't even occurred to me before I made my plans.