For some odd reason, I decided that I had to go to the Bois de Vincennes this past weekend. Then, as I was researching the events for the weekend, I found out that they hold a jazz festival there during the summer. In my usual bossy manner, I was able to convince three other friends to accompany me, but I can safely say that they were glad they did.
For those of you who don’t know Paris, there are two giants bois (woods) on the outskirts of Paris. Vincennes, which is not far from where I work, is on the east side of the city, whereas the Bois de Boulogne is on the west. I am now resisting the urge to give a history lesson on the history of Paris. Instead, I’ll continue my own story.
My friends and I got out of the RER station and started walking to the Jardin Floral only to stumble upon a medieval fortress. France is so gratifying in this way. History is everywhere. Although the fortress looked intriguing, we decided to first picnic in the Jardin on the quiche and paella we got from a street vendor in Paris. Here are Emily and Maria with their French picnic.
Afterwards, we wandered around the bois, which is really pretty. There’s even a mini lake of water lilies. While we were taking photos of the flowers, a little boy fell in. He was completely nonplussed even though he was thoroughly drenched and just climbed out.
In contrast to the jardin, the jazz festival was a complete let down. There was supposed to be two groups, but we only made it through the first 15 minutes of the first. It consisted of a quartet composed of a drummer, a bass player, a pianist, and the leader on coronet. The coronet was high and screechy, but almost tolerable until the guy started making wailing noises with his mouth. It got really unpleasant just to sit and listen, so we gave up and left.
At the Château de Vincennes, which is what the medieval fortress was really called, we learned that Charles V built the original building during the Hundred Years War. Dating from the 14th century, it is one of the oldest buildings I’ve ever seen. It even had a huge moat, which they used to throw garbage into when the chateau was in use. Now it’s completely empty, which allows you to see how deep it was back in the day. There’s also a chapel across from the donjon from the 16th century, but unfortunately it’s difficult to look at since they decided to put an exhibit of Bulgarian icons right in the middle of it.
Look at the first picture. We're on the very top of the donjon. Maria (on the left) and Julie (on the right) are both friends from Princeton.
The rest of the evening involved a visit to the Musée Quai Branley, which is a museum of art from the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. I thought they were going to have a special event with dishes from all over the world, but we rushed over there only to discover they were giving away apple sauce and rice cakes. Furthermore, we didn’t even get beyond garden where the food was to the actual museum, because they refused to let Maria, a friend from Princeton, and me in for free. Students from the EU get in free to every museum and Paris and the people at the chateau had been kind enough to include us as well. After our disappointment at the museum, we decided to finally go have a look at the Eiffel Tower, which is practically on top of the museum.
For those of you who don’t know Paris, there are two giants bois (woods) on the outskirts of Paris. Vincennes, which is not far from where I work, is on the east side of the city, whereas the Bois de Boulogne is on the west. I am now resisting the urge to give a history lesson on the history of Paris. Instead, I’ll continue my own story.
Contrary to certain texts I’ve read, you cannot see the Eiffel Tower from every place in Paris. Yet, it does have a tendency to just pop up in the most unexpected place. It is exciting to get close to it, because it is immense. At the same time, it’s a little frustrating, because there are so many people there and there are so many vendors trying to force you to buy a mini Eiffel Tower. I thought Saint Michel was touristy, but it’s nothing compared to this. In comparison, Vincennes wasn’t at all crowded. Even though I do want to see the touristy spots in Paris, I would like to make it more of a priority to find more out-of-the-way places.
By the way, Jenny wanted to make sure that I had escargot when I was in Paris. Last week when I went out for dinner, I got a chance to taste them when someone else ordered them. I would have to say that I did like them. I tend to like shellfish and they weren’t that different from a clam or a squid. I also ordered oysters last week. Almost every single café offers them here. They were slightly more fishy than I expected, but the taste goes away once you dose them in lemon and a vinegar sauce.
No comments:
Post a Comment