Day 3: Latin Quarter & the Arc de Triomphe

My next day in Paris was one that took me all around the great city. The morning got off to a start with a metro ride over to the Latin Quarter, home to the Sorbonne, the Boulevard St-Michel and bookshops, cafes and even a fast food hot spot or two.

First I visited the Musee National du Moyen Age, better known as "the museum with the unicorn tapestries." The tapestries to which I refer, for those not in the know, are a series of six massive works woven in the middle ages. They feature a beautiful blonde girl and a unicorn on each one.

The museum was an overwhelming experience, with room after room of objects and art from the middle ages. Almost anything you could think of was there, including chairs, church pews, illuminated manuscripts, statues, carvings, tombstones, shoes, jewelry, paintings, armor and eating utensils. The high lights of the visit were the beautiful unicorn tapestries (ones I've admired since being a little girl) and the Gallo-Roman baths that take up a part of the museum's property and date from about 200 A.C.E.

The tapestries alone were with a visit to the museum. They are situated in a darkly lit room where all six panels are featured prominently along the wall. Benches were lined up for visitors to sit and simply look at the artwork. Some people walked in and out quickly, but most who came in stayed for awhile to simply sit and look at the precious tapestries. I stayed in there for a good 15 or 20 minutes, simply looking and admiring.

The Gallo-Roman baths were imposing and cavernous. It was difficult to imagine what they would have looked like in a different time, and didn't seem like an especially inviting place to bathe in. However, it was fun to be able to walk around and touch the walls of a building older than almost anything else in Paris.

Also noteworthy was the Gallery of Kings, which are 21 stone heads of the Kings of Judah and the various Books of Hours located in the building. I also relished seeing the tombstones, although it was sad to see how many had been defaced in previous centuries. The stained glass collection was beautiful, and featured many harps -- something I can relate to as a musician.

After the museum me and my mother strolled around the Latin Quarter. The cobblestone streets, outdoor cafes and bustling crowds made for a festive atmosphere. This is a wonderful area to grab a bite to eat in -- decent prices, good food and a young, hip crowd to eat with.

I did stop off at a French McDonald's, just to see how different it was from American ones. I ate a 'Le Grand Slam' (cheeseburger) and marveled at the utterly disgusting french fry sauce everyone seems to like. It was a strange mix of mayonnaise and tartar sauce. Yuck! However, the actual building was clean, hip and pumped out strangely soothing techno-ish pop in a seating area full of clean tables and modernistic light fixtures.

Another Batobus ride down the Seine later, I ended up along the Champs Elysees. The fabled street was an oddly disorienting experience. Designer shops, overpriced restaurants and women clad in expensive clothing rubbed shoulders with Muslim beggars in full veils looking for spare change. What was fascinating was the amount of rich Muslim women in the area. They were all veiled, but it was clear they had money as they were all laden with bags bearing the names of legendary stores like Chanel. I found it distasteful that women so obviously intent on being religious were mixing themselves up in worrying about their physical appearance.

While I was taken in by the ridiculous amount of designer stores in the area, the expensive clothing everyone was wearing, and the model looks of half the people walking down the street, I was also turned off by the materialism and cold capitalism that the Champs Elysees was all about. Everything was focused on spending ludicrous amounts of money and being seen while doing so.

My goal was not this fabled boulevard, however, but the even more legendary Arc de Triomphe.

The first trick with getting to the Arc is figuring out how to get to the monument in the first place. You see it floating on a concrete island in the middle of an insanely busy traffic circle, and signs are clearly posted saying: DO NOT CROSS THE STREET. (Idiotic tourists were doing so anyway, however, at the expense of both drivers and anyone who was worried about seeing a fat German get creamed by a car speeding along.)

After approaching a traffic cop, I was told that the proper entrance to the arch was a staircase that looked like it descended into the depths of the underworld, but in fact only went down a short ways to a tunnel. The tunnel, an eerie experience of florescent lighting and echoing voices, snakes under the traffic circle and eventually leads to the actual entrance to the Arc.

What a sight! Upon actually reaching the Arc, you are confronted with a massive monument complete with an equally huge French flag snapping in the wind. A stair case climb or elevator ride up, up, up and away leads to the top of the monument, where amazing views of the city of Paris are to be had.

I got there right before sunset, and it was a great time to view the city's numerous monuments. You can see the Sacred Heart Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, the Seine, Notre Dame and every other famous building of Paris. It was like looking at a living, breathing map of the city in full color.

I would recommend a visit to the Arc to anyone visiting Paris for the first time. The views of Paris are practically unrivaled (only the Eiffel Tower has better views) and, at the right time of day, the entrance lines are short.

Photos of this tremendous view will be posted soon, for all of you who can't get to Paris or who simply want to remember it!