being touristy

la tour eiffel

Until last weekend, I could proudly say that I had spent over two months in Paris and hadn’t even gone near the Eiffel Tower. In my search for the authenticity of the last entry, I’ve avoided the touristiest of tourist sites. And because Parisians don’t actually go on the Tower in the same way that New Yorkers don’t actually go up the Empire State Building, I felt obliged to emulate their disdain of it in my attempt to become Parisian.

However, the perfect excuse to be touristy arrived last weekend in the shape of a visiting friend. En route from Singapore to The Hague for a conference, she decided to stop over in Paris for the weekend. With her around, I could visit tourist traps with a clear conscience; I was not a tourist, I was a seasoned local guiding a tourist around. However, coming from a slightly less fortunate financial background, her traveling style is vastly different from mine. While I travel on my own time and schedule, she is an emissary of a host of family members who will never get to see Paris. The objective of her trip was therefore was less about getting a Parisian experience as much as fulfilling the expectations of all back home. Ergo, lots of touristy things.

Tip for anybody under the age of 26 who’s interested in visiting Paris: entrance to the Louvre is free on Fridays from 6 – 10pm. Also, there’re two entrances to the Louvre: one is the main one near the glass pyramids, where the line is always long and snaky at that point; the other is underground, near the apex of the inverse pyramid, which hardly anyone knows about so the queue is always much shorter. To get to the second entrance, head away from the main entrance towards the Tuileries and look in the clump of bushes for the staircase leading to the basement level. (I feel like I’m in the DaVinci Code giving secret directions). Alternatively, get off at the metro stop Musee du Louvre on the 1 line and the station connects directly to the underground area.

Because she arrived on Friday afternoon, we started off with the Louvre. My friend, however, is not particularly fond of art. In response to “Why even go to the Louvre at all?” she replied, “To take photos.” So we took photos. After two hours, she deemed her photos sufficient and she, in need of dinner. Another tip for future Parisian tourists: don’t eat around touristy areas – they’re invariably tasteless and overpriced.

Once sated, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower, where the last lift goes up at 11pm. With regards to the view, the general opinion is that the Eiffel Tower is prettier from far away than when one is on it. Quite true. Nonetheless, it’s a rather pretty sight to see the cityscape of the City of Lights at night. (By the way, that’s why it’s called the City of Lights. Indoor lighting in Paris is actually rather dingy because they seemed to have spent all their electricity lighting the exteriors instead).

Over the course of the next two days, we also visited Sacre Coeur and Montmarte, the legendary flea markets at the Porte de Cligancourt, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and the Pere Lachaise cemetery. As is wont with tourist sites, most of them look better on postcards than when visited in person. Therefore, last tip for the aspiring visitors here: if you really must go to tourist sites, go. But leave plenty of time to do other things like getting lost wandering side streets, sitting in a café and people-watching, visiting little art galleries and acting snooty in a bar discussing existentialism. That is truly the Parisian experience.