On early morning... I met Paris 2018!
A city in between so many others, is it what you think? Paris represents 2000 years of History and even more... And any steps, any looks tell us its joys and sorrows, its angers and its loves!
We are living a very awkward period, but before "covid" and before " yellow-jackets", Paris used to be very touristic! We have to confess that France is number one of Tourism in the world and that Paris, just on its own, hosts about 2500 landmarks... that's it!
In 2018, the City of Light and its suburb counted a record number of 38 millions of tourists!
Notre-Dame Cathedrale is then, the most visited monument of Great Paris with 12 millions visitors!
But 2018, this is also Beyonce and Jay-Z music video that drove up 20% of traffic in Louvre Museum, the inauguration of L'Atelier des Lumières and the inauguration of the biggest restaurant of Europe: La Felicità!
Let's go back to a regular morning of 2018...
Destination: Let's go to Paris, 2018 saga
This morning, Mademoiselle Eiffel is expecting me!
I drop my daughter at the nursery, I want to cuddle her, but she is already digging the Library… I'm going away, aching heart, never easy to entrust your 3-year-old treasure... I run to catch the suburban railway.
In my train, the passengers ending their night. A feeling of loneliness comes over me... Am I crazy to be happy to go to work?!
Here we are in Paris! All is different here: Transports are full of people running everywhere, jostling. " La Foule" ( the Crowd) by Edith Piaf , in less glamour. I'm getting in the metro; difficult to breath, stucked like sardines… I can't even check the clock on my phone! Talking about sardines, I am not into smells on early mornings. I am trapped in between a dodgy guy and an immaculately dressed lady... The subway starts! Yay!
I scan... I'm borred... I begin to imagine that the weirdo partied all night in an 11th district pub, then he tried to impress by dancing like John Travolta... I'm laughing, he stares at me... Conclusion: he's going back home all alone… he needs some rest before working this afternoon. I turn the head, ethanol is really violent...My eyes cross the lady's ones: She seems really infuriated, this metro which is taking so long to this station! Why!? She is going nut! The excessive facial expressions ttranslate it by themselves... this is funny how parisian never talk to each other, but if they are angry! This is only in those particular moments, that they really need to exchange their mood with others... And, actually, the other, right now, this is me! But, I have no reason to be unhappy as I know that this station is the rotation time for the drivers! Maybe a speciality of Line 6: The " break" place for RATP agents is not at the end of the line... I'm wondering if I am the only one to know that? My mistake! The carriage is emptying suddenly with a crowd of passengers who are running to catch the other subway on the other side of the platform, which is about to leave! The woman's face decomposes! I try to reassure her, our train will leave soom too! What did I dare to do there?! Talking to her??? She laughs nervously, embarrassed, looks at the floor and shake her head violently backwards, making a fan of her hair which falls on the face of persons behind her: Wasn't a good idea... The tall blond seems to be very annoyed : constant sneezing!
Relief! Train starts again! I am more than ready!
Trocadero, here I am! Quick, my heart beats, I jump out of the metro like a freed savage animal! Breathless, I try racewalking... Ok, not for me... An old lady got scared.
I can see her eventually!
The tower is there, in front of me, proud and thin, covered by the morning grey that contrasts, such as a chiaroscuro, with the sunrise's flams...
Paris wakes up gently as I progress on her direction...
Pigeons welcome me, and I have a deep feeling to be favoured:
Paris starts to whisper its history...
I feel an incredible energy snatching me, more than 2000 years of History turn around me. Elated, I am Alice in her wonderland!
I admire the 8 golden statues of the square, from 1937. Young ladies, allegories of " rebirth", so much wished in the between wars, that represent youth, birds, morning,... only one boyto symbolise gardens! As weird as it is, each of those statues were sculpted by a different artist. My eyes end on the massiv lines of the buildings! An Art Deco architecture for the two wings that used to be smaller ,which were framing Palais du Trocadero. This 1878 performance hall was considered as the biggest of Europe, but the terrible acoustic and the low level of traffic, it was demolished in 1937 to be replaced then by a new and more adapted hall: Palais de Chaillot ! Built in the guts of Chaillot Hill, it permits to open the square to a great view of the Eiffel Tower! By crossing the gardens, I think of the World's Fair of 1937. In a time when everyone was trying to preach peace, were installed here, face to face, two pavillons: a soviet's one and a german's ... I imagine how were the festivities, when visitors from over the world didn't suspect what would come next. I've got goose bumps...
The horn of an irritated taxi wakes me up: Tourists, in the middle of the road, are taking pictures! Maybe the greening project of the bride is not a bad idea...
I stop a moment, facing the Seine River...
Seagulls twirling above the river, they are a real competitors to pigeons... But, do they find eatable fish in the dark and scary water?
Long ago, Seine used to be the reputation of the City! Water was pure unrivalled, fish were numerous and fishery was always rich!
A potamolog ( I know, so do I! I have learn a new word...)could break all your dreams of historian nerd... Because the " Seine" is not supposed to be called " Seine"... But that's something else, we should talk about later...
Because, now, it's time to meet my colleagues at the Tower's feet. Where, there, huge constructions are happening! They are building an awkward wall to replace the safety barriers! there were hundreds of them enclosing the Iron Tower..
This new wall half- glass/ half- metal, measures 1/100th the size of the tower, which is 3,24 meters high ( = 10,5 feet ) . The other metal part copy the shape of the big tower and has the particularity to be nearly unseen!
Visitors already hurry in front of the first security gate...
And this is me, 2 hours later, head in clouds!
