We reach Paris at 6am Paris time – about 11pm the previous day in terms of US time. The girls are all excited and don’t want to sleep. (Note to self: In the future, do not take a subway train to the Eiffel tower with a six year old who has not slept all night.) We take a taxi to the Holiday Inn at Bussy St. George.
Immediately I notice that the highways in France are much narrower than those in the US, and that people drive very fast, and that it doesn’t seem very safe. Sure enough, we watch a “near miss” in front of us between a mid-size truck and a car. On our way back, one week later, we pass a “situation” by the side of the road. The driver tells us to cover the kid’s eyes since he anticipates blood and gore. Fortunately it seems to be just “plane spotters (?)” taking photographs of planes landing and taking off.
In Paris we travel everywhere by train and so we see thousands of people over the course of the next five days. I notice that the women seem more stylishly dressed on average than in the US. I observe a lot more people smoking than in the US.
Also, I observe only five people who are obese. Curious, I watch each of them by moving close to them and shamelessly eve’s dropping. One was British, one German, one I wasn’t able to identify and the other two were American (US). All but one were women. I ponder long and hard over why there are so few obese people and the only hard conclusion I reach is that food in France is expensive compared to the US. Of course, there are other theories too – red wine, slow meals, small portions etc., but somehow, I suspect that the shear cost of food may be a key factor, a conclusion that I also reach in India later on.
We go to the Eiffel Tower where at the top are wax work effigies of Msr. Eiffel. I am struck by how small he was – seemingly no more than 5′ tall, but very sharp and capable. A woman next to me says loudly “Who are these dead guys?” As an old Civil engineer, it seems that the Eiffel tower was “over-designed” and that while Msr. Eiffel did create what was then an “out of the box” pioneering design using iron girders, I suspect, like all great innovators, he knew, he was operating well within the limits of the new system and like other innovators was actually very conservative within the framework of his new approach.
We visit the Notre Dame Cathedral and St. Severin Church, both built around the same time. St. Sevrin’s seems “darker”, more introspective, while Notre Dame seems more “enlightened”. The difference between “eternal” (lasts for ever) and “timeless” (free from time) is now very clear to me. These places of worship are not “eternal” – a bomb in WWII could have easily demolished them, perhaps for ever – but they are “timeless”. Inside, the very meaning of time disappears – and I an atheist, sense clearly something that is independant of time – probably having to do with something in our brain that evolved before we had a consciousness of time.
On a more practical note, looking at Notre Dame from a distance, it strikes me that it is visually incomplete. The towers at the front on either side are far shorter than they should be for visual completeness. As an ex foundation engineer it strikes me that visually complete towers would have exerted massive loads on the soil below and would have resulted in a foundation “bearing capacity” failure given the foundation designs used at that time, and that the builders knew their limits, and stayed within them, paying the price of “visual incompleteness.”
Its a beautiful, sunny day with a blue sky and a cool breeze. As we leave St. Severin, I happen to look up and by chance observe a small bronze plaque on the side of a neat, well kept building. The sign says – “From this building about 200 Jewish children were sent to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.” I look at my tourist map, but fail to find this building.
We also see the Arc d’ Triomphe, Disney Land (urg!) and the Louvre. By far the Lovre was the best thing I saw in Paris. The Mona Lisa was (as I had expected) disappointing – my father-in-laws copy, hanging here above me looks as good and cost all of five US dollars.
However, there are other simply stunning works of which, for me, the best of all was the Egyptian Scribe from 2620-2350 BCE. His eyes are simply stunning. He is truly timeless. He reminds me of my Hindi Master, who used to “give me Hindi tuition” when I was in school (and whom I will be visiting in India.)
The Louvre has other stunning pieces – many of them from Iraq and other contries torn by war. I feel that if these peices are sent back to the countries they came from…fully restored..and given there due honor, then perhaps instead of just “elites” who have the resources to visit museums, everyone in every country will be able to see and appreciate their heritage, feel pride in what their “foremothers and forefathers” have achieved and perhaps find within themselve the same sources of creativity that created these works. If this is done – if musuems are ALL emptied of their artworks and the artwork sent back to their original settings, the world WOULD be a better place.
I mention this idea to a friend and she finds it hilarious. They will be stolen, she says. True – today they will be stolen. But in a thousand years, when humans are more enlightened, no one would find pleasure in stealing an artwork and putting it in their basement for none but their personal pleasure. Such a person would be viewed by society as a “true deviant” and would be helped with therapy. Ah well…
