The Trip to Paris: "I ATE A SNAIL" and Other Interesting Life Choices

The trip from London to Paris was relatively uneventful. This is what I'm going to tell you because I spend two thirds of it asleep and one third of it so wired on a double shot of espresso that I'm pretty sure I could see flies frozen in each moment of time, stopped in space. Mmm, coffee.

Now, considering my IQP is all about educating young children about how wonderful public transportation is, you would think that I can pull off navigating the Paris Metro.

Right? Wrong.

We were traveling around trying to get from Charles de Gaulle Airport to anywhere in Paris. We went in the wrong direction twice, somehow befriended a singing hobo (no, this is completely true) and finally wound up underneath this thing:

The Arc de Triomphe. It's majestic. Let's appreciate it.

<--- Ah, History.










We decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. It was during this leisurely stroll through Paris that I decided that Paris smells like the Garden Center of Home Depot. This is neither relevant to this story or a particularly insightful comment, but I feel like it adds context.




Eventually we wound up under the Eiffel Tower.





Which was an absolutely amazing experience, I have to say.






But let's move on to more important things...

 Like this monkey, for example.

After we were done looking at the Eiffel Tower and doing leaning-on-it perspective photos and having Paris natives roll their eyes at us, we stopped at this fine eating establishment....


...adorned with the portraits of France's Greatest Heroes.

But we had a mission to attend to. We were off to Père Lachaise Cemetery, to pay our respects to the man, the myth, the legend:

Jim Morrison of The Doors. 

Mr. Mojo Risin' himself. 



For the classic rock lovers among us, it was an emotional, even spiritual moment.

But I wasn't leaving Paris without seeing Notre Dame Cathedral. 

           


       

And I have to say, it is a really, really big building, and it is really, really pretty.

Everyone is welcome to come in and visit, and see what an amazing place it is, as long as you stay respectfully quiet.


Which is easy, because the bells drown you out anyway.

  

After a day of in Paris, we flew back to the UK. Looking off into the twilit sky, you could see the thick cloud layer that blotted out the sun, and you could think, "hey, we must be over England. The sun's gone."

And by golly, we were right. Down into Heathrow Airport, and back to Customs, where we went through the long process of trying to explain why we were staying in the country and what the hell an IQP is:

"You're studying abroad?"

"Yes."

"What are you studying."

"I'm doing a research project."

"Ah, on what?"

"I work at the London Transport Museum helping them develop methods for teaching young students about engineering."

"So you work there."

"It would appear that way."

"But you said you were studying abroad."

"I am studying abroad."

"But you just said you were working at the London Transport Museum."

This went on for two hours, before the customs agent got tired and stamped my passport just to get me as far away from him as humanly possible.

And that my friends, is the story.