We have arrived in Paris! Technically, we checked in yesterday afternoon after taking a train from Lyon, but the past 24 hours have been jam-packed with excursions. My personal favorites were visiting the Sacré-Cœur basilica, going on a guided tour of Rungis (the world’s biggest wholesale food market), and a boat tour of the Seine.
We got into Paris late yesterday, and our first destination after getting settled in our hotel was the Sacré-Cœur basilica. That is the highest point in Paris, so we went there first so we could get a sweeping view of everything. The basilica was beautiful, but I enjoyed walking through the surrounding streets even more. Behind the tourist-y facades (which were ripe with cheap berets, dramatic watercolor landscapes, and French license plates), the buildings were quaint and old. We also saw our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower above the streets, which got us even more excited for our boat tour today!
Today’s start was bright and early; we left our hotel at 4am to the Rungis market.
The marketplace is just outside of the city and is almost its own micro-community! The reason we had to be there so early is because 90% of what is brought into the market is sold on the same day, and there is a certain level of competitiveness among buyers to get the best products from the already high quality producers, so they sell out of a lot of things before 6am. When we arrived, we had to put on some very glamorous outfits: XL white coats, dense white hair nets, and bright blue visitor’s lanyards, all of which marked us as non-buyers. Only restaurants and merchants are allowed into Rungis unless you’re a part of a sanctioned tour group, as we were. We had a stellar tour guide, Francis, who was hilarious as well as knowledgeable. I found the fishery section to be the most interesting of all the complexes (which also included areas like the dairy, produce, fresh flowers,
and cheese buildings), probably because of being raised in a community where fishing plays such an important role in the local economy. Most of the fish that they sell was caught in the last day, and comes from either the Mediterranean or the north coast. Because of the quotas established by the EU to prevent overfishing, France also needs to import some fish from Nordic countries and the British isles to meet consumer demand.
We went back to the hotel after a quick breakfast to sleep more. My roommate, Katie, and I slept for almost six more hours! Then we left again this afternoon to go on a boat tour of Paris. On the way, we passed a plethora of famous Parisian sites, including the obelisk stolen from Egypt by Napoleon, the
Paris Parthenon, the Arc de Triumph, and the Louvre. The boat tour was very relaxing, and we got a chance to see the Eiffel Tower for the second time since arriving! We didn’t actually visit it, but we plan on going in the next few days!
It’s nearly midnight here in Paris now, so I’m going to go to sleep for the third time today. Bon nuit!
