Paris

My stay to date in Paris consisted mostly of roaming around the city, so I cannot really give an account of everything that has happened. Here are some notes instead.


The city was made for roaming. In almost a week here I did not see practically any ugly or characterless buildings. The streets reminded me of rooms in an old and comfortably cluttered apartment. I now understand the people that claim it is the most beautiful city in the world.


Beauty seems to lead to expensiveness, as maybe should have been expected. A pint of Guiness will run up to over 7 Euros.


My two favorite places thus far: 
- as cheesy as this sounds, almost all of the embankments of the Seine at night
- Rue de Mouffetard, just a very nice street
- Rue Oberkampf, this is the street we walked the most as it takes us from our apartment on Bld Menimontant to the center. It has a couple of bars and clubs and a decently priced creperie, where we get Nutella crepes at early hours in the morning.


Famous places that I didn't find so impressive:
- Champs Elysee, because it was overrun by tourists and reeked of militant consumerism
- Top of Monmartre at 3pm. My complaint here is similar to the one mentioned above, namely, too many herds of tourists. I suspect, however, that if one were to show up there very late at night, the view would be worth it. After having visited Monmartre, I understood the mixed feelings locals usually have towards tourists. In massive quantities the latter are quite an unbearable lot with their constant aimless wandering, eating, picture taking, nonsense foreign speech, and uncontrollably loud children.


Hence here are some nice non-touristy places I've seen:
- The west side of Montmartre (Rue Chevalier de la Barre, Passage Cottin, Rue Ramey). The residential areas of the hill are actually quite empty and charming. One might even glimpse a bit of the past in the old men playing boules or a woman out for a walk with her three cats.
- The Parc André-Citroën. It was strange visiting this place in the winter, with all of the trees bare and grey and all of the grassy surfaces dead, but the place is nonetheless full of many nooks and quiet corners. 
- Another nice park is located in the yard of the Rodin Museum.