Special days in Paris

Not special in the sense of exceptionally good. Ok, yes, that is also true, but what I wanted to say with that is that they are different than normal days. I will tell you about some of these in this blog.

Journée du Patrimoine

The Journée du Patrimoine is the 20 of September. This day some special historic monuments are opened for the public, which are normally not open to be visited or only partly. Apart from that they are for free and many other monuments as well. I don’t know why, maybe because it’s just who I am, I heard about that really late and therefore hadn’t planned anything. So, I just went spontaneously and thought about visiting the Chateau des Élysées. But, some more hundreds of people had had the same idea and the queue was so long that I hadn’t hoped for one second to get the chance of entering. They even gave drinks to the waiting, so they would stay in line. Next try: Petit Palais, which is just around the corner. As I hadn’t made any plans or informed me beforehand, I had no idea what to expect. Didn’t seem so special, no one was in line for that. So, I just entered. It is a beautiful, old building. The actual attraction was an art exhibition and the museum inside, which didn’t interest me at all, I liked the building and the nice garden much more. After that, I wanted to visit the Grand Palais, which is opposite the Petit Palais and was on the list that I found on the internet about what to visit today. But, for no reason, it was closed.

Petit Palais

Grand Palais

Source

Sorbonne Université

Then, a friend of mine wrote me that they are going to visit the library of the Sorbonne and if I wanted to join them. Of course I wanted! I hadn’t read about that and the Sorbonne is also something really special and maybe especially interesting for students. We went there and it was possible to visit the whole university. It was really amazing! I never saw so much gold and decorations in a building that was not royal. They have many big halls for official meetings and curves staircases; the lecture halls seem more like theatre halls and the old library is as breath-taking as the rest. I was surprised that the university even have a chapel with their own crypta for famous teachers and students. Did I already mention that the Sorbonne is THE most well-known university in France? I am really thinking, if I am studying something wrong, because I don’t have classes in such amazing rooms. The Sorbonne Nouvelle belongs to the universités de Sorbonne but is situated in another quarter of the city in a boring building. When I got that right, the universities are sorted by topics. The Panthéon-Sorbonne, which is this one, is more about sciences and only a bit about languages, and my Sorbonne Nouvelle is mostly about languages and communication. But, anyway, I wonder how you can concentrate on the classes with that many gorgeous paintings and intelligent sayings on the wall….

Femmes en Sport

This means: Women in sports. This was the 26th of September and that day all women could take part in all kind of sports around the city and all that for free. Together with a friend, I joined the outdoor Zumba lesson, because I miss Zumba a lot. It was really cool, because the sun was shining and gave us a lot of motivation and energy. We were many people on a football field and had two trainers, who were alternating with the choreos. It was nothing special, but a lot of fun and I was happy for having done some sports. Other than only the fencing in University, which I like a lot and will also tell you about later.

Journée sans voiture

The 27th of September – yes, September seems to be full of special days – was the journée sans voiture, which means day without cars. What does that exactly mean? It means, that on this day in special areas in Paris it was prohibited to use your car. Unfortunately, it is not possible to do it for the whole city, which I would have preferred a lot more. Some areas also only had speed limitation to about 20 km/h and some areas it was kindly asked not to use the car, but not prohibited. Here, I have to mention that I live really good, because the Champs-Élysées were closed down from the Arc de Triomphe, where I live. I walked with a friend on the Champs-Élysées on the roads and I have to say it is a great feeling to walk on the roads with so many people, where normally heaps of cars are driving and on this day, there was none and everything seemed a lot calmer. And you could really hear the difference. Even when living in the 6th floor you can clearly hear the traffic, but today everything was so quiet. It was a very beautiful day and we wandered through the streets and everywhere food was sold; the smell added to the relaxed atmosphere of the day. The only problem was, that taking the metro was quite impossible, with so many people using it more than usual. But, as long as you don’t have any appointments, you can just walk.

Nuit Blanche

The 3rd of Ocotber was Nuit Blanche. We were wondering what that should mean: the white night? One of me French friend explained to us: it is a night, where you stay awake all night. White night, because of the lights, it is a night like a day. Museums and other attractions were open all night long, concerts and other events were going on in different areas of Paris and even the Metro would be working all night to bring the people back home. We saw the melting coloured ice blocks on the city hall place, which should be some kind of modern art piece, especially when the blocks have been totally melted. Some acrobats and singers were having some shows there as well. We got some Crepes and Falaffel in the the Marais quarter and then went to Centre Pompidou to see the fire show. That was sadly, very disappointing, it was mostly smoke and you couldn’t see anything. At the end, we went to the Conciergerie to see another modern art piece.

Fête des Vendanges

One week after the Nuit Blanche was the fête des vendanges and the bal des vendanges. Every week something special is happening in Paris.

Vendanges, apparently means wine harvest and is a bit like the thanks giving. A had a friend visiting from Germany and together with a friend we went to see what was going on there. It was in Montmatre, the artist quarter of Paris. Heaps of people have been there and you could barely move. The stairs going up to Sacré Coeur were closed for the show later on, which didn’t make the situation better. There was a parade from the different harvesting groups, which were carrying there banners. Especially nice was the Parcours du Goût, which were different stands selling their products: from cheese in all different colours, sausages, jams, honey, mussles, snails, oysters over sweets and macarons to all kind of alcoholic drinks. And you could try everywhere, that’s what I love. Normally, you don’t have that much luck, but this night we didn’t even need dinner, because we got enough to eat and drink everywhere. The only thing that you didn’t get for free was the wine; you had to pay 10 euro per glass for that. But, the liquors were also for free trying. They were really tasty and you could get every taste you would want: orange, fig, raspberry, lemon…

And the of course, the big finale was the fireworks over Sacré Coeur. Sacré Coeur is anyway one of the most beautiful places in Paris and the fireworks added to that. We needed some time and strength to find a good viewing point, for some minutes I was just stuck and there was no back and forth, I almost panicked. Then, I had to search my friends, whom I had lost in the big crowd. But, you know a young, small and blond girl crying she will faint soon, will get some help soon. So, after my acting part, I found them and we had a real good place to watch everything. We even made friends with the nice old people next to us. The fireworks was amazing, perfectly timed on the music. It took ages and got better and better and didn’t seem to find an end. It was one of the most beautiful nights in Paris!

And you can see: there’s always something going on in Paris, it can never get boring!

Photo gallery