I was filing some paperwork away on Friday and in the cabinet with my mortgage, work, and benefits papers I found an enevelope full of things. I took a look at it quickly and saw that it came from the university I attended, which seemed strange to me. I mean, I'm a pack rat and all but surely I haven't been keeping my acceptance package from university lying around all this time?
Thankfully, no. However, inside there were photographs, postcards, pamphlets, spare change, pins, tickets, etc... from when I went to Paris in 1995. Which is actually pretty much exactly 10 years ago from now to the day.
When I came back I started a scrapbook, which I still have lying around somewhere, half finished. So, I pulled the envelope out and decided to see about finishing it. I looked at all the stuff and decided not to finish it. I pulled the photos out and went through them. In the middle of random pictures of our messy room at the hostel, pictures of us with various liquor bottles (it was a big deal, we were all still underage here!), and other stupid pictures there were three beautiful ones I took while I was at Pere-Lachaise cemetery. Why did we travel all the way to Paris to go to a cemetery?
I think the second reason was actually what inspired us to go there. Jim Morrison of The Doors is buried there, or at least, he has a gravesite there, whether or not his body is actually in there, I have no idea. (When I came back, people told me that in fact he was buried somewhere else...and seeing as how I know nothing about either him or The Doors, I am in no position to argue) Either way, I really wish we hadn't spent so much time trying to locate Jim, or at the very least that I'd taken about three more rolls of film there while we were looking for him. (I did not particularly want to see his grave in particular, however, other people that I was with did....I was more impressed with Chopin's grave)
That's the difference 10 years can make. When I was still 18, I didn't give a shit about what I was looking at. We went, we looked at things, and I didn't give it much more thought than that. Looking back on the very few pictures of scenery I did take, I am furious with my 18 year old self for not looking around more.
So, as I was digging a little deeper into the photos I found, again randomly interspersed with stupid pictures, a rather gorgeous photo of The Venus de Milo, and a lovely one of Diane de Versailles. I remember being impressed with those two things, obviously enough that I took pictures of them. I remember being distinctly underwhelmed by The Mona Lisa. Which is this teeny tiny painting, that is behind glass, AND roped off by a velvet rope. I sat on a bench nearby and fell asleep while the others looked at it.
The pictures are gorgeous, and I wish I'd taken more. Also, I wish I could go back there. Because quite obviously I would look at everything with completely different eyes. I didn't take a single picture of Monmartre, though I have a couple of lovely ones of Scare Coeur. I have one very fuzzy picture of the Eiffel Tower (Which I never went up while I was there), and many pictures of the Arc de Triomphe. It was just a very strange trip, and one I really wish I could do again...but correctly this time.
Posted by Michelle at March 27, 2005 12:10 PM