Brain Farts at Flow17

I realized here that the Eiffel Tower is so peculiar because there are no other skyscrapers for miles around.

My last intra-continental flight for this trip carried me and Phil from Venice to Paris. Prior to the current journey, I had been to Europe twice and both times visited Paris, so I wasn't anticipating the city of love with that much excitement. Phil was, but for me it just became a meeting point to find my high school friends Mike and Mark. Cheap international flights in and out of Charles De Gaulle.

City of love? Yeah, love of fruit pastries.

We landed quite late but Mark assured us he would stay up to let us in to his AirBNB, despite needing to get a little work done for his French employer in the morning. The city did Mark no favors by having the direct train from the airport be closed for the night by the time we landed. Then the bus we took had its route blocked by construction, thereby forcing it and the line of cars in rear to back up down a narrow alleyway; kudos to the bus driver for not reversing into any parked cars. When the bus got decently close to Mark's apartment, Phil and I hustled so as to not keep him waiting any longer, ignoring the harassment of three homeless people.

First encounter of many with the Notre Dame Cathedrale

Look at the intricacy. This is one archway of Notre Dame which took about 200 years to fully construct.

We got to Mark's apartment and saw exactly how small it was, about which Mark did warn us. It was good enough to stay there one night. We happily slept on the floor but there absolutely was no room for another body. I'm always the guy thinking how we could cram more people into a room to save expenses and this is the first time I ever thought we could absolutely not fit anyone else. Four was the max (Mark's girlfriend was there too).

Avenue des Champs-Élysées leading up to Arc de Triomphe

I spent that first day lounging around due to exhaustion, but Phil had no such luxury. His flight was midday the next day, so he needed to jam as much of Paris into a day and a half as possible. He saw what he needed to and later returns saying how cool Paris is. I'm glad he enjoyed it! He did sound like he was at his wit's end with all this travelling, and he had caught my bug of not being too enthralled with Italy after having such a good time in Greece. 

Capturing the locks on Pont Neuf, the oldest remaining bridge spanning the Seine

While Phil was out and Mark worked in his office away from home, I spent a little time walking around with Mark's gf (Irene? Sounds right, but can't remember). She started to complain of blisters on her feet after an hour of walking around, so that was that. For reasons I won't go into here (and not Irene's fault), I was very irritated. Knowing that Phil's and my good friend from Brown, Ben, also happened to be in town for the Flow17 conference on microfluidics, with a much larger apartment, I packed up my things and waited for Phil to return so we could shift home bases.

One Flow17 conference presentation on solutes and diffusivity

Staying with Ben was worlds better. We had a clean apartment, lots of space, a full kitchen, and extraordinarily quiet neighbors. And we also had a way in to the conference, which meant we could stuff croissants, pain au chocolat, and other goodies in our faces for a free breakfast. Hand-in-hand with Ben comes his advisor, Derek, by far the friendliest professor I know at Brown. As a Québécois, Derek speaks fluent French, and additionally he lived in Paris for a year, so he knows his way around. He effectively turned into our tour guide for a few days. He knows the swankiest places to eat and the first night, he took us to a delicious Vietnamese spot. Then we became acquainted with his number one bar, the Galway Irish Pub, where he knows the owners and a few regulars. I made friends with some French couple, Oliver and Maxta. The Galway became a nightly stop for us.

Musée du Louvre

Do you have ANY idea how much water dissipates out of this fountain in a day?
Assume summer heat with 60% humidity and 5mph wind speed across its surface.

Jardin des Tuileries near the Louvre

Ey bb

Phil spent as much of his last day in Paris, and last day in Europe [F for Phil], in the Louvre. I originally planned to go through the Louvre with him and meet him at the Mona Lisa at noon. However, on account of taking too much time leaving Ben's conference, I would have felt way too rushed going through the Louvre. It is after all the largest art museum in the world by floor space, and third largest by number of yearly visitors. Instead, I decided to stay outside of the museum so I could hug Phil before his departure and also make Mike's arrival in Europe much easier. Phil's departure and Mike's arrival were almost simultaneous, they missed each other by an hour.

And so ends my month with Phil journeying through Europe. We may have been roommates in the manhole at Brown, but we half-joked that we spent more time together in that month than in the two years I was enrolled at Brown. We got to know each other so well and developed an unbreakable rhythm that I don't think I could have made happen with anybody else. The ESP was unreal. Bye, Phil. You were missed.

Enter Mike stage left.

Mike's in his element on the bicycle.

Now begins the second half of my trip, split into the eras BP and AP (Before and After Phil). I have a couple days more in Paris still. Continue below to read about the transition to time with Mike.

I got Mike settled in Ben's apartment and not too much later did Derek take us out for dinner again, this time to a Moroccan establishment with killer couscous and tajine. I loved this one. It isn't typical French cuisine, but if it's not baguettes, croque monsieurs, crȇpes, or steak frites, who needs it? Afterward, we stopped at the Galway again but only briefly, for we were waiting for an open mic night to start at a nearby bar. We met Juan and Valentine there, with whom we would reunite on our last evening in France. Very fun people and I hope to stay in touch with them. Initially upon striking up conversation with Valentine, I tried to play it off as if I could speak French, but the loud venue made it impossible to hear any speech that wasn't in my native language, not even simple phrases.

The standout performance of the night

Most of the rest of my time in Paris would be a more standard tourist's visit. Yes, this was my third time here, but I admit I do not remember too much. My other two visits to Paris were about ten years ago in high school afterall. So together with Mike and Ben we hit the Louvre, Notre Dame's interior, Sacré-Cœur, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and a few other worthwhile spots. I missed the Catacombs again; Mike got there when he returned to Paris later (his flight home was also via CDG), but I haven't yet heard from him what he thought of it.

Paris' Panthéon

It's so cool to see only one really tall building.

Le Petit Palais

Inside Notre Dame

The line to get in moves quickly

There it is!

It's missing something...

If I weren't already flabbergasted by the people I've found in Europe, I certainly was when I found out Rob from Tufts was doing his Eurotrip this summer and passed through Paris the same time as I. We both fenced épée at Tufts and I coached him in Tennessee at the Fencing Club Nationals a few years back. I also drove him to the hospital. That was a good time.

A bunch of us picnicked on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower. I brought my crew, and Rob brought his. The profiteers around the Eiffel Tower are extremely annoying, but I found out that if you flagrantly low-ball them, they will leave you alone.

Rob is making his trip with three of his friends from high school. Rob also tried to blog his trip. He only has a few posts up and the last one was a month ago - not sure if he has abandoned it but would be a quick read for anybody looking for a little more background. Take it as evidence that keeping a blog going on trips like this is very difficult.

...Friends! Derek, me, Ben, and Mike

More friends! Say hi to Rob.

Now take a look at some of my favorite things from the Louvre. Don't forget, this is THE most spacious art museum in the world. If you find it on gMaps, you can get a good sense of how monstrous the facility is. And then recognize that about a third of it is underground, invisible on the map.

Middle-eastern magic carpets

Parts of the old Louvre Palace/Fortress remain

French paintings

The colors of the ice and wind held my attention.

Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.

An Italian column of rams or goats or something similar.

Marble statues haven't gone anywhere, in case you were worried.

On our last night in Paris, we reunited with Juan and Valentine, our new friends from a couple nights prior. Derek had left for America by now, so hanging out with locals that could help us around town was splendid. We met near Moulin Rouge, picked up snacks, and made our way up the steep climb to Sacré-Cœur for the best view of the city. Sacré-Cœur is in itself one of my favorite buildings of this trip, but the view and joyous atmosphere make it all the better. You very well may want to pay the extra bit to get the extra height at the top of Sacré-Cœur, but it was closed by the time we arrived.

Looking southeast. The Eiffel Tower is out of view to the right.

My favorite look at Sacré-Cœur

We spent all night talking about our cultures and weird idioms and travelling, in a hodgepodge of near-perfect English and terrible French. Ben definitely has me beat, but even combined our comprehension is slow. Mike started to pick up on a few words and phrases. "Ça!" This was another night I won't forget, similar to Santorini yet unique its own way. 

Our night ended outside the Paris opera house. Hope to see you again, Juan and Valentine!

This post is a day late off of the plan I laid out for all you readers out there. I had a busy weekend watching The International 2017, the number one e-sports tournament in all of e-sports. Congratulations to Team Liquid for their miraculous run through the loser's bracket, dousing fears that a Chinese team might win two years in a row. Not on their watch, even with three of the top four finishers being eastern! They take home over $10 million, out of a prize purse of $25 million. Wish I were better at Dota. Maybe next year.

DISREGARD FEMALES; ACQUIRE CURRENCY