French Impressions

Paris was once described to me as the ultimate de je vue experience. There is so much we know about the city from movies and other forms of media that if we set foot in the place, hypothetically, it should feel like we have been there before. Mid-June I put my Pepe Le Pew Loony Tunes knowledge to the test, and went to see if my pre-concieved notions of Paris were accurate. Naturally, I found some were very close, and some were not.
The ones that were not: Strawberry Parfait was supposed to be more common in Paris than snotty-nosed kids at play school, or so I thought. But I did not find an abundance of this ice cream dish during my exploration. The lack of beret wearing was a bit disappointing as well, the only people wearing berets were clearly tourists, and not some avande garde artists smoking cigars.
The things that were: The Eiffel tower was more than I expected. I don't think I would readily spend several hours queing for my turn to get to the top of the tower again, but I was impressed by the beauty of the tower's architecture, and the view of the city from the top was breathtaking. The Louvre was amazing as well, and it made me happy to walk through a sliver of it.
Something I had no pre-concieved notions about, and that made an impression on me was the Metro, Paris' underground transportaion system. I found it all to be a bit surreal- the weak ultraviolet lights doing little to cheer up the grey tone in the belly of the subway train. The greasy poles that you have to hang onto to maintain your balance (and to keep you from falling over and taking out all the people in front of you), and the smell around you, which is a mixture of the smell of perfume and people whose daily hygene ritual doesn't always necessarily include showering.