Didn't someone once call this the city of light? Today I realized just how right they were.
First of all, the most obvious reason, the way the city looks lit up at night. It's rather like... and I hesitate to go here because it's just too much... but really it's kind of like a field of fireflies. Not like the blasting neon nighttime of Manhattan, instead it's left half shaded, more than half. There are little streets in the Latin quarter lit by the yellow lights coming from the cafes. And on the quais this yellow light comes from the lamps as well and sparkles on the water. The facade of Notre Dame at night is, by contrast, as white as ivory, matched only by the pyramid at the Louvre on Fridays when the museum is open late. And of course the sparkling achievement is the Eiffel Tower. When it does it's thing once an hour, it's a breathtaking display of loveliness and light.
But there's more to it than that.
In the late 19th century, one Baron Haussmann and his trusty team completely renovated this city, tearing down thousands of buildings and building as many new ones, and all of them were built the same, in white stone. I don't really know all the details of Parisian architecture, but it seems like almost all the buildings in this city look the same or at least closely related to these large, white, and powerful batiments.
It took me a long time to adjust to seeing the same building over and over again all day long. Not that they really are all the same, it just looks that way to someone who has lived in the land of disposable advertisements on every square inch of structure all her life. It seemed so blank. I even thought it funerary for a while. But now I understand... they're not tombstones, they're canvasses! If you look, you see that no building is ever just white. In fact, they change color every minute of the day. I'm not being romantic, this is a fact. Maybe I only realized it because I've been working in the theatre forever and tend to notice when something is lavendar or amber instead of white. Thus, a building that at 2 is grey and green with the reflections of the trees is, at 8 or 9, lavender with the sunset reflecting off the Seine. Right now there is a thunderstorm going on outside, and the buildings are positively yellow.
This is something you really have to experience for yourself. If you ever come to Paris, there's a little park on the far west side of l'ile de la Cite, across the street from the back garden of Notre Dame. Sit there, facing west, and watch the sun set. It doesn't even matter if it's a brilliant example of all a sunset should be.
And here are a few examples of what I'm talking about, though they can hardly do the experience justice:
First of all, see? The buildings look like... oh no wait, those are tombstones.
But seriously, this is the first day I realized that the light in Paris
would make a designer wet him or herself.
Notre Dame on a late winter afternoon...
... Notre Dame on a Spring evening, about 10:30 at night.
The Sunset in my neighborhood.
I KNOW, RIGHT?!?!
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