I can call myself happy, as my greatest dream come true. When I was 10, I first saw the movie “Amelie” and in a blink of an eye fell in love with this city. This golden dream had been chasing me since then, and finally, at the age of 17, I visited the capital of France. Even though many times I imagined the smell of the city, the way it sounds and the overall feelings I would have, I would never have wondered how thrilling it would be and how would it differ from my initial expectations.
Medieval Paris
The Châteaux of the Loire Valley got a strong impression on me. I visited two castles: Chinon and Blois. Both of them came to be a stunning masterpiece of architecture. When I was wandering around them, it seemed to me that I am in the Middle Ages and during my walk, I was pondering about what was there before, what were the people like, what they were talking about. It appeared to me that the mighty and at the same time graceful castle walls hid a mystery, which unfortunately they were bound to keep silent about.
Something beckoned me to enter inside. I could not resist the temptation to immerse in the atmosphere of the Medieval period. Rooms, halls, and stairs in the Royal Châteaux de Blois — all of them made me feel bewildered. One of the chambers, which turned out to be the most typical part of any medieval castle, represented a grandiose room full of fresh air and the smell of hay (Cullum 227). Wooden shutters there conserved, though poorly, the heat inside the building. The leaf was not tightly splined, so there was a persistent clutter, which reminded of the triumphant drumbeat. In fact, people started to glaze the windows with green-white glass after the 13th century. Before this period, only the King or the rich noblemen could afford it. The floor in the hall was slatted, and the walls were covered up with the tapestry. Each Gobelin revealed a separate masterpiece of art. The whole atmosphere of the chamber made my heart tremble.
I would be eager to live in that century. Apart from the spectacular castles they had in the Medieval Period, I tend to believe that the humanity used to be more humane. One may say that such novels as “Ivanhoe” and “Lancelot-Grail” could delude me. However, I would say that literature is the depiction of a daily life. Thus, if most of the novels in the Medieval Ages talked about morals and virtues, people in this period apparently validated and tried to correspond them.
The Night Views
I was dreaming to see Paris at night, and I did it. The image was unforgettable: the city was full of flames and resembled a merry-go-round in the park where I used to walk when I was a child. The Eiffel Tower irrevocably intensified this impression. At ten o’clock, it started to glow from head to toe, and there was no limit for my exaltation. As far as I am concerned, the best view in Paris is on the top of the Tower. It is 180 meters high, so the whole panorama was figuratively on my palm, and I could see every part of the city (La Tour Eiffel).
Conclusion
Finally, I have never thought that the trip to Paris would make me remain indifferent. However, I did not expect to see what I saw there. This city turned out to be overwhelmingly divergent. Apart from the image that the director of the film I once saw created, the capital of France looks like a blanket, which contains many pieces from different stories and centuries.
Works Cited
“The Floors: What You Must See at the Eiffel Tower.” La Tour Eiffel, 2017. Web.
Cullum, George W. “The Valley of the Loire and Its Historic Chateaux.” Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, vol. 15, 1883, pp. 215-256.