Journeys for Knowledge

It must appear quite bizarre that after all this time in England, I haven’t made even one trip across the Channel to explore Europe.  Unlike many of my fellow students who are using the term break to travel around, I do not have the luxury to leave lab as easily. Still, I put plans in motion to visit Paris for a concert all the way back in November, now finally coming to fruition.

In order to make my early train to Paris, I first had to get down to London. This required me to wake up at 3am so I could get the first train to London at 4:30. After a quick breakfast I boarded my second train which would whisk me away to France, just as the sun was rising. The ride itself was fairly uneventful, I mostly caught up on sleep. I awoke to find a bright sunny day awaiting me, as we zoomed past rolling green and yellow fields. These were not the deep green hills of England, but a drier lighter variant much like the Bay Area hills in springtime.

Upon arriving in Paris, I proceeded to find the quickest exit and get lost in the city. I had 2 hours before the concert began, so that would be enough time to explore a little while and pick up lunch. The first location I stumbled upon was the Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, which overlooked a busy intersection and a small park. I decided I should make my way to the Seine River, passing through alleyways and the theatre district where my concert would be held. It turned out the concert hall also doubled as a movie theatre, a rather amusing and encouraging sign of old establishments adapting to the times.

As I reached the river, I noticed out in the distance was the Eiffel tower, almost teasing me with just how much of Paris was left to explore. While that would have to wait for another time, I did find the Louvre was right around the corner. Of course there wasn’t enough time to even begin to explore that museum, so I simply looked around the estate before making my way back to Le Grand Rex for the concert.

The concert was for orchestrated music from the Japanese anime show One Piece, which has been airing for 15 years. It was an absolute treat to not only hear this music performed live, but to have the composer of the music himself conduct the orchestra. As overly passionate as anime fans can be, it does make for a wonderful experience to feel that emotion all around in a concert hall. We already have headphones and earbuds people to isolate themselves at work and on the street. If you’re going to join to a large group of people to listen to music projected from speakers, why would you want to isolate yourself within the music?

The concert ended around 5pm, which gave me just enough time to have a simple dinner of bread and cheese before taking my train back to London. I didn’t need to sleep anymore, but I made a substantial amount of progress on my reading. By the time I finally did get home, it was 11pm, 23 hours after I had gotten up. Not my longest day by far, but certainly a busy and fulfilling one.

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