J'Adore Paris!

The train to Paris was pretty uneventful, except that we sat across from a deaf woman who I think had some problems and seemed very nice. We couldn't understand her at all, though, and she didn't try to speak to us very much. She was labeling photos of a baby and I got the impression that she was separated from her kid(s) and not happy about it. I thought maybe she had to give them up for some reason. She was very odd and made lots of strange noises. There also was a toddler girl with her dad, and she and I made faces at each other for a while. She was very cute. We got to Gare du Lyon and tried to buy a book of subway tickets, as Rick Steves had told us to do. The machine wouldn't take any of our credit cards, despite the Visa and MasterCard logos, and we were very frustrated and kept trying probably for too long. We got in the line to ask for them from a person and still we rent sure what we were doing. We bought two books (carnets) which is 20 tickets, because its much cheaper that way. Then we set about trying to understand the 14 lines of the Paris subway system. We took the 1 to the 2 to the 3 (yes i know this sounds like a 90's rap song) and found our hotel, at the end of the 3 line at the Gallieni stop. We waited to get checked in, and went to our room. We were spoiled in Provence, but this room was totally adequate and all our own. We relaxed for a few minutes and then I assessed the food situation.

During the course of this trip, I have discovered a new quirk of mine. I am obsessed with the food. I think its because I want to know we aren't wasting anything, but I am constantly taking inventory and I really like it when all the food is in one place. Because we had gone to the grocery store in Avignon, we had a bag with all the food in it, instead of having things shoved into pockets in our various bags. I organized everything in the top shelf of the little wardrobe and made a kitchen. I was extremely happy about this. I am a nut. We ate a snack in order to prepare ourselves to go out and look for lunch (yes, we are that bad). We had discussed in great length the merits of getting the Museum pass and for how many days etc. Its not cheap but we thought it would be worth it. We hadn't really figured it out, but decided to do things that weren't on the pass so as to not waste a day. So we took the subway to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. We walked around there for a bit and found a cool place for lunch. It was the oldest restaurant in Montmartre, and we had the menu for about ten euro. They only had one french onion soup left, so we shared it and a salad. It was amazing! Then we had roast chicken with potatoes (french fries really) and desert. I had creme caramel and Jane had apple pie. We were stuffed. We continued walking up the hill to Sacre Coeur. The area has long been an artists place, and we wandered around and looked at all the art the artists were showcasing in the square. I remembered being there when I came to Paris in high school and how taken I was with it and how amazing and Parisian it seemed. HA. It was still really pretty and cool, and I remembered the cafe where I went 8 years ago. We wandered around and found the view of the Eiffel tower and then went to the Sacre Coeur. The Sacre Coeur is a five domed Roman-Byzantine church that was built from 1875-1919. Apparently its made of gypsum, which whitens with age, and they had to sink pillars 130 feet deep to build it because of the gypsum mines below. That's pretty much where the interesting things stop. The place is cool from the outside and indeed, very white. But we went inside and it was GOD AWFUL. In my humble opinion, of course. Just wait till you see pictures. Or better yet google image the interior of that thing. JEEZ. So tacky. There is a giant modern Jesus mosaic in the front that is just ridiculous and the whole thing is FILLED with candles and boxes asking for money and signs asking for money and everything. I just found it to be NOT holy at all and totally gross. But maybe it caught me on a bad day, because I don't remember feeling that way before. Or maybe we didn't go in then. In any case, we checked it out and went and sat on the steps to figure out a plan. It was HOT and we were seriously over dressed for that, since we were used to the crazy wind in Provence. There was a musician playing fun songs on the lower steps to a crowd so we sat for a few minutes and watched. Then we made our way down the hill.

We had seen cheap internet (2 euro an hour) so we found a place and I blogged for an hour or so. We decided we could walk to the Eiffel Tower eventually, stopping along the way and going by way of the Champs-Elysee. We walked for a really long time with Jane at the map. We stopped on the steps of L'Opera, which is grandiose and impressive but only seats about 2000 people, and about which I did my ninth grade french monument report. We dodged cars and kept walking toward Place de la Concorde, which had something going on, because there were sections blocked off and lots of guards. Place de la Concorde is one of the biggest centers in Paris, I think, and it is at the other end of the Champs-Elysee from the Arch de Triumph. We went from there through a park toward the Eiffel tower. We walked and walked and never really saw the thing. Jane kept telling me it was right in front of me, but we couldn't see it. And Rick Steves had said that you see it approaching and it gets huge. Clearly we were coming from a different angle. We stopped in the University district and had Sushi for the first time on the trip. What a treat! I was a disaster, and we really needed to sit. We didn't get much food and knew we would have to have dinner later, but it kept us going. We kept walking and turned a corner and FINALLY it was there. Rick Steves had said to go in the evening and stay till nightfall, and we met that goal. We had to wait in a long line to buy tickets to take the stairs, but they were cheaper and the line was shorter than for the elevator. We walked up and up to the first platform, where I had to pee, and then we kept going to the second platform. I wasn't scared really at all, just a tiny bit walking up. I was happy about this fact, because I had totally psyched myself up about it. Its 900 feet in the air for God's sake! But the second platform was very comfortable and the view was, as promised, breath taking. Paris is so beautiful. We took a bunch of pictures and caught the sun start to set before we bought our second ticket to go to the tippy top. This involved a transparent elevator (eek) that zips you up to the top. I was totally freaked watching everything whiz by, but was ok once we got up there. Initially, the platform is completely enclosed and feels a bit like a submarine. Then you take a staircase up and you are in the open. I was seriously not scared at all. The darkness started to fall as we continued to oooh and ahh and take pictures and find all the sights. We were waiting for the lights to come on in the tower it self and to see the City of Light turn on. It was AMAZING to be up there. Its so beautiful and it doesn't get old and I was so happy that I could enjoy it. Every hour there is a light show for 10 minutes where the Eiffel Tower sparkles and comes to life. We waited for that to happen and all sorts of cheering went on from down below. We wandered around taking pictures and went down to the second level to find something to eat at the cafe and take more pictures. We got ham and cheese baguettes with butter, and they were amazing. The Tower was really crowded and we had been fighting for spots for picture taking so we were ready to go. Part of me never wanted to go down though! We had been up there for hours, so we started our walk down. People were lined up forever to take the elevator down and I thought maybe they didn't allow the stairs down, but I think people just didn't think of it or are super lazy. We were happy because we had no line at all. So we tromped down stairs (it felt longer going down) and arrived back on earth.

While we were up on the tower, there were tons of people yelling and celebrating below. We decided to check out what was going on. We walked through the park at the bottom of the tower and there were tons of people partying and cheering on some kind of drumming. We wandered through and couldn't really figure it out. The police seemed to be fine with it, but were definitely a presence, and there didn't seem to be anything to look at or celebrate. Jane lost her sunglasses, but I found them on the bench we sat on, and we went back into the crowd and some boys talked to us. We found out that school had just gotten out for summer and once a year the kids are allowed to party outside. That explained the wasted hoards for apparently no reason. So once we found the sunglasses we wandered away from the party and got a great view of the tower at night. We worked on finding a Metro stop while we waited for one last light show from the ground. It was fun. We started walking around looking for the metro. We couldn't find it, however, and walked all over the place. We knew that it stopped running at about 12:30, which is why we made sure to come down from the tower early enough. Finally we found an RER station (the suburban train) with a map and realized that everything was closed. We were exhausted since we walked all through Paris and travel days are always a little rough. We were talking about walking home but it was some crazy distance like more than 10 miles. A local person told us to take a cab and that there was a cab stand across the bridge around the corner. So we did. We were pretty pissed at the situation. We had figured we would have to take a cab if we wanted night life, but we were really frustrated that it had to be our first night when we had tried to end early. It cost us 20 euro, which is a lot of money, and we were pretty cranky about it. But we definitely couldn't have walked, no matter how intrepid and nuts we are.

The next day, I woke up super cranky, and we hemmed and hawed about the museum pass again. There are two or four day passes and they aren't cheap, so we were doing the math and trying to figure out what to get and if we were going to Versailles one day etc. They let you skip lines, so it was worth it. We took the metro to a stop near the Louvre, and got a ham and cheese and butter baguette from a cafe window. It was great, again, and I got less cranky. We went across the street to the tourism office and got our pass, after yet more discussion. Then onto the Louvre.

We tried to follow the self guided tour in the Rick Steves book, but we got a little confused. We didn't want to waste time on things that weren't going to impact us, so we skimmed through the ancient Greek and roman works, and got to the Winged Victory (my favorite). We took some pictures and then went back down through the sculpture section to find the Venus de Milo. There were lots of really beautiful and interesting sculptures (including more slaves by Michelangelo) and we went nuts taking pictures. We had some great ideas about what to do with them when we get home, so we took a lot. Then we found the Venus de Milo. I find her to be less impressive than other pieces but apparently shes a big deal because most "Greek" work were actually Roman copies, but she is the real Greek deal, so to speak. We made our way up to the painting wing (and toward the cafe) to the Mona Lisa. She had been moved since I was here last, and you couldn't get as close. Good for Jane to see. On the way, we had found the other DaVinci paintings in the main hall and learned about them. Particularly interesting is the John the Baptist painting where he is totally androgynous. We finished the paintings so that we could get a cup of coffee and sit down. We found the cafe and had a wonderful, if over priced 5 euro cappuccino on the balcony terrace of the Louvre palace. It was a really nice break. We went back down, after absolving ourselves from seeing the other wing of the museum, and took a couple more pictures of some sculptures we missed and then went to the triangles that hang down in the lobby of the shopping mall. We wanted to do a triangle in front of the triangle. Jane pulled on some shorts and we scoped out people we could ask. I chose wrong, picking a nice Polish couple with little English, but it worked ok. French people are funny, I don't think they thought anything of it. Jane's sunglasses fell off her head then and we never were able to retrieve them, though we did go back and try. We were very tired and in need of food, so we walked through the gardens of the Louvre toward the Champs-Elysees. It took a little while to get to the part with stores and restaurants, but we made it. We started looking for something to eat that wouldn't break the bank, which is silly on the Champs-Elysees. We ordered french onion soup and split a salad. It was ok. The woman next to us was Parisian and was very interesting. She said Paris used to be nicer but now its just like anywhere else. She was moving to the country soon, but once from Paris, always from Paris, she said. She gave us some hints of things to do, which we were very happy about.

After dinner (or lunch) we walked up to the Arch de Triumph. We figured out (after a few minutes) that you had to go underground to get over there, which was good because it sits in a traffic circle of hell that all cars in Paris seem to spin around and you would probably get killed trying to cross. We figured out the statues on the sides and gawked a little before going up. Like the Eiffel Tower, I hadn't been up close with the Arch on my earlier trip. We climbed up and saw the little museum inside about the arch and other Arch's across Europe. We got to the top and took some pictures and watched the traffic circle below. It was nice and it didn't even occur to me that I was high up (it wasn't very high, to be fair, but Jane is impressed and thinks I have conquered my phobia). We looked down the Champs Elysee and saw a storm coming, fast. A bad one too. We ran down for cover (with everyone else, of course) and waited out the downpour under the arch. We were hoping to see the Eiffel Tower get hit by lighting (I think that happens sometimes and its ok), but it didn't, and the storm passed. We RUSHED to the Haagen-Daz restaurant, afraid it was only a break in the rain. The puddles where huge and the polished side walks slick! It was fun. Lindsey had said we had to get Haagan -Daz in Paris, that it was amazing. So we said go big or go home and went to the 4 floor one on the most expensive street in the western world (I'm making that up but it could be right). We wandered around trying to figure out the system (bathrooms and cafe that was closed on level -1, take away and outdoor seating on level 0, nice tea room and "ice cream restaurant" on level 1 and some kind of "ice bar" on level 2. We sat outside under the umbrellas and ordered some ridiculous sundaes. The whole affair took a LONG time (ordering, waiting for the food and then the check) but it was fun and felt very decadent). There were nice Brazilian girls next to us and we took pictures for each other. It never did pour again, and we were done, so we found our way to the metro and took the subway home.

The next day we got a late start because I was tired. I had been up in the night from 4:30 to 6:30 or something. We went back to the opera metro stop and got a GREAT pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant, with REAL chocolate, WAY better than in Italy) but the bakery didnt have coffee so we stopped at a cafe window right next to the museum for Coffee. We stood in front of the Orsay drinking it before we went in (eating and drinking fast is NOT Janes forte). We finally went in and got going and it was already 10 or 11. We followed the map and did ALL the rooms, which are organized chronologically. By the end of the first floor, Jane was dragging me through early impressionism. We really wanted to finish that floor before lunch. We found the bathrooms and the cheapest food option and got - you guessed it, baguette sandwhiches. Jane got tuna though and we traded halves. Ham and cheese was better. After resting our feet we tackeled the other two floors of the museum with increasing swiftness. We all but skipped the Objet D'Art. There was a cool model of L'Opera, which was bisected and you could see all the rooms and stuff. There was also a model of the area it was built under the floor that you could see. The impressionists were great. We saw some serious Monets and what have you. Degas dancer, also. She is everywhere.

After the Orsay, we went over to the Latin Quarter to see the Saint Chappelle and try to do some of the Historic Core of Paris walk in the Rick Steves book. We were VERY tired, and there was a huge line at the Saint Chappelle, so we stopped at a crappy cafe and grabbed a crepe so we could rest. We were really tired and the crepe wasnt very good or very filling. We looked through the book and made a plan to visit the Jewish Neighborhood and get the "best falafel in town" for dinner and look around the supposedly neat neighborhood, Marais. We wandred toward the Pompidou, which is right nearby and looked in some shops. Apparently Marais is also the gay hub, and the Pride Day was the next day, so everything was very rainbowy and fun. We saw lots of sushi restaruants and thai food and interesting things that didnt look super expensive. We stopped at a shop with Nepali inspired things and tried on a bunch of stuff, I got two really fun sparkly scarves. It was super exciting, Ive been wanting something like that. By the time i finally decided what to get, we were pretty much starving, so we tried to find the Falafel place but had a very hard time. The Jewish Quarter used to be the biggest in Europe, but now its essentially just one little road that is very tucked away. It was on the crease on our map, which was ripping, and Jane had a terrible time getting us there. Eventually we made it and skipped the big take away line in favor of sitting down to eat. We got the falafel special which they hand to you in a paper wrapper. It consists of a pita filled with veggies and slaw and eggplant and falafel and this good sauce. It was quite tasty, but didnt fill us up as much as Rick Steves claimed. Next we tried to do more shopping, but didnt really have the right vibe, so we wandered back toward Notre Dame. Around the Notre Dame are lots of street venders, and I bought some renditions of Paris at one of them when I came in high school. I wanted to get another this time, but we looked and got overwhlemed. This was the day after Michael Jackson died, and there were TONS of people swarming the square in front of the Notre Dame. They were circling around people doing MJ dances and holding up flags. Many people all over were wearing fedoras, and some had one glove on. Some even had written on themselves professing their love for the King of Pop. It was really interesting and we stayed to figure it out and take pictures. It was too hard to see much though, so we left and headed toward St. Michel or St. Germain-Des-Pres, whichever we could find, to see the city of light at night.

Right next to the Notre Dame was St. Michel, and we stopped to see some really good breakdancing street performers. Then we walked down the road, but didnt really know what to do. It seemed really expensive, and although we were getting hungrier, we didnt stop. We decided night life wasnt looking likely, but we'd check out the Luxembourg Garden (someone had recommended it to us) because it seemed sorta near by. We walked for a while and found it to be closed (we sort of expected that) and then decided to start heading home. We talked about getting a desert or something but Jane wasnt as hungry as I was and so it didnt happen. We were within site of the Pantheon, so we decided to look at it, just in case we didnt get back there later. It was big and had a good view of the Eiffel Tower, but we couldnt see much at night and I was pretty much a raging bitch at that point. So home we went, on the metro. At the hotel, I ate digestive cookies with nutella. It helped.