Paris and Sunshine

Aah. We stepped off the train in Paris to the most glorious sight and feeling. Sunshine.  After feeling cold and damp for so many days, the warmth and brightness it offered was more than welcome.  No matter that we'd wait in line for an hour to figure out transportation and where our hotel was, because it was beautiful outside.  By the time we made it to our hotel that evening (it was quite far from city center), we were about 12 types of tired, so decided to rest a bit.  This turned into a 2 hour nap. We had only booked one night in Paris, but by the time we arrived wanted another night. Of course, the hotel was booked for the following evening so the lady at the front desk offered us information on one of their sister hotels closer to the city.  Except then we'd be paying the full/regular price, which was about 115 euro a night (which would totally not be worth it at this hotel, as we'd learned).  Of course, internet was 8 euro an hour here. That's like 12 bucks... but finally we broke down because we figured it would save us more in the long run.  Funny, we actually found a room available for the same hotel we were in, the one that was "fully booked," using hotels.com.  We went out for dinner that evening to a Chinese restaurant in the little town we were staying in.  It was fun ordering because the waiter spoke very little English.  There was definitely a bridge to cross in the language barrier.  We did some sink laundry when we got back and crashed early that night because we knew we had a busy day ahead. It was a struggle to get out of bed the next morning.  All the traveling and going, going, going was apparently taking its toll, and we were tired.  But we finally managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get a move on.  We headed straight for the Louvre, the largest museum in the world.  And that is no understatement.  I could not believe the size of the place!  At only 10 euro a piece, it was also one of the less expensive museums we'd seen.  We listened to a bit of a Rick Steves' Audioguide, but exhibits had changed so they didn't really match up, although we did get to learn about a few of the more important pieces in the Denon wing of the museum.  We saw Mona (as in, the Mona Lisa), Winged Victory, and the Venus de Milo, among other beautiful paintings by such artists as Da Vinci and Rafael.  I was actually pretty museumed out after that, but Jon insisted we see as much as we could.  We wandered through various exhibits, including the Egyptian artifacts mostly, for at least another hour and a half, and we still had only seen probably half of the musuem.  It was so huge that I could barely understand the map!  For all my Florida friends, like the FunWorld commercials say, "IT'S HUGE!"

You've all seen the Mona Lisa, but have you seen the crowd that constantly surrounds her?

After the museum, we walked down the Champs de Elyssee towards the Arc du Triumph.  I thought about Gershwin's "An Americanin Paris."  People strolled and sat in chairs in the shade, with their feet propped on the fountains, laughing, drinking, loving life.  There were plentiful (and expensive) cafes along the way, but we found a carnival just off the main stretch and got some cheaper fair food.  I got my first real crepe with Nutella, oh my yumminess.  Jon risked it and got a steach hache sandwich, which was basically a sandwich with hamburger meat in it (we learned quickly that "steak" is not "steak" in France).  We continued down the street, people watching, and watching that Arc in the distance get closer and closer. It was hot, people.  Hotter than we were used to at this point, and we were both pretty sweaty.  But we finally made it to our destination, which was beautiful and big, but not the most impressive thing I've seen thus far. 


We got on the metro and headed towards the train station.  Blah.  That's how I've started feeling about trains stations, because every time we go to one something seems to go wrong.  These passes we got were supposed to make things easy for us, allow us to keep things flexible.  But as we'd learned in the past, you have to plan ahead for any and all reservation trains.  This situation was no different; we waited in the forever long line and were told that getting to Avignon in the South of France the next day was impossible because the trains were all booked.  GRRRR.  After some coaxing, the girl looked up alternate routes for us and we ended up being able to get to Avignon through Lyon, which also happened to double the reservation fees we had to pay because we were now taking 2 reservation trains.  Double GRRRR.  But I digress. After the train station dilemma, we took a break and got an ice-cold fountain Coke (with ice!) and some fries at France's
version of fast food called Quick!  Then we headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral.  Of course it had closed for the day, but we were able to get some great photos.  I couldn't help but think if Quasimodo was up in the bell tower watching us. 


We strolled some of the side streets then got back on the metro to go see the icon of Paris (or Pawee as Jon liked calling it), the Tour Eiffel.  I must say it was much larger than I expected (perhaps I'm just used to the small one at Epcot?).  The area around the tower was crowded with tourists and, more annoyingly, about 1,826 men selling mini Eiffel Tower statues and keychains. We were able to get some GREAT pics.  We sat in the grassy area near the tower as the sun went down and just took it all in. 


We wandered looking for a place to eat, but apparently had found the most expensive street in Paris, so guess where we ended up for dinner (at about 11:30 at night mind you)?  Quick! Again. But it was good comfort food, and still cost us over 20 US dollars. The next morning, we packed up and checked out of the hotel.  Our train didn't leave until late afternoon, so we had a bit more time to explore.  We headed to the grocery down the street from our hotel.  I'm pretty sure Jon thinks I'm crazy, but I love being in these stores.  I love looking at the different items they have, the prices of things compared to back at home, and to be completely honest, I miss grocery shopping and cooking and all those normal everyday things.  For example,
in France, the groceries were all about bread (and it's no cliche that you see women carrying about 8 baguettes with them on the street, because we did) and yogurt.  Walls and walls of yogurt!  we were bound and determined to find a picnic lunch that wouldn't break the bank, and ended up with a baguette, soft cheese for dipping, grapes, pears, and wine juice boxes.  No joke! Imagine slipping that into your child's lunch box on accident.

We headed to find a spot on the River Seine and set up our lunch, watching the tourist boats go by, with the cathedral as the perfect backdrop.  It was lovely just to hang out and chat, not rushing to be anywhere or do anything.  After lunch, we did walk back over to Notre Dame.  We wanted to climb up the towers and see the belfry, but we weren't allowed to bring our packs, so we had to go inside one at a time and that determined we wouldn't be climbing anything.  The inside was beautiful, but not my favorite on the list of churches we've seen.  I did enjoy, however, that around the outside of the altar were paintings that depicted stories from Jesus' lifetime.  It was a nice change to see Biblical stories depicted in a church, rather than just images and pietas.  After the cathedral, it was time to walk (a long way) to the train station.  Next up, Avignon, in Provence!