The City of Lights

We arrived in Paris having had little sleep because of the aforementioned train. After a lot of confusion over the fact that there is both a Rue de Vaurigard and a Boulevard de Vaurigard in close proximity, we navigated to our hostel and arranged for them to keep our packs until check-in time. 

We had plenty of time before we could check in, so we went exploring. Paris has an easy to use metro system [albeit in French] so we had no trouble getting to the Eiffel Tower. We noticed that as you got closer to the tower, the average density of scam artists increased dramatically. We saw hundreds of vendors trying to sell knock-off souvenirs to tourists (and they all had the exact same merchandise so I can't imagine any of them were very successful). At one point, a guy came up to me and asked me to "model for him" while he started to draw me in a sketchbook. I refused, saying that I didn't have any money to pay, but he was quite insistent that I didn't have to pay unless I liked it. Eventually we just walked away. 

The Tower itself was great. We took the stairs up to the first floor (308 or something like that by my count) and admired the view. Look on my Facebook for pics if you want to see what we saw. We then took the stairs to the second floor (around 320) which is the highest you can go on foot. We identified all the important monuments - the Louvre, Arc de Triomph, the Obelisk, etc. Then we took the elevator back down since we didn't feel like walking. 

After that, we went over to Notre Dame, home of the famed Hunchback. We didn't go inside because there was a huuuuge line, but it was cool to see it from the outside. 

While crossing a bridge near Notre Dame, we noticed that one side of it had hundreds of padlocks affixed to it with the names of lovers on them. I had never heard of this tradition before, but I figured it was to symbolize their everlasting love or w/e. 

We went back to the hostel and crashed for the night. Nuit Blanche (literally "white night" but actually means "sleepless night") was that night but David didn't have nearly enough energy to go out. Nuit Blanche is a citywide celebration of the arts in Paris, FYI. 

The next day, we went to see the Louvre. It happened to be the first Sunday of the month, which is the only day the Louvre is free. How convenient! We saw the famous glass pyramid and the matching inverse pyramid before navigating to the Mona Lisa. The painting was surprisingly small - since Guernica in Spain had taken up an entire wall, I had expected this famous painting to be a bit larger. 

Aside from the Mona Lisa, I don't have anything else to say about the Louvre. I'm not an art person :P

When we exited the Louvre, we noticed that the Louvre, the Obelisk, and the Arc de Triomph were almost perfectly in line with each other, so we decided to walk towards the other attractions. The Obelisk was interesting, but far more worthy of note were the people who approached us. They told us they were from UNICEF and needed our signature on a petition for handicapped rights or something like that. We signed just to make them go away - and then they started asking for money. Loudly. The Donation column had been covered up when we had signed, but now we could see that each person had donated 20€. They got quite agitated when we refused, and tried to tell us that we had to give them something. Deciding enough was enough, we walked away, figuring that they were definitely not from UNICEF. 

The Arc de Triomph is a lot farther from the Louvre than it looks. We walked for a good hour before we got there. We crossed under the world's busiest intersection (8 main roads opening onto a rotary) to get to the Arc. There was what looked like an eternal flame lit, surrounded by flowers. We weren't quite sure what it was for though. 

This is a good place to tell you about the food in Paris. I've really enjoyed waking up every morning and getting a warm croissant and chocolate bread from a nearby bakery. And the crepes are great. I've had one with Nutella, one with butter and sugar, and one with a hazelnut spread. The only one I didn't like was the hazelnut - all the others were great. 

We went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower for sunset that evening and watched the lights of Paris go on as the sun went down. It was a beautiful sight, and eventually the Tower itself was lit with lights. 

We went down to the bottom and waited for 9:00. Every hour, on the hour, the Tower sparkles with thousands of small white lights. You really have to see it to appreciate the sight, though. 

That concluded the interesting portion of our trip to Paris. The only other noteworthy event was the discovery that there were even more types of meat chips in France! In Spain, we found ham chips. In France, we found bacon, chicken, chorizo, and steak chips. :D I tried the bacon and steak ones and loved them both. What a fantastic idea. 

We said goodbye to Paris and continued on to meet some of David's family...which I will talk about in another post. 

Overall, I enjoyed Paris. Especially the food. :D

< Derek >