If an American is to truly visit Paris, and by visiting I mean enjoying most every waking moment in the city, it is probably a good idea to have a good twenty four hours on the front end just to lie in the hotel room and sleep. I’m sure other activities would be acceptable too, as long as they are all done in the hotel room and are accompanied by massive quantities of sleep. The trip across the pond was tremendously draining, much more so than anticipated. And even though we both have consumed significant quantities of bottled water, it seems that we both are still dehydrated. Not sure why, but, suffice it to say we overcame the sleepiness and physical blahs this morning with three Advil apiece, and the ultimate tonic for what ails you:
That, mes amis, is a chocolate eclair, which bears a striking resemblance in this photo to doo doo. But, let me assure you, it tasted like pure heaven. So much so, that tomorrow, this Parisian vacationer plans on consuming the large version of this exact treat. Yum. And yes, I know all of you know about Kathy’s gluten challenges, but she threw caution to the wind and chucked down one of these puppies herself. Sometimes, a girl has just got to live!
Afterwards, we decided to straggle to a cafe for some, well….. cafe. Since it as almost lunchtime (see my first paragraph about sleeping, people), we decided to augment our cafe with some food. I had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, which was 45% cheese (awesome!), 45% bread, and 10% ham. Kathy enjoyed an omelet and we decided to skip the French Fries (don’t laugh, they call them that here) and had salad as our side item.
On Monday, we went for the Eiffel Tower and Invalides, primarily an historical venture. Today, we decided to go for more of a Parisian Touristy flavor. We took the Metro ($5) over to the Cite Island, the location of Notre Dame. The Cite Island is surrounded by the Seine River on both sides. Here’s a picture of the Sun Goddess (French reference anyone, five brownie points for the linkage) by the Seine.
Then we strolled on over to Notre Dame. Un. Be. Leave. Able. That church is awesome. Let me just say that the Catholics had it going on (when it came to architecture) in the middle ages. Originally, the plan was just to take photos of the outside, but we decided to move on to the inside after taking a few exterior photos. Here’s a gander of the outside and the inside.
The picture to the right shows some of the gargoyles hanging over the edge of the cathedral. Seven brownie points if you comment on the purpose of the gargoyles.
Once inside, the beauty and majesty of the construction was clearly evident. Given a modern man’s exposure to things of engineering marvel, one can only imagine what it would have been like to step in this cathedral as a person from the middle ages.
On our way in to the cathedral a couple of curious things happened. First, the couple in front of us were turned away from access to the cathedral because the woman was wearing a top that left her shoulders uncovered. She did not have a sweater or other covering and thus was not allowed to enter. Evidently, Jesus is offended by shoulders. Who knew! Also, the couple in front of us had this bag that had a butterfly on it. I’m sure that the butterfly was completely unrelated to their inability to enter Notre Dame, but Kathy told me to take the picture anyway.
Once Notre Dame was scratched off of the list, we decided to stroll around and look at souvenir options for all the folks back home. The area of town that we were in is known as the Latin Quarter. Not sure why that is, but maybe it has something to do with the priests of the church who spoke Latin. Or maybe it has something to do with Ricky Martin. Just not sure. But what we did find is that this area is definitely where the Americans spend much of their time. Check this out:
Claire’s.
Subway (eat fresh)
Starbucks.
The Golden Arches.
And there were more…. lots more. KFC, Benetton, The Gap, Sephora…. like a little outdoor Parisian USA Mall. So up and down the road we went. The atmosphere was very quaint, and well, French. But, after a while, we needed a break. We found a small pizzeria where we could get us a pint, apiece.
Kathy wanted to play quarter Euros, but I told her there were plenty of times for drinking games, we had much touristing left to accomplish. She eventually agreed and we proceeded on to our next adventure – the Sorbonne.
One of Kathy’s (and evidently, many people’s) visions of France is all about the food and the chocolate. So, we set out to find a specific chocolatier. And no, it’s not Willy Wonka. On the way, we found another Starbucks.
We also ran across a theatre (excuse moi, Cinema) where Kathy and I (mostly I) pondered the translation of Tim McGraw into French.
And, just in case you were wondering, it is official!!! Whew!! Glad the French have given us their approval!
We eventually found our chocolatier, and bad boy that I am didn’t take any pictures. About this time, I decided to get us back on the Metro (another $5) and head on up to Montmartre for a look at Sacre Coeur – another old Catholic Church.
We headed north on the number four line. During our trip up north on the number four line I discovered that the 4 Days in Paris guidebook that we purchased actually had the Metro stations on each different tourist section. It was at this point I realized that we were probably in for a small hike up Montmartre – but I had no idea. Once we exited the Metro station, we made our way to the west, through several small side streets to arrive at a massive set of concrete stairs between two buildings. Literally, one hundred vertical feet of stairs. Kathy was trooper and only complained a little as we hoofed it up the stairs to come up on the back side of Sacre Coeur. Translate Sacre Coeur and you get two brownie points.
This staircase to the left is not the one mentioned before. It is the second – much smaller – set of stairs. To the right: Sacre Coeur.
All of a sudden, to our amazement, a French commando unit (machine guns and all) come jogging around the church toward us. Stunned – Kathy said to one of them “Bon Jour” – to which the commando replied: “Bon Jour”.
We followed from whence they came, and we found the tourist side of the church. We sat on the steps and marveled at the Parisian skyline for awhile – and then moseyed on down the hill and sat in the grass for awhile (at this point, our feet were tired). Here’s some photos of the amazing view.
I think it’s important for all of you to know that we had a less strenuous alternative, a tram, which would have carried us up the side of the hill:
But, it cost $5. Can you believe that?? $5!!! So, we saved the money and hoofed it up the stairs.
On the way back to the crib, a little Parisian randomness:
Left: kids playing airsoft in the streets, without regard to anyone else around.
Right: Yellow, old-fashioned punch buggy. Massive points. I got the cheese squeeze.
Left: KFC. In Paris. Because this is a rated G blog, I’ll only say: just wow.
Right: Hello Kitty is extremely popular here.
Back near the crib, I made the executive decision (after evaluating the situation, circumstances and general vibe I was getting from my company) that we’d head to the room and take a nap. After a brief rest, we capped the night off with Pizza and a bottle of wine. Notice there is no “after” picture for Kathy. With the eclair and the pizza, she is rolling the dice on the gluten, but like I said, a girl’s gotta live!
We had hoped to go out of the box with a wine and food tasting tour, but were unable to secure the reservation. Tomorrow, we plan to head to the Louvre for a few hours – then maybe cruise over to the Bastille section. Once we wrap that up, we’ll rest up for dinner at the Eiffel Tower. Whew! It’s been lots of fun.
Thanks so much to my sister Joy who transitioned with the children at our house from yesterday to tonight and to my aunt Debra who is making sure they make it through the night – and of course, to Rachel – who has duty from tomorrow morning until our arrival home on Thursday night. Bon soir, mes amis.