A walk through Paris

Despite falling asleep late, I got up at 8:00 and started quietly getting ready for the day. It didn’t take long before everyone was up though and we were all getting ready for a long day of adventuring. Unfortunately some time during the night the Wi-Fi stopped working, so once we were ready to go we didn’t have the ability to use google maps to figure out how to get to the places we wanted to go. By this point we were pretty used to not having internet though, so it didn’t come as too much of a surprise and we pulled out one of our maps of Paris and figured out which train we would need to take t

o where. Once everything we had a plan we went to the bus station and bought a book of tickets which we could use for the next couple days that we are here, then we made our way down to the terminal. It’s been interesting seeing how each country’s bus system is different. In Paris the tickets are about the size of your thumb and you have to feed the ticket through a ticket machine in order to get the turn-style to move. It seems much more efficient than Germany’s in getting people to actually buy tickets instead of just getting on a train. Anyways, we got off at our stop and climbed up out of the subway station and right in front of us was our destination. Our first sight of the day was Notre Dam. We decide that before we went in that we should get something to eat since we didn’t exactly eat breakfast. We went down an alleyway that looked like it had promise of food and we weren’t disappointed. For brunch we got savory crepes that were hot, huge, and delicious. After we had eaten we went back to Notre Dam and waited in the line to get in to the Cathedral. The line was long, but it moved at an acceptably fast pace and we made it in to the Cathedral within fifteenish minutes. The wait was absolutely worth it too. The cathedral was enormous and the stained glass windows were extraordinarily detailed and colorful. The ceiling was several stories high, and though it wasn’t painted it was still breath taking in its enormity. Though this wasn’t the center of attention, at the back of the church up on one of the upper levels was the largest pipe organ I have ever seen and I would have paid handsomely to hear that played. We walked through the entirety of the lower level and made our way back outside.

From there we figured out which direction to go next to get to the Louvre Museum and started off going towards La Seine. We walked along the course of the river and saw lots of artists trying to sell their pictures and paintings of Paris. I think we may go back and buy a still shot of Paris from one of the vendors before we leave. There were also several places where the barrier to the bridge were absolutely covered in the love locks from years and years of lovers leaving their lock on any latticed place they could find on La Seine. We eventually made it to t

he Louvre and we walked around the outside of the building. The majority of the museum is below ground, and I can see why people say you can’t see the whole thing in one day. The size of the museum is absolutely monstrous. I’m very glad we decided it was better to not go in because we wouldn’t have had time to see anything else if we had gone in. Instead we took the touristy picture of each of us pointing towards the tip of the pyramid at the entrance of the Louvre and walked towards our next destination. Our next stop was the Musee D’Orsay, which is home to one of the largest collections of impressionist artists. I was very excited to see Van Goh, especially because I thought Starry Night was going to be there. Starry Night wasn’t there, but Van Goh’s self-portrait was, and that was truly amazing work as well. I think my favorite artist in the museum ended up being Monet though. His work is truly masterful and the detail in his work is something you can’t truly see except for in person. The brushstrokes and blots aren’t visible from photographs of the paintings, and those are truly defining characteristics of the art. We spent at least two hours in the museum before we decided we really needed to get a snack and head on to the next place we wanted to go. We went to a small coffee shop and got a coffee and a pastry to go, then we found some steps to sit on and rest our feet while we refueled. I can’t speak for the others, but I know I felt so much better with a little bit of sugar in my system and I was ready to head down the Champs Elysee. The Champs Elysee had so many stores that I could never afford, but we amused ourselves by going in to the Disney store and buying macrons inside a mall. I got the rose flavored macron and was very pleased with the sweetness and lightness of the small puff of pink dessert. At the end of the road was the Arc de Triomphe, which seemed approximately as large as the Brandenbourg Gate, but without the pillars, and much more artistry engraved into the stone. It was quite impressive and if it hadn’t cost so much I would have loved to have gone up to the top of the gate.

From the Arc de Triomphe we went to one of the places on the map that has a good view of the Eifel Tower. We had seen glimpses of the tower from other parts of the city, but this was the first time that we got to see the Eifel Tower in its entirety. I thought it was really magnificent and I can’t wait to go up to the top tomorrow.

We took some pictures with the tower, then made our way under the tower and down the side of the park that is in front of the tower to look at all the vendors selling goods from their tents. This only made us realize how hungry we were, so we decided it was time to look for dinner and head back to our apartment. We got a little lost trying to find the metro station, but eventually we did find it and then went to a restraunt that was near the metro station because we were extremely hungry and our feet sore from walking all day. Hannah’s friend said that it is hard in Paris to find dinner under 20 euros, and she was right, so we settled for paying the price of good French food. We all decided to split an appetizer of escargot and then I ordered duck breast with a honey ginger sauce. IT. WAS. SO. GOOD. The snails were drowned in butter, wine, and pesto, with a similar texture to oysters. The duck was tender and the sauce was divine. I couldn’t help myself from wiping the leftover sauce with bread. I think I fell in love with my dinner, and it was worth every bit of the 23 euro I spent on it.

After dinner we went back to our apartment with the hopes that the Wi-Fi would be working, but it wasn’t. Instead I wrote a blog post and we did another load of laundry. By the time laundry was done it was fairly late and we all collapsed into sleep.