First Full Day in Paris

I'm getting later and later with these blogs as we go along... but yesterday was a 12 hour day for us and when we got back, all I could do was hit the sack.

So this is for Monday, June 28th: Our first full day in Paris, and we're starting fresh and trying to give Paris a chance. I think that because we're tired, it's our last city, and we were so instantly awed by the other cities, that Paris just suffers by comparison. First (and lasting) impressions are that it's really dirty, and it's full of French people.

It was on our way to the Louvre, our first stop this morning, that I nearly got into a fight with a French man... We almost had our international incident and Amy wasn't even with us! We were walking, and man was right on my heals, obviously trying to find a way to pass me. I just stepped in line behind Patti, and made a motion like "after you" (which I didn't think was anything but polite)... He shoots me a look like I shot his dog, mutters in French as he walks ahead of us. I say, "I was only trying to let you pass" - and he talks to himself in French, but I pick up the "parlay Francais" out of all of that and I can tell he's disgusted with me for not speaking French. I say back, "No I don't speak French, but I understood that" (not really too him, more to Patti, but within his hearing) - and he turns around and looks, almost impressed, but with "you've got to be kidding me" look. I say to Patti, "I'm going to get beat up in French"... He laughs and turns back to us, "Oui". Dana says she's not sure why he needed around us, he had friends still behind us. Oh well, I just thought it was kinda cool to have a conversation we both understood in two different languages, and he seemed slightly charmed by the end.

We look for breakfast on the way but none of the restaurants are open, and there are no hours posted. We tried to go in one and just got the French dirty look in response - we're just supposd to know that they're not open. They had what looked like breakfast on the menu, so we thought we were safe, and it wasn't the crack of dawn, it was about 9:30.... So we opt for the breakfast on the run at a little stand - I had a small quiche, Dana and Patti had donuts, Dana's had a surprise chocolate filling. We make a note that we need to try the pastries before we go.

We finally find the Louvre - although its not really labeled (and we left the map at the apt, darnn it). Its funny because every corner has signs pointing to landmarks and the Louvre isn't on any of them. We see this large building that stretches on for blocks and opens to a courtyard - its gorgeous and massive. Very palatial as Patti says... I was going with the more laymn term "palacy" - but we'll go with palatial, and we know that has to be it. We try to imagine why starving French people would have a problem with just 2 rich French people living inside of it. Hmmmm.

From the courtyard we see the pyramid! Its much bigger in person than on The DaVinci code. As we walk toward it, I get approached by a guy that wants signatures for "peace for Africa" ....wondering how signatures help and I'm not a registered voter here, and ok, just sign? Sure.... I want peace for Africa. Oh and then the last part is how much you will give to the peace - most people give 10-20 Euro.. Ahh, of course they do. I gave him my change, maybe less than a Euro and said every little bit helps. We take our pics with the pyramid and the fountains, and head in through the pyramid.

We were afraid of encountering Vatican sized lines, but they were not bad at all. The lines to the bathroom were longer. While we're in line I notice that the beverage that I put in my bag while we took our pictures wasn't closed completely - as a result, the bottom of the purse is wet.. Electronics seem fine, it wasn't that bad, it was almost empty and damage seems minimal. Really happy it wasn't a suger drink. Then, we're in line for the bathroom and Dana looks down and sees this huge mass of orange across my white shirt... WHAT is that?? She had noticed orange drops on the floor when we were in line for tickets. I'm thinking it was on the ropes that I leaned against, maybe kool aid or something - then we notice a big orange wet spot on my purse!! My mind immediately goes to this stupid orange marker that I picked up somewhere (someone had left at a subway stop or something) and I thought we mights have use for it, but the color was too light for postcards. I nearly threw it away in Heidelberg, but didn't. And now, I knew that the orange marker combined with the diet coke in the bottom of my purse to make a lovely orange stripe. I think about how many factors had to come together for this event to happen... finding the pen, actually deciding to pick it up, deciding to keep it after almost getting rid of it in Germany, deciding to put the bottle in my purse instead of in the bottle holder, not closely it completely.... But the fates don't know who they're messing with - I am master stain remover, and I emerge from the bathroom with no visible signs of orange to Patti and Dana's awe and amazement (whew!).

We make quick work of the Louvre. Art majors could spend weeks there; and if we had more time, a tour would be incredibly educational - but for our purposes at this time, we want to see the Mona Lisa, and the Venice De Milo. On the way to the Mona Lisa we pass hundreds of brilliantly colored paintings, and one that a crowd is gathered around (its the one with the "clues" from The Da Vinci Code - The Madonna of the Rocks). We head into the room with the Mona Lisa, and the painting is smaller than you might think, enclosed in several layers of sealed glass, behind ropes, and surrounded by hundreds of people. We get our look, and Dana fights her way into the front - she's getting good at that.

We go down to the hall with Venus - and on the way we see quite a few familiar figures (Nike, The Three Graces...).

We also figure out that the cool air comes up through these tiny gold vents. Its steamy in the halls, and standing on those vents is very refreshing. Once I was standing on one, and this Japanese woman walk to my right and felt the air, she exclaimed, and then stepped back to share the vent with me and we also shared a laugh.

After the Louvre we wanted to take advantge of our hop-on/hop-off bus - and we knew that there was stop right outside the Louvre. Patti saw this cool art on the street that she wishes she would have purchased at the time - its an elephant that morphs in the Eiffel Tower. I think Dana has pictures of it, so it will turn up sooner or later (looks like sooner).

We decide to just ride the bus all the way around - it's pretty cool how they have it set up, they have 9 different languages available, and each seat has two headphone jacks and a channel/volume control. It's just like an airline where you would plug in and then select your channel. We saw the major spots like Notre Dame, Arc de Triumphe, Champs Elysees... Patti said, "well now I can say that I've been on the Champ De le-essey... or something" - I would like to point out that she HAS been on it... but she can NOT say it. This French stuff is hard, no wonder all these people are so snooty about mastering it. I prefer to just speak English and be laughed at than to attempt to speak French and be gafawed at. Just my philosophy of survival here.

We get off the bus at the stop before the Eiffel Tower and get a great view! We check out the menus for lunch, looking for something that screams "french" food, and all we see are salads and sandwiches, and then snails and creme brulee... we settle for a place and we order snails for a starter (yes, Dana ate one) and then we see these huge lush salads at other tables, and decide we'll try french salads (although not a drop of French dressing is in sight - ha). They're good - they're salads (but not as good as the Murphy salad buffet). We order a fruit tart for dessert, expecting something red - like strawberries or raspberries... but it's apple. It's alright. The best part is that Patti orders two cokes (no free refills here), and that will be 10.90 please. So for two small glass bottles of coke, it's over $12. Coke must be a limited commodity here, it costs more than wine or beer. Our waiter is unimpressed with his life and therefore, us, or anyone else for that matter. He rolls his eyes at every request... and that is not unique to him, we find it to be standard with French service, the attitude is thrown in at no extra charge. We just consider it part of the floor show.

We decide to go for a second round on the bus, and this time we get off at all the stops that interest us - we do some shopping, we go in Notre Dame, we stop at the Arc D'Triumph and we cross over to it... We were standing there watching the traffic make it way around the circle surroundng the Arc - there are no lines, no traffic signals, and about 9 streets that let into and out of the circle, like spokes on a wheel. How we did not see an accident, I don't know. We knew there was no way we were risking crossing it - we said, "there should be an underground passage to get there" (and we turn around.. and there WAS). So we go over, get some pics... and we head to the Eiffel Tower.

We don't go up until 9:00, so we have about an hour to kill. We just hang out under the structure and admire it, and fend off swarms of venders trying to sell us every size of Eiffel Tower for only 1 Euro... even ones that light up... or you don't like that, how about a scarf, or a wind up flying bird.. or a rose? We watch them approach others and enjoy seeing that play out. The men with roses go up to women who are with men and just hand them a rose, they let them walk off thinking that the rose was free, and then they chase them down and talk to the man about buying the rose for her. She never wants it and tries to give it back, the guy feels the guilt, tells her to keep it and he pays... we're coaching from the sides as we give a play by play, "oh here he goes, and she doesn't want it... just drop it, just drop it and walk away!" One guy follows our advice, he just keeps walking and sets it by a woman who is sitting close to us.

We decide to get in line, and through this entire trip, in every country and city that we've been in, we have noticed a distinct lack of line rules in their culture. In their rules, if you get to the front first, then that is who deserved to be first, if you have line jumping skills, then that's your right - if we didn't want them in front of us then we should have also lined jumped... it's pretty frustrating. So we're in line, and this guy and his family just slide in front of us. Dana is so fed up that she actually says to the guy, "the line's back there, buddy" (hehehee, buddy). He turns to here and says, "The line is HERE" (second chance for an international incident in 5, 4, 3... ) but the guy's wife actually tells him to come back with her. Another lady from the states cuts in front of us too and Dana is very vocal about it - we try to assure everyone that we will all make it to the top at roughly the same time. It's all good - but it is frustrating.

We bought the 9pm tickets thinking that we could see the city at night, but we stay up there until 9:50ish - and it's still light outside. Its been a veeeery long day, 12 hours out and about, and we decide to go ahead and go back down.... we get some great pics of it at night, and as we walk to the metro, we keep turning around on occasion to get more shots. We're looking at it, at what must have been 10:00, and the whole thing starts blinking randomly like a Christmas tree. I get some video, we get some pics, 5 minutes later it's done... we were happy to be looking right at it when it started.

We head home, but we're hungry and we haven't had our French cuisine yet... we go to a place near the apt - and the kitchen is closed. Grrr. The only place to get food is the McDonalds across the street. But you know what, it was perfect after our long day. They had SUPER cold drinks, and had ICE! Not an American portion of ice, but certainly more than a European portion. It hit the spot.