From the Chunnel!

07.08.2010

Adieu, Paris. J t'ai dit adieu.
I've now said my last goodbye to Paris, and am whipping across the French countryside on my way to London. It's been an incredible stay in Paris. 3 nights was just about perfect. If I had had a little bit more energy, I would have probably been able to keep going a little bit longer and been able to see everything that I had wanted to. As it was, I got to a whole lot more than I thought I would.
Everyone gives Parisians a bad name for not being friendly, but I really didn't have any problem with rudeness or anyone getting angry with me. I guess that probably is just as much due to the fact that almost all native Parisians are out of town on vacation from the first of August (2 days before I got there) until the end of the month. So maybe that was it: No Parisians=no rudeness ;)
We really did have a good time though. We got up on Thursday just in time to catch the free breakfast provided by the hostel (totally lucked out on this hostel: really nice rooms and amenities. It's just kinda close to the red-light district is all). We decided to head over to the Eiffel Tower and start our day there. We wandered around that part of Paris, looking for a post office. We found one, but it didn't open until 1, so we went in to a grocery store, I bought some Brie and Noah bought some Bleu cheese, and we got some baguettes and drinks and headed to the Seine to eat our French picnic in the shade of the Eiffel tower.
Verdict-
French Brie = fantastic
French Bleu = moldy cheese.
Result-
We both had baguettes and brie for lunch :)

We went to go up the Eiffel tower. At first we wanted to take the elevator up, but then when we saw the price and, more importantly, the line, we decided to suck it up and do the stairs. No matter what you may think of the city itself, the view from the 1st and 2nd landings of the Eiffel tower are amazing. I think Paris is one of the most beautiful (if not the most beautiful) cities I have ever seen. We just spent as much time as we could, admiring the amazing view we got for 3.50 Eur and 347 stairs.
We didn't go to the top (an extra 2 hour-wait) but we got to see everything from the second level that you can see from the top. We saw L'hotel des Invalides, and decided to go check that out later in the evening. Noah really wanted to do a boating dinner cruise along the Seine that night, so I agreed. We went home to use the bathroom (and ended up using the internet for a while as well) and then headed out for the tour. We were thinking it was going to be a dinner and tour guide kind of thing, but it ended up just being us having a nice chicken dinner for 29 EUR as we floated down the center of Paris. Nice, but not really my thing.
We headed over to L'Hotel des Invalides (I let Noah lead the way, :) and that was fun). Unfortunately, it was already closed for the evening (we ran into some guards at one entrance, and I asked in a complete, logical and simple question “Are you already closed?” It was a major triumph for me, lol). Our plan was to go to a big outdoor movie after that, but we were both tired enough, that we decided to go back to the hostel and call it an early night.
In our evening searching, we found tickets to Les Mis and to Wicked in London for about 20 Pounds each, so we decided to go for it. Our London leg of the trip now includes “Wicked”, “Les Mis”, and “Love Never Dies” in that order. And we're going to try and fit another show and a Shakespearean play in during our stay as well (cue jealousy :)
Friday morning, we got down just in time to join the free breakfast. We headed out from there to Sacre Coure, a large cathedral built on one of the highest hills in Paris (just down the street from our hostel!) That was were we had the most... forceful shall we say? people trying to sell us tourist-y stuff. I actually had a guy grab me by the arm and hold on to me while he was trying to explain why it was important for me to let him tie a string onto my finger before I go into the church. Fearful of pickpockets, I wrenched myself free and walked away with my hand on my camera and a heightened sense of awareness.
Ps- the church was nice, but not even that geat :/
So, at about that point, I realized that I'd left my camera's memory card in the laptop as I was uploading pictures the night before. I went back to grab it, and Noah and I split up. He went to do the walking tour that I had done while waiting for him to get to Paris, and I went to do museums. I started by just popping up from the Metro at “Blanche” to take my picture in front of the Moulin Rouge. You're not supposed to live in Babylon, but there isn't wrong with taking tourist photos on your way through, is there?
I went to the Musée de l'orangerie (museum of the orange-tree greenhouse). At first, I was really quite disappointed by it. I went downstairs, and there were 2 main hallways with paintings lining the walls, maybe 100 in total. That museum had been really quite highly recommended by my tour guide. I went upstairs and realized why. There were two round rooms, with 360 degrees of Monet murals on the walls surrounding you. I walked in, and just gasped. It was beautiful. I walked around taking a panoramic picture of the whole room, and it took 26 pictures!
The Musée d'Orsay was next. I rented the audioguide for the museum, and it was definitely worth it. It was filled with Monet and Manet, Renoir and Roudin, Cezanne and Van Gogh among so many others. I was amazed when I looked at my watched and realized that 3 hours had passed by like that (*imagine my fingers snapping*)
I then rushed over to walk a loop through Notre Dame (there's an organ recital there this Sunday that I would have LOVED to have been able to see) and then met up with Noah. For dinner, we tried Paninis. (Thought they were amazing!) and then we headed over to the Louvre. I could tell that Noah really couldn't care less (he really isn't in to museums which might make London a bit tricky) so I had to pretty much drag him to at least see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory. Just as he was petering out, we ran in to Maggie, a girl we'd met at our hostel from New York. I let Noah head home, and spent the rest of the evening with her. We headed over to the park in front of the Eiffel Tower and watched the lights come on and then saw the sparkle show on the hour at 10 and 11. You know what they say: “Que sera, sera.” :)
And now, I've left the beauty of France behind and am in the crushing depths, 100m beneath the English channel, zooming along at somewhere between 100 and 200 mph. So many cool experiences in so short a time. Paraphrasing the littlest girl from “Despicable Me”: “It's so [COOL], I could die!!!!”

And a fun quote for you from Paris-
Me: “Noah, do you know what ecstasy is?”
Noah: “The noun or the verb?”
Me: “Uhhh....”