Day 8, Paris, September 27th


Busy day!  Both of us are limping by this point.  Last night was really hot, but opening the window was really loud.  Bought a fan this morning, should solve both problems.

Woke up, head breakfast with roommates, walked to Sacre Cour.  English cathedrals are waaayyyy more impressive.  On the way down I saw a girl getting the friendship bracelet scam pulled on her.  She looked miserable and was trying to get away and protect her purse, but couldn't do either. I went right up to them, and loudly and in a friendly manner said "You guys again.  Hello!  I see you are doing one of these." I then slipped the string off her pinky.  She said an emphatic thank you and hurried away.  I continued on my way, but only got a few steps before one of the guys grabbed me and started shouting.  He grabbed my jacket at the wrist, and I tried to wrench free but couldn't.  Reiter and the pickpocket's backup arrived at about the same time, and some pushing and yelling on both sides occurred.  After about ten seconds, I got free, turned my back, and walked away.  The followed for a few seconds, kicking at my ankles, then left.

High point of the day!

We then got on the metro, only to see a fight break out.  France!

Train to the War museum.  Hands down, one of the best museums I have ever been to.  Extensive analysis of wars from pre-napoleon to WWII, complete with real weapons, uniforms, step by step playback of overall wars and great moving diagrams of specific battles (Waterloo?  Totally Napoleon's fault).

Then to Napoleon's tomb.  Nice, tomb itself a little minimal.

Then to Notre Dame!  Again, not half as nice or respected as the British ones.  There is a gift stall inside the main cathedral, as well as those machines where you can get a stamped coin.  Besides being sacrilegious, just completely ruined it for me.

Walked to Louvre.  Gigantic.  Way bigger than any museum I have ever seen.  Our feet are killing us at this point.  We are there for about an hour and a half, just see a few highlights: the Mona Lisa (why is that more famous than the millions of other, better paintings?  Nobody knows), Venus de Milo (same thing), and code of Hammurabi (which doesn't belong in an art museum but was great to see).

Then, we walked very slowly through the tuleries, feet aching.  It's just after sunset by this point, around 8, so we can see the eiffel tower aglow.  Reiter insists on finding an out of the way place to eat, so we wander abut through a very snooty fashion district before finding a quaint hut expensive place to eat.  Go Reiter!

Anyway, that's all!  Versailles tomorrow!

Location: Paris, France

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 17, Rome/Pompeii, October 6th

Great day but bad headache, so I shall make this brief. Woke up at 7 to catch bus to train to metro to Pompeii.  Once there, got audio guides. Pompeii is utterly fantastic.  It is huge. The most destroyed stuff still maintains shape, while the preserved stuff has frescoes, fountains, paint, and statues.  We saw an amphitheater, two theaters, a necropolis, a brothel, several houses, the forum, a temple, two baths, the wall, roads, plumbing, and much much more. The audio guide was amazing - perhaps 80 or 90 separate sections averaging 3 minutes each.  Easily enough that we could have gone for  2 days and not seen it all.  Narration was great and the facts both interesting and informative.  When the eruption happened, two meters deep or pumice fell, then two meters of ash.  That's about 13 feet! The detail on the flash-ashed guys is amazing. You can clearly see sandals, toenails, and folds of clothes. Stray dogs ...
Read more

Day 15, Florence to Rome, October 4th

Happy birthday to me! Woke up at 8, said goodbye to Hostel friends, and took train to Rome.  Checked in at Hostel, which is super nice with nice guy in charge. Wow! Rome!  So much to do here, so much to see!  So much history!  And I feel safer here than I did in Paris! We took the bus into Rome, ate subway, then went square hopping. You can't walk 10 feet in Rome without bumping into something monumental.  On the stairs down from lunch we saw an excavation and a gigantic marble pillar with a bas relief going in spiral pattern from top to bottom. I felt compelled to go into every cathedral/church we passed, and as a result we went into 8 - just accidentally on the way to our destinations!  I'll list them here for posterity, and most of them were Cathedral size. Basilica de S. Marie:  This is the most unique cathedral I've ever seen! At least 50 crystal chandeliers, marble everywhere.  It looked more like a palac...
Read more

Day 6, London to Paris, September 25th

Good day, basically did everything else in London.  Woke up, went on the eye, took pictures.  Went to the Tate modern - underwhelming for me, they only use a fraction of the space despite the building being huge.  Went inside St. Paul's cathedral, very nice.  Then ran over to British Museum to see rest of exhibits.  Got on Eurostar, went through Chunnel to Paris.  Realized we don't speak the language!  We are in a somewhat sketchy area. Got dinner next to an older British couple, had a lovely chat.  Roommates are two nice German girls about our age.  Room's hot.  Going to sleep!
Read more