Paris Part Deux: I like crepes

I took 165 pictures on my Paris trip. A lot were junk, obviously. The cream of the crop can be accessed here. It will provide the visuals to my poor story telling.

After making my last blog post, Peg and I left the room, Peg took off, and I was on my own. It was about 10:45, and I had no idea what I was doing. I decided to visit Notre Dame. I hadn't gone in on my previous trip, so I figured that was something to do. It is amazing inside. Truly fantastic. After about 30 minutes there, I went to the Picasso Museum. I realized I was too hungry to go to a museum where I didn't recognize the art in the guidebook, so I then went up to Les Halles, where there are tons upon tons of food vendors. It is like my little heaven. Anyways, I got a croque monsuier (or however one spells it), because my dad is always talking about them (all my delicious foodstuffs can be seen in the photo album, except the excellent onion soup I had). I was a little disappointed. It would have been better hot.

The next order of business was walking down through the Louvre to the public gardens, where I took a nap using my bag as my pillow. I slept for about an hour, then headed to the hostel. The hostel was pretty nice, all things considered. About 25 euro for the night. It was located in Montmartre, 2 streets down from the Sacre Coeur funicular. After settling in, I decided to do what I had been planning to do all along, which was walk all the way up the Champs Elysees. I saw all the highlights: the 2 story Haagen Dazs, Louis Vuitton, etc. The biggest disappointment was that the McDonalds is no longer actually directly on the street. WTF? Angry boy. I will redouble my efforts to not buy food at Mickey D's. So far so good. After that, I crossed over to the Arc de Triomphe, in order to recreate the moment where I was taking photos of myself there 3 years ago because I couldn't convince anyone to go up it with me.

It was getting late, so I decided to start heading back. Eventually I got really hungry, so I ate at one of the many kebab/ lebanese places in paris. Very good stuff there. I then headed up to the Sacre Coeur, and passed through a really, really cute area just west of the basilica that I had no idea existed. The rest of the night was spent hanging out there, because of the awesome view and also because there was a dude and his buddies giving a free concert on the steps, and they were actually really good. I hit the sack at the hostel at about 11:30, totally exhausted.

The next morning I got up, had a croissant at the hostel (free. Otherwise I would have bought one elsewhere), then up and left. It was cold (13 celcius, about 50 farenheit); I saw my breath in the air for the first time since being at ND (who won in football yesterday GOOOOO IRISH WHOOO). If my theme for Friday was "North of the Seine", Saturday was to be "South of the Seine". I actually themed my days. It's true. I am a dork

First up was walking under the Eiffel Tower. It was already packed with tourists. The walk down was very pleasant and pretty quiet, all things considered. I guess it was somewhat early (maybe 8:30, 9 o clock). I got a crepe with nutella and a banana. Fantastic. In the park where the Eiffel Tower is, I stopped in this rugby ball-shaped tent, where they were doing a 360 degree movie inside about New Zealand and the All Blacks rugby squad. Paris is hosting the 2007 rugby world cup, and is very, very proud of it. It's all over the place there right now. Anyways, the movie made me want to go to New Zealand and/or watch rugby. I think that was the point.

After walking through Les Invalides (didn't see Napoleon's tomb; been there, done that), I walked along the river to get to the Musee D'Orsay area. I wanted to see our old hotel, where many good times were once had. Found it with no problem at all. That hotel is damn expensive, apparently. 440 euro for a "decouverte" room, and 490 for a "privilege" room. Whoa Nellie.

After a delicious chocolate eclair (another foodstuff I wanted to eat in Paris), I went to the Saint Sulpice church in order to get my Da Vinci code on. I could not find the pink brick thing. Total disappointment. The church was somewhat dull. After that, it was to the gardens south of Luxumbourg, which were beautiful and a good time for a rest. Following that, it was over to the Pantheon, where a bunch of French thinkers (Rousseau, the Curies, Voltaire, Braille, Victor Hugo, Dumas) are buried. Also, it is where Foucault's pendulum was demonstrated and there is a pendulum hanging from the ceiling now. That was the only touristy thing I paid for all day, other than food of course.

It was getting near time for me to jump on the train, so I decided to head back to Les Halles in order to get some food before going. On the way I ran into a crowd watching rugby on a huge public screen, which was awesome to watch everyone getting into it. After grabbing a crepe filled with egg, cheese, and ham (think Bojangles breakfast buiscuits... but even way better), I jumped on the train, headed to De Gaulle, and eventually flew home. I arrived back in Medag at about 11, less than 7 hours after leaving Les Halles, where the whole thing started and ended.

What a trip.