April 2nd
Bonjour!!!!
So today was another free walking tour and it was almost 4 hours long! The thour was super sweet but we had a hard time even getting there. So we get to the metro, go about 3 stops when an announcement comes on that I of course could understand maybe tree words of but kind of understood due to the massive amount of people getting off the metro. Not totally sure what was going on and the only French I am able to mutter is Cest termine and luckily some woman understood what i was trying to say but I could hardly comprehend her. Oh well we made it out on to the street and ended up walking about 10-15 minutes in the wrong direction. Ahhhh!!! Anyway we made it just in time for the 11 am tour. But heres the kick what should have taken us at 20 minutes at the most took us almost two hours! Thank goodness we left early enough to give us extra time for instances just like this.
Ok so here is yet another list of what we saw in Paris:
Latin Quarter
Napoleon's tomb
* buried in 6 coffins
* Was the only monument Hitler wanted to see when he conquered Paris
-> story goes that in order to look at Napoleons grave you need to lean over a railing to get a good look. Well Hitler being the egotistical maniac that he was decided that it was beneath him to have to bend over to see another world leader. So he had his men set up a mirror that would let Hitler see the tomb without bending over. Turns out that the men set up the mirror wrong and Hitler turned around to yell at them but bumped into someone and dropped his hat. Instinctively Hitler picked it up but realized that even against his plans he ended up kneeling in front of Napoleon.
Tulieries Gardens
*Beautiful Greek Statues
-> one statue was that of a lion fighting an aligator and this represents Christianity triumphing over other religions
Pont Neuf
* Bridge built by Henry IV
-> put his friends faces on the bridge
-> he did this in honour of his friends but was also a joker at heart and so the king got all his friends plastered one night and then ordered his sculptors to recreate the faces of his drunk friends. So on the bridge are the faces of his friends with expressions of extreme goofiness and one even looks like he is going to be ill
Place de la Concorde
Arc de Triomphe
* 15 roads meet here
* Built in honour of Napoleon
* Busiest road in Paris
-> if you get in a car accident here I guess that insurance refuses to cover it because the stats are that an accident will occur every 30 minutes
Musee d'Orsay
* old train station that was transformed into a museum
Eiffel Tower!!!!!
After our nice long walk through Paris Katie, Alicia(an Australian girl we met who also happened to be on our walking tour in Berlin) and I went up the Eiffel Tower. We walked about 670 stairs to the 3rd level and then took the elevator up to the top. Man-o-man by the time we made it to the 3rd floor I thought my legs were going to fall off. I am stoked to have climned the Eiffel Tower but the weather was kind of a bummer. By the time we made it to the top the it was super foggy and rainy and therefore was kind of hard to see the city but I must say it was still a great view from the top. And i climbed the Eiffel Tower!!!
Oh our other roomate happens to be a pro backerpacker and I am not joking. She is a 25 year old from Quebec and has been backbapcking for the last 5 years straight!!! She in incredible! She hasnt even returned home at all during this time and has only seen each of her parents once during this time. Oh she has also never trained or bussed from city to city, the only public transportation she has ever paid for was for innercity metros. How might she accomplish this you might be asking; she hitchhikes!!!!! Crazy lady. I was complaining about having to travel for 4 weeks let alone 5 years, but she also has worked in various countries during this time which sounds exciting. Still I think my dad would have a heart attack or kill me if i tried hitchhiking through Europe or didnt come home for 5 years. No offense to you dad and dont worry I am to smart to hitchhike.
Well that was all for this exhausting day, saving up energy for all the museums tomorrow!
France's Flag
Map of France