"I am a sophisticated woman of the world! "

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Here are reasons I am independent and awesome:

1 - I booked a hotel on my own and it was not terrible or over-expensive
2 - I FOUND my hotel from General de Gaulle despite a train ride and two Metro changes.
3 - I hung out at the Eiffel Tower alone and didn't care.
4 - I slept alone in a strange city without a real way to contact anyone to save me.
5 - One of my goals was met - I was so awesome at Metro-ticket-getting a Spanish tourist mistook me for a local! And had me help him buy a ticket in a painful jumble of English, mediocre Spanish and terrible French. I have decided if I can do the subway thing in another language with relative ease I officially am an experienced user of public transportation.

My 24 hours of aloneness were amazing...though not entirely alone. I met Noah on my solitary walk along the Seine. In Paris of all places. He's here with his family for two weeks. So we wandered all of the city around the Tower and Invalides and the Champs-Elysees. We really saw it all. And had a lovely dinner. It was so fun to pal around with my old friend in this crazy city and I still got to feel independent.

After dinner I went up to the Sacre Couer (I was staying in the Montmartre neighborhood again, so it was only a few blocks away) and saw the spectacular view of the city of lights laid before me. I have some amazing pictures of my sights and room that I am so proud of. I will post them to this entry next time when my camera is charged!

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Photos

My Hotel!
I found it by myself!

Hotel Bathroom
I don't know.

View from my Room
That's through my window!

Under the Eiffel Tower
No one else would stand in the center of the underneath area. I kind of felt a food being the only with a lot of people standing along the perimeter. Oh well, stupid Americans.

Eiffel Tower
There it is.

The Seine
Noah had joined me at this point.

Finger of God
Hee Hee.

Invalides
The best part of Invalides was the great lawn in front of it. it reminded me of DC's Mall. There were people everywhere playing bocce ball, napping, practicing weird martial arts... We took a nap.

Paris by Night
This is the view from the rail of the Sacre Coeur. Took me forever to get the shot right.

Sacre Coeur1
You can see how many people were on the steps of the church in this picture. Friends, lovers, bvands were everywhere. It was so much cooler than the Eiffel Tower and much more beautiful than I remembered from my first trip.

Sacre Coeur2
This was just two blocks from my hotel.