Ah, Paris!

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I guess it's a good thing that my camera battery keeps dying or I may never make the time to write this blog, although it tends to come in prime daylight time when I should be out exploring Paris. But it would be a shame not to be able to have documentation of the things that really wow me.

So let me wrap up London right quick. It was late enough after writing in the blog that I knew I would never be able to do the British Museum with any sense of justice. So I opted for the smaller Imperial War Museum. I am glad I did, although that one got cut a little short as well. I had about an hour by the time I arrived. Had I known they had such an amazing Holocaust section I would have skipped the other smaller stuff and went right there. As it was I got there last with like 5 minutes which was a huge shame because it was pretty impressive what I saw.

From there I walked up to the Thames and around the London Eye. The area around there was very alive with people. There were a number of street performers that were pretty fun and clever so I stopped and watched them for a few minutes and shot a few cute videos. I crossed the Thames on the Hungerford Bridge and made my way to St. Martin in the Fields, where it had been recommended to me the Cafe in the Crypt had some really good food. I got there just after 6 pm and they had just closed, bummer. But on the upside they were having a special ordination ceremony inside the church, so I stepped inside to check it out. It was actually pretty fascinating and the place was packed. They were ordaining almost 10 new priests so I am sure a lot of the people were family and friends.

After that I was definitely ready for some food. I knew China Town was nearby, so I headed for that. I found a pretty cheap but delicious Chinese buffet and had a nice relaxing meal. I wandered around China Town afterwards and took in the sights of the neighborhood and surrounding area. I stumbled on a 50's style diner and stopped in for a Oreo milkshake which was pretty refreshing and delicious, it really hit the spot, and it was huge, almost too much. Almost!

It was time to head to Hyde Park, so I walked down Picadilly Road right to the South East corner of the park. Hyde Park is really quite beautiful. It really helped me feel a sense of the history of the area most of the trees were really enormous and I imagine had been there hundreds of years. I couldn't help but wonder the things they had scene. Lilly Allen was playing a concert in the Park so the place was really hopping and I could hear her opening act performin. I walked on the path North of The Serpentine and then crossed on the Serpentine Bridge. I was on a mission to find the Peter Pan statue that I found on my map. Mission accomplished. There was a huge party of London youth having a little soiree right by it. They kept looking at me funny as I was snapping pictures of the statue. I sat in the park afterwards just enjoying the area and the scenery, I would be fun having parks like that around Detroit. No wonder Europeans for the most part are healthier than Americans. They have such lovely places to visit, walk around and hang out in that there is no reason to stay at home on the couch. It's been that way everywhere I have gone.

That pretty much concluded my time in London. I had to be up at 4:30 am to catch my train out of London to Paris so I knew that I couldn't be out too late. I caught the train back to my hostel, took a shower and packed my bags. There was no hassle at all getting to the train station for my departure to Paris. I had enough time to grab a breakfast sandwich and some yogurt. The train through the chunnel wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. I don't know what I expected, maybe some windows in the Chunnel. I actually slept most of the way since I was pretty tired. I did catch some pretty nice views of the French Countryside though.

Arriving in Paris was pretty amazing and surreal. The train station was slamming. I immediately found a kiosk where I could by a good Paris Street map, checked it against my Google directions to my hostel and headed out. I pretty much walked straight there. Same thing as London checking in, I was too early and had a couple of hours to kill, so I stowed my bag, double checked with my Rick Steve's book and decided to head for Notre Dame. It was a lovely walk there and I kept having to check in with myself that I was really in Paris. This is the first place I have been since Russia where I get the same sense of age and grandeur that I got from being in Moscow, it felt somehow familiar.

I found Notre Dame pretty easily, I mean it is pretty hard to miss. Talk about magnificent. The whole area surrounding it is really quite beautiful, they way that is sits on this pretty little island in the middle of the Seine. I was finding that most of the things that I had slated to see on that day were closed because it was a Monday. I made my way over to the Ile Saint Louis which was fool of really cool shops and cafes. I stopped in one and got me some ice cream.

At about 3 or 4 pm I headed back to my hostel to check in. I had looked on line to see about what kinds of theatre might be happening that night. It looked like the Comedie Francaise was playing a version of Beaumarche's The Marriage of Figaro. I read up on the synopsis and decided I would try and get tickets for that. I had some time so I took the metro back to the area around Notre Dame to see a few more sights, but again it seemed like I was striking out. There is a holocaust monument/tribute park near Notre Dame but it was closed for repairs or something the sign didn't really say, but I am sure it would normally have been open. By the way I have such a blast using the metros in the different cities. It's a fun challenge to see how long it takes for me to get really comfortable using the metro. Funny story, so I had used the metro to get back to my hostel and of course coming out there many exits to choose from and if you choose the wrong one then you are further away from your destination rather than closer. Well I picked the right one and as I came out I was congratulating myself on how amazing I was and went to go through a gate into a park and the gate appeared to be locked but I kept pushing on it, only to realize I needed to pull! My amazing feeling and patting myself on the back went right out the window! :o)

So I had little bit of time before I wanted to head to Comedie Francais to see about getting tickets to a show. I found a couple of cool churches to wander into. The churches in Europe have all been really amazing. Each one of them is like a mini museum, and free to boot. I love it! I began to make my way over to the theatre which was a nice walk, taking me right past the Louvre. I would be going there on Wednesday.

Found the theatre and there was a line outside what appeared to be the box office. I hopped in line and started conversing briefly with the people around me. It was really nice, I was chilling, and then found out that there may be only 60 tickets left and there were more than 60 people ahead of me. Then a guy behind me went to find out for sure what line to be in and when he came back he asked how old I was, then he said I would have to pay, which I knew, but apparently on this night they gave a bunch of free tickets away if you were under 28. Come to find out all the people that I had been chatting with knew that, then I jokingly said that if I had to pay then I should have priority. Then I got to thinking and something didn't seem right. This is where you really began to wonder if I am nearly done with 7 years of college education. I asked someone to hold my place in line and went in to ask. Sure enough, I had wasted a bunch of time standing in line, though I did have a nice chat with the people there, but I got my ticket for just 14 euros and was 4th row from the front. Awesome.

The theatre was really beautiful. But again, unfortunately, not anything compared to what I saw in Russia. It was intersting though going from Russian where I understood nothing, and then to the London theatre where I did, and back to a theatre where I didn't. The show was alright, and some of the staging and scenery was pretty clever and cute. But again, it was a lot of standing around talking to each other. The guy that played Figaro was the most engaged and energetic which made him fun to watch. It was hard to watch and not wonder what the Russians would do to make it so much more lively and engaging. But it was awesome being in the oldest theatre in Paris, the same theatre that was started by Moliere. Pretty cool, lots of history, you can't beat that. After the show I went back to my hostel.

Tuesday: I was up and down for breakfast. It was much shabbier than what I had gotten used to in London. They just had hard rolls with butter and jam, applesauce and juice and coffee. The rolls were good though. The most exciting thing to happen there was a girl spilled her cup of hot coffee down my back. Good thing I hadn't showered. :o)

From breakfast and a shower, I head right to the ticket kiosk to see about getting tickets for a show that night. I got there about 10 am but it didn't open until 12:30, so since I was close to Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe I decided to head over there. That was fun. I had a bit of a scare when I was trying to hand my camera to a stranger to have them take my picture and promptly dropped my camera. For a minute I thought I was all done, but I just had to pop the shutter back in place and I was right as rain. Whew! The Arc was really cool, I didn't know that you could get on top of it from all the pictures I had seen. So that was a nice surprise. I have fallen in love with stairs, I find that I am running up and down the stairs and escalaters in order to keep up with the pace and amount that I walked in Russia, and the escalators aren't even remotely as long as they are in Moscow.

From the Arc I made my way back to the Seine just past the Eiffel Tower, and crossed over on my way to Les Invalides which houses the tomb of Napolean and his son. This was the first building that I had been in which rivaled and compared at all with the grandeur and beauty of Moscow. It was really impressive and pretty massive. Afterwards I hit the museum of Rodin. I had really fallen in love with his sculpture while in the Pushkin Museum, so I was excited to go. Now I am even more in love and am definitely going to have bone up on hinm and his lover who he used as a model for a lot of his work. She was also a really amazing artist and the museum had a lot of her work as well. I am turning into such an art freak. I think I kinda like it. Museums in the past had always been so dull to me. Now I am having so many real, visceral reactions to the art that I see, that I am eager to broaden my horizons. After Rodin I was going to go back for a ticket, but I got distracted by the call of the Catacombs museum that I saw on my map and decided to treck south and check it out. It was quite a little walk and I got there only to find out it closed at 4 pm, my book said 5 pm, and it was 5 till 4 so they shut the line down just before I got in. Darn it. I caught a metro back to the ticket kiosk and picked up a ticket to see a hip and modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Apparently it would be done by just three actors and was supposed to be pretty cool and fresh. I was very hopeful. Well, I have 2 minutes of internet and I am not buying more. So I will have to leave you hanging and continue later in Berlin. Also you will have to wait for Berlin to get pictures, which also sucks for me because they are really backing up. These computers don't have any access to plug in. So all kinds of things to look forward to. Good night from Paris, see you in Berlin

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