Oh yeah, now we're in Paris

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Dan here.

Well, it has been a long time since we updated, but here's what's happening:

We are in Paris, having been here about 24 hours. Thursday was a day of trains and airports. Our in-flight entertainment during the 55-minute flight from London to Paris was a physical altercation between an irate Frenchman and a mercurial Brazilian over legroom, right across the aisle from us. Literally, an exchange of punches, broken up very late by the flight stewards, and followed by a fair amount of multilingual cursing. The woman next to me, a French lady, turned and said apologetically, "Welcome to Europe." Fortunately, everything in Paris since then has been quite lovely; everyone has been keeping their ethnic tensions packed away.

Anyway, today we put in some serious walking miles. After catching the Metro from our hotel up to Pont Marie, we walked all through Ile Ste-Louise and Ile de la Cite, checking out Notre Dame and Sainte-Chapelle along the way. From there we hit the Rue de Rivoli, which took us through some chic shopping and past the length of the Louvre. Reaching the Tuileries, we pondered a frontal assault on the Louvre before opting for mushroom crepes, a bottle of wine, and ambitious plans to make it in there at 9 AM Saturday, l'heure d'ouvert.

So we walked further west, up the full length of the Champs-Elysees to that big old Arch Napoleon built for himself. From there, down to the Trocadero, where we caught a boat back to Pont Marie and took the Metro home, to the south Contrescarpe neighborhood.

This is an extremely abridged version of the day, but forgive me, I am tired and full of wine.

There is also a week's worth of London to decompress, but again, tired, wine, full am. My knees hurt. This is rare.

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Photos

View into Quartier Latin
Looking into the Latin Quarter from Quai de la Tournelle.

Altar within Notre Dame
Look, I know photography is prohibited in there, but everyone else was doing it and at least I didn't use the flash.

Notre Dame ceiling
Yay, goth!

The altar at Sainte-Chapelle
Curtains of light, my friends. It just don't get no prettier than that.

Sainte-Chapelle
I got a few good pictures here.
Note to other tourists: the secret is to TURN OFF YOUR FLASH!
Flashes make the baby Jesus cry.

Euro Mullet
Right there on the Champs-Elysees. Imagine that.

A radio tower or something.
Nothing special, I just thought it looked kind of cool.

More of that radio tower
It's not even that tall, really.

Comments

[me]

yur a peein'
sounds like a cool fight on the plane. How did you like the Sainte-Chapelle show? Je Suis Ric James XVII, bitch!