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Published: June 25th 2010
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Day two began with a round of croissants from a local bakery, some coffee at a nearby café, and then a visit to Père Lachaise, Paris' largest cemetary. Reported to be the world's most visited cemetery, its attraction lies in its plethora of famous Parisians, like Edith Piaf, and famous not-so-much-Parisians like Jim Morrison. The place was sprawling, and we spent maybe two hours going around the winding paths in search of "celebs". My favorite tomb was that of Oscar Wilde, covered in red and pink lipstick from all the people that have come to pay him homage. Lou and I forgot our lipstick at the hotel, but we both gave him a nice little kiss :-) Edith Piaf's tomb was entirely covered in flowers, so to be honest we weren't even positive it was hers. And as for Jim Morrison's, it was lame, though apparently people have come and had sex on it and other "fun" things in tribute to him. Sad.
Once we had our fill with the cemetary it was time to head north to Monmartre, the city's highest point and home to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. I am not a big fan of the basilica's interior,
but the juxtaposition between the beautiful white edifice and the surrounding sex clubs is kind of interesting. In order to reach the basilica we basically had to fight off hordes of African men trying to put ugly bracelets on our wrists and then presumably sell them to us. Again I question what these "souvenir vendors" are thinking - why would I want a cheap bracelet made of string that looks like it I got it in Jamaica while climbing to the top of one of Paris' most famous sights.
Heading back down into the main area of Monmartre we were ready for some lunch. I had hoped to hit up the fun fondue place where wine is served out of baby bottles, but alas it was closed. With cheese on the brain we decided fondue was still called for, and since it was yet again cold and drizzly it didn't feel particularly out of season. Of course we're morons and didn't think that fondue "bourguignonne" was the meat and oil variety and ended up with that - so much for cheese. We nonetheless had fun dipping our raw chunks of beef into the oil and trying an array of
fun sauces with our meat and pommes frites.
At this point we were pretty tired, probably from the wine, so after exploring Monmartre some more and seeing the Moulin Rouge we headed back to our hotel to rest up for a bit. For a cheap dinner we headed to the Jewish quarter for some incredible falafel at L'As du Falafel, as recommended by by a number of guidebooks. It did not disappoint. For the rest of the night we walked along the Seine to get pics of the city sparkling at night, eventually ending up at the Eiffel Tower. Now, the Eiffel tower may look like its perhaps 20 minutes away from wherever you are standing, but we walked for probably 2 hours to reach the stupid thing. Once there we bought tickets to get to the second level (the top was closed) and enjoyed the views of Paris at night.
Totally spent from our walking, we managed to catch what seemed like the last metro of the evening and called it a night.
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anonymous
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love the DEEP V