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Arc De Triomph
surrounded by a huge round a bout. Paris - Day 1
After a long, uncomfortable, bright flight we arrived in Paris. Due to strong tailwinds our flight arrived 50 minutes early! We cleared customs and got our baggage very quickly and embarked on an adventure in the Parisien Metro system.
After about two hours (half of which I felt like I was trying to figure out how to buy tickets) we arrived at our hotel. It is a quaint little hotel on the 15ieme section of Paris. We don’t seem to be in a touristy part of town (that said we’ve been here all of 5 hours). Lots of lovely looking patissires and boulangeries around, all waiting to tempt my taste buds!
We settled in quickly (showered) and decided to romp around Paris. The weather was overcast with rain on and off, but we were eager to see some sights no matter. We took the Metro (no problems this time - and we bought a ‘carnet de dix billets’ so we don’t have to worry about buying tickets again). We got off the metro at the Arc de Triomph and they wandered down the Champs d’Elysees. I got very excited by the multitude of shops,
but Tim only let me go into Louis Vuitton. After that we walked over the Seine River to the Eiffel Tower then walked back to the hotel.
Because we are utterly and completely shattered, we opted to buy some bread/cheese/meat and dessert from the local vendors for dinner. It isn’t even 6pm here yet, and the sky is still light but Tim and I ready to keel over - do you think bed at 8pm is unreasonable???
As this point, here are my main observations on the Parisien peoples:
1. The women accessorize well
2. The men wear trousers, preferably in pastel colours
3. Instead of panhandling on the streets, people perform in the metro cars then walk around with a cup asking for change (at this point we’ve seen a singer and a accordian player)
4. The men all carry many purses slung in front of them - is this because of the huge pick-pocketing problem here, or are they just super fashionable?
5. The streets all smell faintly like urine - the result of the middle ages??? Or drunker backpackers???
6. House prices are out of control - forget Calgary’s market - a 130m-squared apartment is
like 300,00 Euro! That is almost 600-grand for a space the size of my bedroom!
At this point, I plan on trying to prop my tired eyes open for another couple of hours before getting a good nights sleep. Hope you are all doing well.
BTW: ELISHA, I forgot to change the answering machine message, if you’d like to feel free! J
Paris - Day 2
After a fitful sleep (darn is Paris loud!), we dragged our tired little bodies to breakfast downstairs. Pain du chocolat, baguettes, and apple sauce filled out tummy’s before we left to tour around.
We decided to start at the Louvre, which was awesome! The line to get in was long but only took about 10 minutes to get through. (they have more security watching the line (for jumpers) then they do watching Mona. We spent quite some time viewing the exhibits. I noticed that there were loads of penis statues, and boob pictures - who knew Renaissance artists were pervy!
After the Lourve we walked to Notre Dame (passing by a lot of little shops by the river) and went for a tour of that. The stained glass inside was gorgeous! The stained glass showed the kind of skill that you do not see anymore - it was breathtaking! Oh and said bonjour to a Nun
Following that we toured Paris for what felt like two thousand years looking for Napolean’s tomb. We finally did find it, tucked away in the army museum. I can’t believe how HUGE the tomb was - tombs must have been the fancy car’s of the 1800s! (And seeing how small Napolean’s clothes were, I can only assume what he was compensating for!)
We found a quiet Parisien café to have lupper in. The food was fine. I tried potatoes for you Miss Clarke, and yes they were tasty. The water however was a different story - we paid 6 euro for water - yah… crazy! We did notice that food here is in general quite expensive.
We decided we didn’t feel like going home yet so we strolled to the Eiffel Tower then across the river to the Champs d’Elyses. Finally decided to head back to our hotel at about 8pm, we are feeling so much better than yesterday. Hopefully I can convince Tim to go for a beer somewhere soon!
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Sandi
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Terri you're such a good commentator, I love your stories! Sounds like fun so far, have fun you guys!