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Paris Part Deux
Entry 36 of 54 | show all | print this entry |
And we found ourselves back in Paris. Since Krystalle, Amanda, and John had to fly out at 9pm we decided to spend their last hours with us in the Louvre. We walked in through the big glass pyramid and down into the depths of the coolest buildings. We picked out the main pieces we wanted to see in the short time we had there and went a wandering. We wandered through all the rooms ladened with art in the form of sculpture, painting, or artifact. We obviously set out for the Mona Lisa first, passing the Venus de Milo and some works by Botticelli on the way. We found the Mona Lisa behind a crowd of Japanese tourists. You can not get in 3m of the picture so people are all leaning as far over the barrier to get a picture as allowed. The funny, yet sad, thing we found out the next day was that the Mona Lisa on display is a fake. The real one is in NY getting restored. We were pretty disappointed to find this out, but it just gives us another excuse to go back and visit again. We went and saw Leo´s Madonna on the Rocks painting, which was real. We also saw sculptures by Michelangelo and then went into the Egyptian artifact area to see the Throne Seated Ramses II. After we got a glimpse of that the place was closing down, so we tried to find a way out. The only problem with this is that they close off sections to funnel you out a certain way. We didn't get the memo and wound up wandering around the Egyptian sections finding roped off exits everywhere. We finally had to go down into a section that displays a rebuilt medieval castle moat and found the exit after that. It think I enjoyed the building and architecture better than the art, but then again I´m not a big art person. After perusing the gift shop we had to part ways. Three went to the airport, two stayed in Paris. We were sad to see them go because we had such a fun time with them!
Braden and I set out for the Notre Dame before it shut its doors at 7:45. We got there in the middle of a church service which turned out to be pretty darn cool. The place was packed with tourists and locals alike. Since the sun was mostly down, the place was only lit by the chandeliers lining the columns. This gave it a very dim eery feeling especially since the alter boy was waving around the incense causing the whole place to fill up with a dense haze. This turned out to be a cool effect because the light filtered through the smoke very ominously. We also jumped in the queue for communion. The cathedral wasn´t any bigger than most we have seen, but it does have a certain air about it that commands reverence and awe. We left once the service was over, exiting through the giant main front doors that are never open. We walked out across the river into the Latin quarter where there are bars and shops. We meandered through there, grabbed a quick dinner and when back to the hostel.
The free tour company we have been using the entire time on this trip had a tour and pub crawl in Paris, so we decided that tonight we would go on the pub crawl. So we went back, got ready, and hustled to the meeting spot only to find that no one was there. It turns out they haven´t started the pub crawl here yet. So we decided to go out on our own. Since there had been an Ireland vs Argentina Rugby game on earlier the streets were packed with men in green jerseys, hats, and fake green beards. We went into a bar that was particularly filled with these Irishmen, which was rebroadcasting the came they just lost. But they were all soothing their sadness with beer, so I´m pretty sure none of them even noticed that the game was being replayed. We only had one drink here because of the drunkenness of the Irishmen and the fact that they started playing rugby in the alley way in front of the bar. One particularly interesting moment was when a group of Argentinian men came up and challenged them. If you have ever watch rugby you would know that to toss the ball in bounds both teams lift a player into the air. So the Irish and Argentines each lifted a guy into the air while someone impartial through the ball. The Argentinians won the toss. Thankfully all the ensued after wards was laughter. We walked next door to a bar called the Latin Quarter, which had the motto "Crazy bar for Sexy Nights". Already laughing at this we walked into the bar to find that all the servers are men wearing nothing but their small underwear. And to top that all off they would randomly drag women from their seats and dance with them. It was hilarious. We stayed there for a while watching the debauchery ensue. Once we were too tired to laugh, we headed home, managing to catch the last train of the night.
The next day was walking tour day. We met the free walking tour people at 1pm in the Latin Quarter. We walked around for 5 hours, seeing what I though at the time, was all of Paris. We learned that privacy is a right in Paris. The rich and famous can actually sue the paparazzi for taking candid pictures of them. The phone company only prints the first four digits of the phone numbers you call. This is apparently so when you slip up and call your mistress from home, your wife wont find out. Apparently monogamy isn't practiced in Paris. We walked across bridges, next to the Seine, through the Louvre courtyards, past the opera house, the old royal palace, and through the immaculate french park which opens up to a large round about with an Egyptian obelisk at the center. This obelisk was a "gift" from the Egyptian government to Napoleon. Apparently Napoleon was obsessed with Egyptian stuff, so in actuality he more or less stole it. Our tour ended near Napoleon's burial sight which was a huge building was a gold dome. We sat on the steps while our tour guide told us a really interesting story about WWII Paris. Apparently Hitler knew that the war wasn't going in his favor so he evacuated Paris and pulled most of his troops out. But before leaving he has all the major monuments, museums, bridges, and buildings wired with dynamite. He was jealous that Paris was the cultural and artistic center of the world. So instead of having it be captured by the enemy, he wanted it to burn and establish Munich as the cultural center. The job of blowing up Paris came down to a general who had been living there for a while. When the time came he couldn't do it. He lit fire to two buildings so he could give a false report to Hitler, saying that Paris was indeed burning. So the reason we have Paris the way it is today is because of some Nazi general. He has a statue near the two buildings he burned. So done with the first walking tour and on to the next.
The second walking tour was through the artist colony of Paris, a place that I didn't know existed and that probably wouldn't of seen if we hadn't learned about the tour. We made three friends from the first walking tour who were going on the second one as well, so we booked it from the ending of one to the beginning of the other, navigating a few metro line changes. We found our tour guide in front of the Moulin Rouge. This was not a whole area, like the movie shows, but actually just a building. It cost €87 to see a show, but that included your own bottle of champagne. We walked up from there until we reached the highest point in Paris. We passed the last remaining windmill, Van Gogh's house, the streets that inspired a few of Van Gogh's works, the last remaining vineyard in Paris (which produces wine annually amidst a huge festival, and you can buy the wine in the states), Picasso's house and studio, and a ton of restaurants and artist strewn through out the hills. At the top of the hill is a large church that looked more like a mosque to me, but was really beautiful on the inside. But of course you couldn't take pictures inside. I managed to take two, but the security guy kept eyeing me so I had to stop. We reached the top at sun set so the view of the city was amazing. All the lights were on, but the sky was a deep purple. We walked back down the hill passing a metro stop that has 100 steps you have to descend before reaching the platform. There are elevators though if you have to go up the stairs. We made it to the bottom of the hill, just in time to decide that we wanted to have dinner at the top of the hill. So two Aussies, one Georgian girl, Braden, and myself climbed up way too many stairs while watching a little gondola bring people up and down. We decided not to pay for the ride up because we were all able to climb stairs, but unfortunately it decided to start pouring on us half way up the climb. By the time we got to the restaurant we were all soaked, but happy to know that food was on the way. We ate a the oldest restaurant in the area (est. 1796) while enjoying live piano music. Well, we enjoyed the music until we learned we had to pay two euros each for the music, and there was no way of not paying it if you had already finished your meal like we had. We made it back down the hill again, and went down the 100 stairs to get to the metro. It was a very long day and we were all happy to go back to our respective hostels and get some sleep.
We were leaving for The Loire valley the next day so we were glad we were able to see so much in one day. And I dont know why people think the French people are rude, everyone was super friendly and helpful. As long as you knew a few basic words in French you were fine.
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