Paris - Part 1

Let's just start by saying that I had a horrible journey down to Paris. This flying business is no deal - we were nearly two hours late, resulting in my taking the metro across Paris all by myself after midnight. While getting a seat was not an issue, fear of the trains stopping while I was far from my destination was certainly a concern.

So Thursday was my first day there. The folks were allegedly going to Giverny, although it was later revealed that was just a clever front so they wouldn't have to hang out with us 'kids'. Alas, Mark and I were left to roam the streets by ourselves, hot tears streaming down our cheeks. As so many of things were closed as they regard May 1 as some sort of holiday (I just think they didn't want to go to work), we really did do a lot of roaming. We roamed through the Luxembourg gardens, then headed towards Notre Dame via the Panthenon. Or is it the Parthenon? The place with famous dead French people inside.

Notre Dame, to put it mildly, was a crazy circus of rapid wild animals. To quote Cher from Clueless, it's like, way famous. And as it was open, it was an obvious place for everyone to go, present company included. There was much chaos and confusion to be had, so after posing for the requisite pictures and being handed a note by a woman who had 10 children somewhere and wanted money to feed them (the first of about 30, I'm not a fan of this approach to asking for money), we headed a little closer to try and figure out what the deal was with the line. It was approximately 3 miles long and snaked every which way. I made Mark get in anyways, and about 15 minutes later we made it inside. Once within the halls of the ancient cathedral, we were herded and poked like cattle as a mass was getting underway and the smoking ball man needed a clear path. Let's just say it was very nice, but there were too many people!

Post cathedral, we continued our roam across the rest of the river, past the Hotel de Ville, through a few animaleries to look at the cute puppies and kittens, and then on to the Louvre. While closed, this did not prevent us taking pictures of the outside. The sporadic rain showers then encouraged us to eat inside. After much stress and confusion, we had delicious sandwiches before continuing on our way. We made a brief stop to mispronounce Madeleine/buy Madeleine and then went back into the Tuileries and up the Champs Elysees. The road was packed with people despite the stores being closed, but then I realized that under most circumstances the stores would be holding onto a lot of these people, reducing sidewalk congestion, so then it made a bit of sense to me.

The Arc de Triumphe is conveniently located in the middle of a 12-armed roundabout, thus allowing you to practice your shuffle as you take the pedestrian underpass. My shuffle was a little rusty, so I was thankful for the chance. Now the arc proved a very handy place to be for the next rain shower, providing fine arc-like cover. Thanks, arc. Tired off walking, we then searched desperately for an open cafe on the way back to the apartment so we could sit outside, pretend to be Parisian and drink some wine. The one we finally stumbled upon was approximately 15 feet from the apartment, so that was somewhat convenient. To accompany our bottle of red, we got a sausage plate. Which was all in all not a bad way to spend the late afternoon.

When the folks finally decided to grace us again with their presence, we roamed some more streets looking for a place to eat dinner. We finally ended up a cute little Italian restaurant where I consumed yummy pizza. I just can't recall exactly what was on it. While there, we learned that cool French people don't head out for dinner until approximately 9:30 and then wait ages for a table, but if you show up for dinner at 7:30 you'll be shown to a table right away.