Allie went to an art gallery as I slept in, weary from all the walking the day before. It was difficult to get out of bed since I had slept funny and now had more sore muscles than I had previously. I managed to get ready in time for when Allie returned. We were going to go on tour of Paris today, one of those free tours they do in every country. The plan was to do this tour, then go to Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, the Christmas Markets and the Louvre in the evening. Another full day...We arrived at the meet spot in a square that was technically located on an island in the Seine River. Turns out the tour was actually going to be three hours long. Well this threw a curve in the day since it was already 1 pm. Our guide was extremely enthusiastic and was Italian. I won't recap the whole tour since many of the sights we saw were what we'd seen the day before except with history thrown in which I've already recounted. An interesting stop we made was to the famous Love Lock Bridge.
The bridge is so full of Locks that it is actually considered structurally unstable. They cut off all the locks every two months but the practice is so popular that it doesn't help. We were some of the last people to see this bridge with all the locks on it. They are going to make the sides of the bridge out of glass instead of chain link so that people can't put locks on it anymore. But as I said, the practice is so popular that its started on other bridges now as well.
We finished the tour at Place de la Concord which was right across from the Christmas Markets at Champs-Elysee. It was filled with lights and stalls lining both sides of the street with wares to buy as presents. Some specialized in wood work or crotchet, others in making jewelry and soap. It was very quaint and extravagant all at the same time.
We decided since we were not going to Versailles that we would do Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle tomorrow and instead browsed the markets at our leisure. After we bought some presents for loved ones back home, we made our way back in the direction of the Louvre for our much anticipated and free visit to see the famous art gallery.
Allie loves art history and is majoring in graphic design and, therefore, takes more of an interest in classic art than I do. I was traditional tourist. I was merely interested in seeing the Mona Lisa up close. We took our time looking at as many paintings as we could since there is not possible way to see it all. If you spent one minute looking at each painting, it would take you about a week to see all of them. We arrived at the room of the famous painting and just as I was told, it was tiny.
To make it even better it was facing a wall that held a painting the size of the wall it was mounted on. It was ridiculous but cool. We continued on to see what Allie wanted to see which were other famous painters and paintings that she knew. Some I'd heard of but not many. After her desire was quenched we headed back to our hostel.
We found that we were not alone since the beds had been disturbed but there was still no one in sight. We were too tired to stay up much longer and got ready for bed. As we did, a woman entered the room. Her name was Christie and she was from Holland. She was temporarily working in Paris and was headed home but decided to stay one extra night. She was really nice and told us about some interesting places that we should visit if we had time. We talked to her a little bit longer and then all called it a night.
Saturday 22nd
In the morning we met our roommate: Mackenzie who was from California studying abroad in Europe. We all got ready and then headed downstairs to breakfast where we met up her study abroad roommate, Matt. The breakfast area was cafeteria style in that you picked what you wanted to eat. I ate several pieces of pound cake and coffee. The coffee was served to us in bowls! It was the weirdest thing, but I honestly found the experience enjoyable. After breakfast, Christie left the hostel to return home and we headed out for the catacombs.
We waited in line for about an hour before we got to go inside the catacombs. It got colder the farther we went. The pathway winded further into the earth and sections were gated off to prevent tourists from losing their way. It was a mile long attraction and we finally got about ten minutes in and saw bones embedded into the walls.
It was fascinating seeing so many bodies here arranged in this manner. There are six million people buried in the catacombs under Paris. It's absolutely mind-bottling. I have never felt so small in the world except when thinking about stars and galaxies. After we walked up the equivalent of 15 flights of stairs we made it out into fresh air beside the gift shop. I couldn't resist going inside and you'll be surprised, dear reader, that I did not buy anything here, though I gave it a serious amount of thought.
We began talking to the man behind the counter named Paul who started the conversation with "Ca va bien?" (are you good?) with which I replied, "Bien, (Good) when I should have said "Oui," (yes). I'm hard of hearing and only heard the ca va part which would have made my response correct. Oh well. He was very nice to me and we talked a lot about places that I should travel to. He suggested Istanbul if I had time, I would have loved to but there was not enough time. I think he may have been nice to me because I was pretty as were many Frenchman when I walked into their shops. He asked if we knew where we were going and if we had any problems that we should just come back and he'd help.
After that we decided to head off to an old graveyard since we hadn't had enough death in our day. As we walked down a nice quiet street full of local shops, a car drove straight into a corner and rammed into the railing. The man standing near it dove out of the way. It was the first time I had ever actually had my eyes on a crash when it happened. (Usually its like bang! what happened? look over, car crashed).
We arrived at the graveyard and just meandered our way through looking at all the graves literally piled on top of each other.
It was beautiful place that had a fountain where children were sailing little boats in front of the Palace. It was just lovely. It was a beautiful day and everything was so colorful.
We walked around for a time and then decided it was time for a late lunch since we were both starving. We went to a restaurant called Cafe de Paris. We decided to be adventurous. We got escargots.
Don't worry, I lived. It was actually quite tasty. Like shrimp. Yummy. I kind of wished we had bought more because I loved whatever it was soaked in. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. While we were eating, a woman collapsed in the street. We think she was having a seizure or something. Everyone was really helpful and supportive of the woman and she was just fine. At the end of the meal, I asked in french "La carte, s'il vous plait" and he looked at me funny and said "you mean "l'addition." I was taught in school to say that phrase to ask for the check but apparently I've just said I am going to pay with card. *facepalm*
When we were done eating, Allie wanted to head over and see Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame since we didn't yesterday. When we arrived, Saint Chapelle was closing at 4:30! Disappointed, we headed to Notre Dame and found it too was closed! But not only that, the entire street was roped off. Apparently they were having some kind of street festival that day in celebration of Advent.
We 'hopped' the fence, so to speak, to see what this thing was all about. I at least got some free hot chocolate out of the deal. We still didn't really know what was going on but it looked cool. There was a procession of people coming out of Notre Dame with septres. We decided to walk along the canal so we could get a good view for the light show that the Eiffel Tower does every hour once it gets dark. The walk was nice and leisurely and there is something so poetic about seeing the Seine River reflecting the Paris lights at night. We saw the light show and then decided to head back to the hostel but still had time before going to bed. It was too early. So we walked to the Love Lock Bridge and watched the light show again. We had a much better view this time. Basically the Eiffel Tower's lights just have a seizure for a while but it was still nice to see.
We finally decided that we were tired enough to head back. We returned to the hostel and packed our things for the next day's seven hour bus back to London.
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