Writing Monday for Saturday: A Day in the City

Saturday we had time, so we didn't meet for breakfast till 9:30 or so. Sure, we were "wasting" time in Paris, but if you're too pooped you won't take it in anyway, and Justin was sick. So we went down and got our cool free breakfast with really good cheese and excellent hot chocolate, and ate and planned out our day somewhat. Then we left for the metro and planned some more. We got a message too late from the front desk telling when and where our group was meeting, so we did our own thing.

We went first to Ile-de-cite, the island in the middle of the river running through Paris, the Seine. There we went inside Notre Dame and took pictures of the cool gargoyles and great statue of Charlemagne out front. Then we walked to the Place de la Bastille, and couldn't find the Bastille.... yes, the point of that whole thing is that they tore it down, so I was told today! I didn't do much research. Also I don't remember my French revolution history. On our way to the Latin Quarter, we found an excellent little shop selling quiche slices to go! They had all kinds and they all looked scrumptious. I finally settled on a goat cheese and spinach one, and Justin got smoked ham and sharp cheddar. We took them across the street and ate them on a park bench by a funny little chapel thing and watched the pigeons. Then we walked through part of the Latin Quarter, which was really cool and where I kind of wished we had bought lunch, because they had scrumptious looking Greek food... but that's okay. :) Quiche is French. Then we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe, from where I was pleased to survey the Champs-Elysees. I liked the open roads and mad traffic even more than the arch. :)

Then we walked to the Eiffel Tower, just in case anybody from our group was still planning to show up there at 4:30, as was tentatively indicated the day before. Of course, the Eiffel Tower being absolutely humongous, we didn't see anyone we knew, and instead went up by way of the stairs. At the point where you must go the rest of the way by elevator, two ladies gave us their better tickets (they paid for the elevator on the way up to that point), because they were too cold to stay, and we got a free ride to the top. The view was beautiful. The sun was going down this whole time, and the clouds would break just right so the sun shone down across the city in streams. When it got darker, the lights of the city shone brigher and brighter against the blue of the sky. It was beautiful. The wind was pretty chilly too. We had a nice time at the top, then we went down and across the river to a good point for viewing when the Tower goes wild with strobe lights that look like largescale sparkles. We saw that and then headed over to try to visit everybody else on the trip.

Justin and I finally found their hotel, and talked with them for a while before heading back out, initially planning to meet up with them for the rest of the evening. However, we decided that wouldn't work because we had to be ready to leave early in the morning and couldn't afford to go without the rest. We were also really stinkin hungry and needing food, but sadly at this time of night (9:15 or so) not much was open. So we bought Chinese, as we had the night before. It was open, cheap, filling, and good. That was really nice, though as you may also think, ridiculous, since we were in Paris. :) But we definitely got better at using chopsticks, using them two nights in a row!

Then we went back to the hostel and went to bed.

posted by LizC @ 2/19/2005 01:47:00 PM