March 1, 2012 - Paris day 3

                I awoke to still-sore feet but also to another amazing carb-full breakfast.  We started off our day checking out the Bastille Market that was right next to our hotel.  This was a swap meet that was about three blocks long, selling everything from jewelry to creepy meat to scarves.  I’ve never been much of a meat fan, but I can tell you that my travels in Europe have basically turned me into a vegetarian.  I never want to see another bloody carcass hanging in front of my face again.

Outside the market

  Then we headed over to my favorite part of Paris (other than the sparkling Eiffel Tower), the Musee’ de Orsay.  The Orsay is filled with the crowning impressionist and post-impressionist paintings.  This means Monet’s.  Lots of them.  Monet is my favorite artist (with Turner close in second).  He is absolutely fantastic – I love everything about his art.  I love his nature scenes, the colors he chooses, and how he wipes the paint across the canvas.  Impressionists were more interested in painting how the light affected things and how it changed qualities of the subject rather than painting things as they actually looked.  They favored ordinary subjects and open composition.  I could have spent hours looking at Monet’s works.  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, so I’ll include some of my favorite works from Monet for you to gaze at. 

                After mopping up the tears from my eyes I headed over to check out Napoleon’s tomb at the Hotel de les Invalides.  We got a bit lost, and a helpful French woman stopped to ask us if we needed help with directions.  Something interesting about the French – I was prepared to have a thick skin coming to Paris, because I’ve always been told that the French hate Americans.  This was COMPLETELY not the case.  They didn’t love us as much as our Irish friends did, but they were all very nice.  They smiled back at us when we smiled at them, they accepted our apologies for our lack of speaking French, they gave us directions, and they were overall very friendly.  Way to go French! 

Napoleon’ tomb was pretty impressive, and it was interesting to see how the French have honored Napoleon, seeing how he is seen as a negative figure in our history. 

Hotel de Invalides

 After the tomb we made our way over to Notre Dame (third time’s a charm!) and finally got to climb the dang thing.  You’d think I’d have had my fill of climbing in Paris, but I guess I just couldn’t get enough.  We were handed a pamphlet educating us on all we needed to know about the tower while waiting in line (they only let about 20 people up at a time because of the narrow spiraling steeps).  This helpful pamphlet informed me that there were 387 beautiful steps leading up to the gargoyles (“it’s best to be in good shape!” – ya, thanks).  We made it up the first couple hundred to the first landing and were rewarded with another stunning view of Paris.  We got to see the gargoyles up close and were kept safely on the walkway by sturdy chicken wire encasing the passage.  There were about 180 more steps up to the largest bell and the higher view of Paris.  At one point there was a sign informing us that we only had about 5 minutes left before we reached the top.  One girl in my group remarked that that was being pretty generous.  And indeed it was, because I’m pretty sure that was 5 minutes in hunchback time.  Quasimodo must have been quite the spry little hunchback, climbing those windy stairs day after day.  Eventually we made it up to the very top, and we got another view of Paris, but more importantly, we got the right to brag to others that we had climbed Notre Dame.  I think that’s one of the main reasons why I push myself to do all the things I do in my travels in Europe – solely for the bragging rights when I get back home.  Oh, and because it’s really cool.  That too.

Such a contemplative little gargoyle

View from the top

Chicken wire to keep you safe

                The biggest bell (of 5) in Notre Dame is Emmanuel, weighing at 13 tons.  It’s only wrung a couple times a year for special Catholic holidays.  The thing is a beast. 

Inside the bell tower

Emmanuel

                Oh, and what goes up must come down.  So we climbed back down the 387 stairs, and even though it’s a workout going up stairs, it’s just as bad coming back down them because you get sooooo dizzy and sick from the windy staircase.

Nasty winding staircase 

If you look closely you can see the people walking around the two towers where I just was

                As a reward, we went back to our friend’s crepe shop and walked through Luxembourg Gardens (ever watchful of more French men practicing their herding skills on us).  I was still very upset with the Gardens for not having the Statue of Liberty on display, so in another act of patriotism I decided to head over to the other replica of the statue at the Pont de Grenelle (close to the Eiffel Tower).  Well done, French.  I’m sure when they were creating the Statues of Liberty they looked at the one that’s now in New York and said, “ugh, what a huge eyesore.  Let’s give this one to the Americans and keep the normal one for ourselves.”  But how we love Lady Liberty, thanks French!

Crepe reward

Lady Liberty!!

Seine River at sunset

 We made a quick stop off to the Opera House and were rewarded with a live band of boys performing outside the Opera House in yellow dresses, boas, shirts, and hats.  I’m not sure what the significance of yellow was for their group, but they were a lively bunch.  

Band of Boys

By this time we really had to use the restroom, but we couldn’t find anywhere to go (in Europe they make you PAY for public restrooms.  I’m not even kidding.  This will be the downfall of Europe, mark my words).  We figured we’d head to dinner and use the restrooms in the restaurant and then go watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle one last time.  We made our way over to the Eiffel Tower to eat somewhere around there, but couldn’t find any places to suit our needs (they were either suuuuper expensive restaurants or booths with take-away food).  We sat and watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle together, pondering our predicament.  Then we had the solution – we had our 3-day museum pass and could pop into a museum just to use their restroom.  The problem was, many of the museums were already closed, and we had to find one that our pass would let us go in.  So we wandered around a bit until I spotted an architecture museum that was on our list.  We laughed the whole way about our trashy American ways – using a museum just for the bathroom.  I’m not sure what the museum operators thought about us.  But that architecture museum was one of my favorite museums we visited on our trip.

                After the architecture museum we were good to go.  We rewarded ourselves with churros and sat on some high steps with a crowd to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle one more time.  It is such a beautiful sight and everyone should take a trip just to see it.  Paris really is a romantic city, but too bad I was surrounded by 16 girls.  Oh well, it’s just part of my 4 month fast I guess.

                For dinner we went back to the really good pizzeria we went to the first night.  The waiter was so much fun and he messed with us throughout dinner, switching around our plates and pretending to take bites of our food.  More proof of how great the French are.