Paris Day 2 (mercredi)

Another terrific day in Paris and guess what??? Il ne pleure pas! What I ended up doing yesterday was fine for a rainy day. I am so glad I put off L'Open Tour until today!

I woke up "in the middle of the night" or so I thought, feeling like I had to pee (yeah, yeah - too much information). The bathroom is down the hall and I was too lazy to go. I tried to go back to sleep until "morning." Out of curiosity, I looked to see what wee (sorry!) hour of the night it was - 9:00 am! I had slept like a complete rock for about 11 hours!

I did NOT go back to sleep - too much Paris to see! I saw all of Paris today - yep, ALL of it. I bought a ticket to L'Open Tour (a double decker bus that is open upstairs). You can hop on and off as it rides all over Paris. I saw: L'Opera, La Madeleine, Place de la Concorde, les Champs Elysees, L'Arc de Triumphe, Trocadero, la Tour Eiffel, Les Invalides, Pont Neuf, Notre Dame, Le Musee du Louvre and Montmartre.

I hoped off in three places:

1. For about 30 minutes at the Eiffel Tower - I did not go up because I didn't want to wait an hour to climb the steps or an hour and a half to go up the lift. It was impressive and beautiful. I confess the thing that I loved about it was that Ghandi was there and climbed the steps and marveled at the construction (Bill had just read that to me the other day). I pictured him (Ghandi, not Bill) in his white cloth and sandals - though I'm almost positive he climbed as a student in his pre-loin cloth days!



2. For about three hours in Montmartre. This has been my favorite part of Paris so far. I did a self-guided walking tour, had a late lunch at a creperie and just wandered some. I loved the steep hills, cobblestones, beautiful views, and architecture (plus the fact that Amelie, one of my favorite movies, was filmed there). There I saw: the Moulin Rouge, Musee de L'Erotisme (no, I didn't go in), Cafe des Deux Moulins (where Amelie worked), Van Gogh's brother's house where he (Vincent) lived for 2 years, the twin windmills, Au Lapin Agile, Close du Montmartre (a vineyard in the city dating back to 1933), Sacre Coeur and its beautiful views of Paris, and a place where Picasso once lived in utter poverty.



3. For about 2 hours at the Louvre (finally). I was trying to hurry (I arrived about 3 hours before closing), so I accidentally skipped through a 1 1/2 hour audio tour in about an hour. I did see the Mona Lisa (smaller than I thought, but still captivating). I've been smiling to myself like she is since I got to Paris - though I think my smile is BIGGER even though hers is more FAMOUS! Finished so quickly, i did find some other stuff - the medieval moat beneath the palace, Venus de Milo, the sarcophagus of a married couple and Psyche and Cupid (WOW!). I sitll had an hour before it closed and I decided to LEAVE! I'm glad I went, but it is too big!!! There is so much that you get lost, which I did. Even though a Parisian (and maybe some of you?) would slap me upside the head for heresy, I'd rather go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC any day. They are doable and organized in a way my brain can take it in. I read it would take someone 9 months to go through and look at each piece in the Louvre!

I metroed back to my hood, "El Cuarto de Las Latinas" AKA the Latin Quarter (funny, I didn't really see any other Latinas). I got some Indian Dall and brought it back to my room. It was the best dall I've EVER had. Yikes!!! It's midnight! Je vais dormir!