We got up early again today [big surprise and all], and the first thing we did was travel to Notre Dame again. This time we actually went inside it, but the belltower or whatever wasn't open, so we couldn't see Quasimodo. But we did see all the stain glass windows, which was much more interesting. It was so beautiful.
We walked to the Chapelle something or other, it was the Palace of Justice of Paris. We didn't go inside because of the line ups, but it was interesting to see the outside.
We hit another church, or a castle, I think it was the oldest one in town, it was cool as well. More stain glass windows. I like stain glass windows. And the organ was so impressive. There were weird metal statue things outside, so we had to pose like them and take more pictures. There was this giant head and hand made of stone. That was interesting.
We walked a little farther and came across the Pompidou building, where all the pipes and stairs and stuff are on the outside of the building. We never did get to see the inside; it was closed. Yep. Apparently we were up too EARLY. I mean, we had seen all of these things before 9:30... well except Pompidou. That was at 10. But still. 3 buildings before 9:30? Tells you we were up too early.
We saw a cool fountain, right after passing a dead bird. Tasteful. Shannon and I did happen to see a pigeon actually cross a street on a crosswalk. It was too funny. Guess the birds here are smart.
We used the metro for the first time to go to the Place de la Bastille, or Concorde, I don't know if they're the same thing or not. It's the place where all their heads were cut off during the French Revolution. Very cool. All it is now is a big traffic circle with a pole in the middle. We kept walking, and came across another palace for Louis. Maybe not a palace. But still a building. He had a lot of houses it seems. In that same block was Victor Hugo's house. He was a writer; and a sculpter, and a painter, it seems. Very talented man. Anyway he wrote Les Miserables, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as well as a lot of other material I'm sure. We spent some time there looking at his stuff. I'm sure no one else's group went to his house.
Our next stop was the Chateau de Vincennes, which was cool. But being as we had such sore feet because all we do in Paris is walk, none of us wanted to go inside, especially not after we heard the dungeon was closed. That's the most interesting room.
We travelled back to Montmartre [yay!], with me leading, [I actually enjoyed leading to Montmartre cause it's.. well, it's Montmartre] and we actually got there ok and didn't get lost.. amazing. We ate lunch then, in a restaurant. I had lasagna. Yum. After eating, we travelled to a street called the Poisonniere. Well, on this street were [supposedly] stores and malls and all things shopping. Turns out Carlos got bad directions and it wasn't the right street. That's ok. Now he knows for next time. Either way we had a pleasant stroll down the street. After that mishap, we headed on over to the Catacombs. Again I had to brave belltower like stairs. 138 steps later... we were in the bottom. For the first ten minutes or so, it was just walking. Nothing to be seen. Now, when I thought of Catacombs, I thought, oh, ok, bones right.... so a pile of bones here, a scatter of bones over there.. no biggie. Nothing like that. All the bones are glued together and stacked high. There were, oh, 6 million bodies in there. And it's just walking through them. They made like a maze out of bones that you just follow along, and go, oh look at all the pretty bones. Some of the bones were even in a design; like the skulls, they liked to make crosses and other patterns out of them, even a heart at one point. The only good thing about the Catacombs was the cold. It was stifling in Europe, especially in Paris. I wore tank tops every day, and I was still boiling. After all the dead people, and climbing 83 stairs, we stopped at a supermarket for water.
Instead of water, Matt, Murray, Shannon and I all decided to gang together and get an 8 pack of ice cream cones; 4 vanilla, 4 chocolate, and eat two. We pooled in some money, and were shocked; it was quality ice cream, and it was a Euro 20. Crazy french people. It was so good! Like I said, gourmet. I love the vanilla here. Could eat it all day.
We hopped back on the metro to go see Notre Dame yet again, to see if we could get in the belltowers yet. The lines were too long, so we went shopping again! Yay! I bought the rest of my souvenirs [eiffel tower model, gifts for friends] and all was well. We travelled back to the ol' Auberge for dinner, rested a bit, then it was back out for our last night on the town *sob*.
Guess where we went?? Well, we travelled back to Montmartre, saw the street artists paint [such amazing talent!] and almost got sucked into getting our portrait done [too much money, not enough time]. I went into a store on the same street, and got a wicked/awesome painting of the Moulin Rouge, all in blue and white for mom. She'll love it. I love it. Mine! heh.
Then we went to the best place in Paris!!!! MOULIN ROUGE!! YAAAAAAAAY!! Ahem. Well, you know. Where the actual moulin was once [not that it was a real one, but you know what I mean]. Now it's still a nightclub, but it's like a vegas nightclub. Yep. Topless. We didn't go in, cause even I can't fork out 180E just to go inside. But someday... I don't care about the money.... as long as I get to see the inside... that's all that matters. Anyway it was so cool! [I got to lead again, oh darn]. I got nine pictures. And if there weren't scary looking bodyguard types directly inside I would have ran into the foyer type thing and gotten a picture of me inside there as well. But like I said freaky bodyguard type people. This time Shannon had to drag me away..
After that heavenly visit, we headed back onto the metro to go to the Champs d'Elysees, because Deana and Kristen insisted upon more shopping. I didn't really buy anything. Just makeup. We met up, got back onto the metro, and headed over to the Pont Marie station. Then we travelled up somewhere to find the place that M. Hebert's group had recommended for crepes. Seems we had extra money in the funding so we had to spend it on something, so Carlos decided to buy us all crepes. We found the place by pure chance, and ordered crepes. Murray and Lisa got ice cream instead; Murray got raspberry, and it tasted so good! But I had already decided on a Nutella and banana crepe, and so I got that. So good. First crepe, and it was so very good. I miss crepes. Shannon and I will have to try that recipe my mom has sometime soon.
We walked back to our Auberge, and I packed. Aww our last night at the Auberge. Our last night in Paris!!! I'll miss our shoe box.
