A day on the Right Bank of the Seine

Happy Friday everyone!

Day 3 in Paris, and I still haven’t gotten lost… I think since I am on my own, I pay attention to things better or something? Not sure. Or maybe the compass that hangs off my new backpack is some sort of good luck charm. Seriously, it’s been great. Hopefully this trend continues when I get to Lyon. It sure helps having landmarks like the Eiffel Tower to look for if I need to figure out where I am. I sort of have my dad’s genes & don’t like to ask for directions, but I have been pretty good about approaching people & asking if I am heading in the right direction. Luckily, I know how to ask this in French. If I didn’t know how to ask it in French, I probably would have been slightly lost a few times. I know Americans generate a lot of Tourism revenue, but I still feel guilty/bad about making someone talk to me in my home language.

The bike tour last night went great – the weather cleared up right when I got the Eiffel Tour which is the meeting place. The weather over here is very weird – it changes even faster that weather in MN does (in my opinion). During the bike ride, it went from being a perfect evening w/ no clouds in the sky to clouded over & lightly raining. And then it cleared off again. Weird.

The bike ride was a lot of fun though. I hadn’t rode a bike since, well, it’s been a really long time. After riding around Paris, I kind of want to buy a bike when I get back to Minneapolis… Anyways, we rode our bikes around Paris and saw lots of the main sites. It was a good way to get a feel for other locations I want to check out while I am in Paris. We would stop along the way so the guides could tell a story & give us time to take pics.

After riding around, we parked our bikes & got on a Seine River cruise. The guides brought along multiple bottles of wine, so we enjoyed a glass of Vin while cruising down the Seine. Paris is known as the 'City of Lights' so it was a great way to see it all. Of course the Eiffel Tower at night is probably the most photographed attraction. It is really beautiful when it starts to sparkle. It's kind of funny that they give you all this wine & then an hour later, you are back on your bikes! I didn't have much, but I am sure some people did as they just kept coming by & re-filling your glass unless you told them not to!

Now, I know this might provoke a lot of eye rolling out there, but one of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing this bridge, Pont d’Arts (Pat - I can just imagine you shaking your head at me right now). Why was I so excited? A scene from the final episode of Sex & the City was filmed here!! It just happens that this is the bridge where Big said, ‘Carrie, you’re the one’. All the girls on the tour (including me of course!) were gushing over this little factoid. I can pretty much say the lines from that part of the episode verbatim.

This morning I started my day with another Pain au Chocolat. I knew I’d be climbing both the Notre Dame Tower & Arc de Triomphe.

After breakfast I headed over to the Notre Dame. I got there early since my guidebook had the wrong opening time for it… it worked out well that I was early since the line was already starting to form. They only let 6-10 people up at a time so it doesn’t get too crowded, so it’s kind of a long process to get up there. I was in the 2nd group of people. We climbed around 400 steps up – was worth it as the view of the city was amazing! Of course, pictures don’t do it justice.

Next stop was St Chapelle. This is an old Catholic Church with the most amazing Stained Glass Windows. The church is no longer used for Masses; now it is a tourist site during the day & they hold concerts there in the evenings. . I am hoping to take in a concert when I am back in Paris after my time in Lyon. The Stain Glass Windows are beautiful – each section illustrates a chapter from the bible.

After St Chapelle, I headed over to the Marais area to grab lunch at a place I had read about. The Marais district has probably been my favorite area of Paris so far. It sort of looks how I imagined Paris to look – lots of narrow, winding streets with little shops, Patisseries, & Boulangeries. I am taking a Walking Tour thru that area tomorrow morning so am looking forward to getting a closer look at it. I found the Falafel place I was looking for & had an amazing falafel sandwich – it was huge and only 5 Euro which is pretty good considering how expensive everything is around here! A Falalel is basically ground up chick peas that have been deep fried. Probably doesn't sound too good, but it's very tasty! They serve it w/ shredded cabbage, cucumubers, and other 'stuff' (no idea what,though!) & then put a sort of yogurt sauce on top. It was awesome!

Next I took a metro to the Champs Elysees area. I had seen part of the Champs Elysees on my first day in Paris, but hadn’t gotten very far down, so I decided to head back there & walk up to the Arc de Triomphe. CE is lined with stores, many of them upscale like Cartier. I don’t have a ton of room in my suitcase so wasn’t too tempted to buy anything. I had read that the CE is supposed to be similar to Michigan Avenue in Chicago; I had even read that some people thought Michigan Ave was far superior. I have to disagree, though. They had so many cute cafes & restaurants long the CE & the trees & greenery were just beautiful. One interesting thing I noticed was that all the chairs in the restaurant were facing out towards the seat. So people who were eating lunch together weren’t facing each other – they were facing the CE. Kind of different, but cool.

I made it down to the Arc de Triomphe & climbed up to the top of that. I think it’s around 250 step; the Nortre Dame has about 400 steps, so I have been up & down over 1200 steps!! The view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe was really neat – it is in the middle of the intersection of 8 roads. So a pretty neat thing to see. The road here in Paris are crazy. I could never drive here. It seems like it’s never just 2 streets intersecting , so it’s pretty complicated.

After all the walking & steps, I am relaxing in my usual spot, the Trocadero. My feet are pretty much out of commission for a few hours w/ all the walking & step climbing. Tonight I am meeting up with Yulia’s friend, Anna. She speaks English, so I am looking forward to having someone to talk to while I eat! I have gotten pretty good at eating alone, but would definitely prefer to have some company. We just spoke & she's taking me to a restaurant where a scene from the Paris Sex & the City episodes was filmed. If you haven't caught on, I'm a bit of a fan of the show... so I'm excited to see where she's taking me. Our reservation isn't until 10:30 so luckily that gives me time to catch a quick cat nap.

I don't have too much planned tomorrow. Doing a walking tour of the Marais, and then the afternoon is open. Tomorrow is "Fete de la Musique" here which is an annual music festival. As I write this, it sounds like a band is doing a sound check by the Eiffel Tower. Basically, there is live music all over the city - lots of amateurs but also some good musicians from what I've heard so I am looking forward to checking that out. Also, 3 Carlson students arrive tomorrow & are staying in my hotel!! So I am really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces!

Salut until tomorrow!!!