Friday, July 6, 2007
Paris

We got a pretty early start this morning, at the Hotel des Invalides, which was commissioned by Napoleon to quarter the best of his troops. The building was pretty cool, but the reason that most visitors flock to see this place is because Napoleon's tomb is housed in a crypt underneath the hotel. And who knows why so many people want to get so close to the bones of this guy that we study as being such a treacherous creature? Well, I was one of them. Napoleon's tomb is huge, but it is not really all that pretty, in my opinion. In addition to the tomb, we stopped by the museum at the Hotel and got to see models of a bunch of ancient areas of Paris. It was really cool.

After Invalides, Julia and I grabbed some lunch, on-site, and while I was eating my ham and cheese baguette, Julia spotted a pigeon flying around in the kitchen of this restaurant. A closer look showed us that there were actually two dirty birds chilling in this kitchen. I think I figured out the perfect weight loss solution for anyone looking, because I lost my appetite instantly, and I don't even have a weak stomach.

We took the metro to Notre Dame after Invalides, which was absolutely beautiful. Gothic architecture at its finest. After going inside the cathedral and walking all around the outside, we went in the crypt beneath the church which showed what that part of Paris looked like thousands of years ago. It was pretty neat.

After Notre Dame and the crypt, we went by some of the street vendors, and we saw postcards for cheaper than 1 Euro for once (postcards are ridiculous here), and so we bought some, but as we looked at them closely we discovered some serious faults in these postcards. Anyway, we saw a bunch of really cool things in this area, and decided that we would come back on the last day to do some souvenir and gift shopping. Unfortunately it rained so hard on the last day that these vendors weren't even working, so I left Paris almost empty-handed.

We walked from Notre Dame to the Pantheon, which was one of the coolest things I had seen yet. Not the Pantheon itself, but the crypt underneath it. Yes, there are crypts underneath EVERYTHING In Paris. It is crazy. As a philosophy major, it was really cool to see this massive crypt where Jean-Jacques Rousseau and just about every other French philosopher one could thing of is housed. There are several others housed under the Pantheon as well, such as the Curies, Hugo, and many other authors and scientists that I cannot think of at the moment. It is also cool because the crypt is not close to being finished. There were at least as many open plots as there were utilized ones, so notable French figures will continue to be memorialized here for most likely hundreds of years to come.

After the Pantheon, Julia and I got gelato. I had a serious craving for some, and we walked by a shop that looked really good. It was. We got our gelato, and sat on a fountain in front of a church while we ate it. Julia is the slowest eater I have ever met, but for some reason I was able to make my gelato last a bit longer than she was. This was shocking to me, and really exciting for her. Typically I would order twice as much food as her, and finish it in half the time. It is kind of absurd.

We parted ways here and decided that we would meet up later at the Eiffel Tower because I had yet to see it sparkle at night. Back at the hostel, my hostel mates and I made a delicious feast of grilled chicken, string beans, and basil pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes. Each of us contributed (I made the string beans!!), and the food was seriously so delicious. If you read this shortly after I write it, my default picture on Facebook is actually of this meal.

After dinner I met Julia at the Eiffel, and it was sooo cool to see the Eiffel sparkle. Afterwards, we went toward the modern Bastille Opera where we were to meet Emily at a local hang out. After more than an hour of searching, and being misdirected by locals, we never found the place she was at. I took Julia back to Isabel's, and then bolted for the metro, sure that I would make it. It was 1:!5, and the metro was supposed to run until 2 on the weekends. But no, the metro closes whenever the heck it wants to close.

I went to another metro station--also closed. I went to like three bus stations looking for a night bus into Montmarte, and decided that these night buses that people speak of actually do not exist. I ended up having to take a taxi all the way back (20 Euro), all because I was being a nice guy and walking Julia back to her place. I was able to hail a cab after fifteen minutes of watching cab after cab fly by me. My taxi driver must have been the great great great great granddaughter of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. She sat perched over her steering wheel, and her shoulders and ears were in perfect alignment with one another. When I told her Montmarte in every pronunciation I could think of, she finally goes "ohhh Monmartrgrhrigrhgrha," trying to make me feel stupid. I showed her my address, and stopped talking to her. About five or six minutes into the taxi ride, she started muttering "notaxi, notaxi, notaxi." I said huh, and did not know if she meant that she was not really a taxi driver, or if her shift was over and she wanted me to get out and find another taxi to take me the rest of my home. Thinking it might be the second, and knowing the word "new" in French, I replied "Taxi Nouveau," to which she cackled at for about three and a half minutes before saying nothing more until we were in Montmartre.

After taking the most round-about-way imaginable, she pointed at my street, Rue Custine, motioning for me to get out. I was under the impression she would drop me off directly in front of my flat, but I guess I was wrong. I was unfamiliar with the part of Custine she pointed at, but complied and finally found my way home.

This was probably the first serious downer night of my trip. I just wish that somebody had been in the taxi to experience it with me.