Monday in Paris - Overwhelming, wandering, streets, buildings and parks

Day 1 in Paris
Our room came with the remains of a previous tenant. The poor moth probably died of starvation.

I was up very early, local time, about 3 am. I had been sleeping for nearly 10 hours and I was excited and hungry. I occupied my time, waiting for it to be a more appropriate time to wake the others by eating a the rest of the mini beigne du caramels I had bought the evening before. I figured out how to get onto the WiFi, started journaling and checked my email. I finally got a little sleepy so I decided to see if I could sleep just a bit more. That's when the storm hit.

Loud cracks of thunder to drown out the road and airport noise. The rain is amazing, it filled the streets with at least an inch of water. I opened our little door/window to let the fresh air in, watch the lightning and rain. We don't get these kind of storms very often in Kirkland, it was a treat. As the storm started to die down I showered since it was getting close to the time I would need to do so to start our day at 8 am. I was still hungry, so I was planning to be down at breakfast by 7 am when it opened. At one point during my shower, SK was moving about in the room, then suddenly the lights went out. I was in the middle of washing my hair so I had the water off and didn't notice right away. As I was rinsing out the shampoo and I could finally open my eyes I saw that it was very dark. As my eyes adjusted I could see a little and I finally noticed that light was coming from the door. I yelled out to SK and asked if he had turned off the lights to the bathroom. He said he didn't think he had, but when he flipped the switches my lights came back on. I finished my shower and proceeded on to the rest of my day. But more adventure would happen before we even left for Paris. As a note, I am aware of the custom in Europe for bathroom use: the shower was not very conducive to relaxing in a warm stream of water. It is designed to be held with your hand. The idea is that you rinse off (get wet), turn off the water and lather up, then rinse off. Repeat if needed. I immediately figured this out upon inspection of the shower the night before. I explained to SK that this is what should be done. We had been told by another friend, AP, who was born in Israel that this was common in Europe. We left our room, making sure we had our key card, and wandered down to see if breakfast was ready yet, and make sure that AM was.

After showering, we headed down to breakfast. It hadn't started yet, in fact the lobby was blocked off by a metal door. We knocked on AM's door on the way back to our room and found her to be just getting up. So we decided to return to the room to finish getting ready. The key card wouldn't work! We went back downstairs to wait for the reception desk to open. Why we didn't think about calling? I don't know. Maybe we were still adjusting to being up at the opposite time of day and our brains weren't caught up. Breakfast was warm mini baguette, warm croissant, warm chocolate pastry, sliced emmental cheese and ham (the French seem to love their ham), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes with some plain yogurt dressing. A coffee machine for fresh cafe au lait or express, and the cafe cappuccino turned out to be more mocha-like. I grabbed a couple packets of soft cheese and a madelaine to take along. I did end up eventually eating the madelaine and one of the cheese packets, the other decided to spread itself across the inside of my backpack.

Monday morning, after these fine adventures, we headed into Paris to see what we could see. Getting into Paris was no problem, we knew where the RER station is and there is only one that stops in Goussainville.

We needed to find our way to the places that had our tour packages so we started for those first. AM had a very handy app that would map out our route, works for any of the transportation systems. Sometimes, though, it will lead us in the wrong direction, or we are interpreting it wrong and head off in the wrong direction. The transportation systems in Paris are amazing. They have surface street buses, a subway system (Metro), the regional train system (RER) and high speed trains. They also have taxis, rickshaws, bicycles for rent everywhere. The system of tunnels that need to be navigated from getting off a train to getting on the next is absolutely confusing. The signs, for the most part, are good, but there seems to be less assurances along the way that you are going in the correct direction.

The French often run through these passages trying to make their next train. There are lots of stairs, few elevators, some escalators, especially for the really long ascents/descents. The tunnels are not spotless, but for the most part they are not terribly abused. We managed to get off our train and have to figure out how to navigate this maze of tunnels to get to our next train, or up to the surface. We did some quick option consideration and then tried to find our way to the next transportation. What a maze! Up and down, twists and turns, it just kept going. Finally we felt the fresh air of the surface and found ourselves on the streets of Paris, overwhelmed by the sights already.

After a flurry of picture taking, we started moving in the direction of our destination, which was supposed to have our 5 zone pass for 5 days so we could use the transportation systems without having to buy extra zones every time we needed to get back to our hotel room. We eventually found that, but only after stopping at each new site and taking many pictures.

We got our passes, but they ended up being for 3 zones. Grrr. We then headed for Hard Rock to pick up our Paris Pass that gets us into everywhere except the Eiffel Tower and includes the hop-on hop-off bus tour and the boat tour.
We then found a need to eat. The food is incredible. We haven't had a bad meal, or snack yet. We stopped at a Starbucks and got some French chai tea. Ok, really it was the same, but you can't get chai tea from most French cafes, restaurants or snack stands (known as brasseries). The cashier was very nice and gave us a card so that if wee buy 10 drinks while in Paris we get one free. So much for rude French people!
We then started wandering around trying to see the sights. The skyline of Paris is unique (to me). The roofs bristle with chimneys. I've seen this before in movies that show the buildings of old Paris and London. They harken back to a time when everyone used fireplaces to warm their homes. The buildings run continuously for blocks, sometimes. Lots of windows, little porches with iron work and hidden inner courtyards. Everywhere I look I am charmed. I don't feel like I am a typical tourist. Most go to places like Paris to see Le Louvre and Le Tour d'Eiffel. I want to see those as well, but I am also taking photos of the typical buildings of Paris, the ironwork, the streets. I find these just as interesting, and somewhat more enjoyable as the crowded famous attractions. We were attracted by a large and ornate building. We walked down alley ways toward it, through renovation work on Nouveau Jardin. The building was the church of St. Eustace.

As we were leaving this area, an older gentlemen stopped, looked me up and down and said "C'est bonne!" I just said "Pardon."

We walked the streets, being pulled in a direction that held something that looked interesting. We walked through an area of the Jardin Tuileries. I of course am trying to capture everything in pictures, while enjoying the sights. At one point I noticed some goats being used as lawn maintenance (keeping the grass and weeds short on the edge of the park. I took a picture, because I like animals and don't get the opportunity to see them up close very often.

At one point a women started scolding me for being a "Typical American woman taking pictures of the poor trapped animals." It was an interesting one-sided conversation. I again said "Pardon." and moved away. As I turned and observed her from a distance she was "baa-ing" at the goats and talking to them. I think I had just encountered someone who needed a few more meds. She eventually turned and jogged off, appearing for all the world to be a normal person out for a morning run, but I suspected this was not really the case.

We wandered through the area of the Musee d'Orsay. It was here we encountered another interesting character. I am busy taking pictures of everything, my eyes are not on the ground, but up looking at the buildings, the shop signs, the people. Suddenly I see a woman and child coming toward me and the woman is reaching down to pick up a large gold ring that she noted on the ground. She holds it out toward me, tries it on to show me it is too big, she insists I take it. I try to tell her to sell it or give it to the police. She insists I take it, she is allergic to metal. The ring has a decent weight to it, but I quickly realized that even though it looks like gold, it can't be. It's about now that the woman and child turn and come back. She asks me for some Euros so she can buy her son a coke and sandwich. I empty my pockets of change (about 2 euros), just because I enjoyed the entertainment of her little scheme. She seems disappointed, but I refuse to giver her any bills (I didn't have any small bills, anyway). As get closer to the Musee d'Orsay I am accosted by several more of these prestidigitators. After that first one, though, I am seeing the whole thing as they bend down and the ring appears from hiding in their palm to their fingertips. I of course just state "Ah, you already got me with that one!" Within the area outside the closed museum (just about everything is closed on Monday) I am accosted by another 4 tricksters. They are all targeting me...not sure why, maybe it's the huge camera around my neck, I am the only one with a backpack, maybe I look like an easy target. As we leave the area to return to the north side of the Seine, I am targeted by one more. I believe 6 times, including the first. We speculated on how we should handle more of these tricksters, SK wanted to buy a dozen and wear them, when the trickster brought the ring up to insist it was ours he would count out the rings on his hands and say, "No, I have all mine, it must be yours." We all laughed.

We then decided to go get a view of the city from on high. MontParnasse Tower is the highest skyscraper, really the only skyscraper, in Paris. Apparently it is not well liked by most Parisiennes. It does stick out from the surrounding charming older and much smaller buildings. It offers an excellent view of Paris from the air, and that includes the Eiffel Tower. I would've loved to time our visit to the 56th floor of this 59 floor building to be in the evening or at night, but almost everything closes up around 6 pm. The view was spectacular. I took many pictures, was able to identify many of the landmarks and we saw some interesting things.

We ended up going to one we saw from the tower next. A cemetery. I am sure there are some famous people buried there, we did see the tombstone of Sartre and his wife. There were some amazing family crypts and mini monuments. Many of the graves dated back to the 1800s, didn't see anything older than than. There were some disturbing things too. One tomb had the picture of a baby that had died at the age of 2. Another had an inscription of several people, the last not including the date of death. The tomb is waiting for her to join her husband who is buried there. We then found our way to the base of the Tour d'Eiffel. It is huge, it is amazing, and it is popular. They only had two of the pillars open for letting sightseers up, one of the elevators was down to the upper level, making the lines even longer than usual. I would love to go up the tower, especially after dark, but I hate standing in lines as it is, and with a city full of sites to see I feel like my time is better spent elsewhere. We took many pictures from close up and far away.

We then proceeded to look for a restaurant that was supposed to be close by that one of SK's coworkers recommended. We didn't find it, but we did find some good food anyway.

We then returned to the base of the Eiffel tower to watch it as it was lit up in preparation for the light show. In my opinion, the Eiffel tower is best viewed at dusk, from below. They light it up from inside, you can see the intricate iron work and beams that make up the structure. And the orange-ish lights contrast with the cerulean sky to an amazing effect. We then proceeded toward home. Coming home that night, after a long day of random exploration, we were tired and ready to collapse satisfied with our accomplishments.