PARIS - The city of LIGHT

I believe it is nice to start off with an old French song that a lot of non-native French people seem to know... it speaks of places in Paris, as well it has a guy with a really sweet hair cut who sang it originally ha ha Makes France look a lil less sophisticated and elegant eh? So start the song up, and enjoy my tale of Sara et Moi a Paris...

My train left Besancon at 6h59... It was the making of a long day because I had not gone to bed for any longer than three hours that night... I did manage to nap a lil bit on the train ride... and I read my ENGLISH Newsweek and The Economist (two little treats I buy myself on every train ride I take). I am such a nerd, I scour over the articles and underline stuff to research and read up on more at a later time ha ha

Anyways... So I finally get to the Gare de Lyon in Paris around 9h37 (ha ha ha) and I wait for Sara at the exit of the Metro by the gare (train station in French), but she is nowhere to be found. Evidently there are multiple exits in this area ha ha so she calls me and we meet up. We totally had one of those moments where you see each other, and start walking briskly, then have a fierce contact as you go to hug the crap out of the other person... we hugged and squealed for like three and a half minutes, it was intense. We probably were stared at and judged by snooty Parisiens, meh c'est la vie...

Sara and I decided to take Paris on Steeples-style... we walk everywhere and hope for the best, and to stumble upon our own lil non-mapped out treasures! First, we have to ditch our bags. Because of the dang strikes, the Gare de Lyon was not having working baggage lockers because the workers in that area were on strike, so we decided we would try with a hotel. The lady was a witch. So we went to a hostel and the man working there was ever so nice and let us leave our bags for 5 euros for the day in a room monitored by a video camera, it was pretty legit. Minus probably 20-30 pounds, we were good to go...

We wanted to find the Seine river in order to navigate to Notre Dame ("Our Lady" when translated into English, just a lil fun FYI for ya there). Along the way, we stopped and got some delicious baked goods and COFFEE TO GO. Besancon does not get this concept, so I was pumped to say the very least. (Look at pictures that follow to see pumpedness and Sara and her apple filled donut haha)


As we wandered with our delicious goods in hand, we crossed over the Pont d'Austrelitz (Pont in French is a bridge) and ended up at the Jardin des Plantes (Plant Garden as translation). Here Sara and I walked through the trees and grass talking, eating, and taking pictures by the miscellaneous statues we found by the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History). It was a fun lil find... and now pictures...

The first thing we see when we came in through the gate was this sweet metal whale!

(It's for my Chelsface ha ha)

Then we walked along a pathway lined with strangely pruned trees...

Sara and I happened to come across a dinosaur, so we took the photo opp...

This random park somehow lead us to an exit of sorts where we then ended up at another sort of park/museum/observatory/zoo place... On top of the hill was this cool round outdoor building thing... I cannot think of the word in English, and Sara and I cut through some hedges to get to it so we didn't have to walk all the way up the winding path ha ha At the top we took some photos and what not... (cue photo)


Here's the top of the pagoda (is that the word?) thing... it was pretty...

We eventually found our way out of the place, after passing by the zoo where we saw wallabies in Paris... weird, right? They looked cold and were huddling for warmth, or so we assumed. On one of the walls was this neat spray paint art:

We followed our senses and found ourselves back by the Seine again. This time we came across a sculpture garden as we were enjoying some chocolate and apple slices I had brought along. There were many pieces that were abstract and modern, my favorite was of the poodle shown below... I would like to think of it as a French dog message to the rest of the world of dogs, a statement that you cannot smell our butts. (I just imagine French dogs to be all high and mighty because they go to doggie salons and just are little queens and kings really.)


There were tons of boats along the river as well. I am not certain what the boats purpose were, such as the one in the picture (Dad, do you know what kind of boats there are and what they are used for?) but it was neat to see regardless! At night, the river tour boats have giant lights on the side to shine up onto the buildings as they pass by them from the river... It's pretty cool to see the buildings lit up in such a way.

Finally, she came into better view, Our Lady...

Sara and I were so pumped (and really hoping to see Quasimodo and Esmerelda too!)!!! Along the river at this point, were tons of shelf things, where people set up shop with old books and pictures, as well as different Paris souvenirs. Not to mention tons of artists with their oil paintings hanging up and spread out all over tables and the shelves...

We decided we wanted to climb to the top and get a view of Paris from there, as well, we might run into the hunchback... wishful thinking right? (stay continued on that one...) We waited in line to climb to the top. Once it was our turn, we had to haul our asses (pardon my French, which isn't actually French, if I were speaking in French I would say fesse) up a ton of stairs, which the stair way kept getting narrower and narrower... what was cool is that where you stepped on the step was like an indentation in the stone from all the years of people going up and down the stairs. Just imagine who else has walked their in the history of Notre Dame... so cool. We finally got to the top part where you can look out at the city. Also, there were tons of gargoyles all over the cathedral. This picture was my favorite : The gargoyles names in order of appearance from left to right : Jimmy Amettis (the gnome-like man), Randy (the mutant man-turtle-reptile thing with the big tongue), and My Daddio :)

There also was this beautiful angel right in the center of where we were standing when looking back at the cathedral itself...

You can also see some of Paris in the background :)

We then continued up another hundred or so stairs to get to the area where you can actually go in and see the big bell that Quasi himself used to toll. :) The door was really teeny... I took a picture of Sara as she was going in, then she took one of me, but my big ol' tote bag got stuck in the door, so I literally had built my momentum to go in, but was thrown back a bit because my big bag was stuck! (If Sara puts that pic up some place, I will have to post it for y'all to see) I don't know how a hunchback would fit through this lil door...


I would have a picture of the big bell, but I was being technologically challenged at the time, and kept trying to take pictures of it in my video camera setting, not the camera camera setting, so they didn't turn out well... oops. Here is a picture of the inside of where the bell sits though... I think it's pretty neat ha ha...

The bell was located up to the right part of the picture on another platform thing.

We then had to make the descent of the tower back to the bottom. It made me nauseous, going around in such a tiny circle at such a fast pace as you end up doing descending a giant spiral staircase... ha ha We did make it to the bottom (without hurling) and made out way around to the front of the cathedral to check out the inside!

It was breathtaking, as expected. I wanted to run through the corridor yelling "Sanctuary!" like Esmerelda in the Disney movie, but resisted. The walls were resounding with everyone's whispers as they walked from chapel to chapel or sat admiring the architecture and art. I was immediately drawn to the candles that were all over the cathedral. Many people had come here to light one for a loved one they have lost in their lives... It was beautiful.


We then saw what appeared to be a nun, with a gigantic hunched back. Until the person turned around and it was like a 14 year old girl... I still have no idea what that was about, and could not get a picture without looking like weirdos (or as Steeples would say, Cheeky American Monkeys)... I was pretty pumped to have seen some sort of a hunchback at Notre Dame ha ha

I believe this is the point in time I got a Starbucks drink... I was in heaven. In Besancon, there are no Starbucks, and there is no taking coffee to go... yay... I think Sara has a pic of this, just imagine the ecstatic look I would have had upon my face... :)

We ended up wandering to another park area where there were old French men playing boules! As a French language student, you always read about the game, and even learn how to play it throughout your language learning years, but to actually see the old French men playing the game was sooooo cool! You must understand that this is not a mere pasttime, it is a lifestyle! When I was interning at the elementary schools, part of their education is learning how to play boules and have proper technique and all that... (Boules is like the Italian Bocce ball or referred to as petanque in French as well) These men were hardcore. They had measuring tapes, and special strings with magnets on them to pick up their metal balls, and probably not throw out a hip, or have to huff and puff too much as they all smoke. Regardless, they were cute...


Our next item on the agenda to see was the Louvre, we had found out from some friends of Sara's that Friday night, which it was, was free for students after 6 pm! So we diddled around and explored a bit more, then went over to the Louvre itself, a huge palace, and hung out and talked as we did rounds on all the sculptures outside, as well as taking pictures of all the sights to see there.

Sara and I came to the conclusion that we saw David's face everywhere... Take Exhibit A for example:

Definitely David there in the center! and on his right and left ha ha

There were also all the sculptures of women and a few men from time to time on the first level around this square area of the palace. We think they may have been for the Greek Gods and Goddesses who weren't like huge deals... This lady was my favorite...

In the next picture of the lovely Sara with the Pyramid peaking through the arches, you can see all the statues lining the square... and now the pic...

When we got inside, we had a game plan. Hit up the book store first and get a guidebook, then head on to the exhibits, which the first we went searching for was THE Mona Lisa. It truly is as small as they say, but still impressive nonetheless. Sara and I were blown away by the size and splendor of these pieces! We were wondering, for the really big ones, did they paint them on big canvases and then cut them to transport them or what? because you can always see lines in them, or is that how they adhered smaller canvases altogether? I have yet to read through my guidebook (which I bought in French), so I don't know if the answer lies in there or not...

Once we were done, we set off to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night...

Here is the Pont Alexandre III or Bridge of Alexander III with the tower in the background...

We were initially trying to walk to Trocadero, a site my Parisien friend told me about, but we ended up just short of it, at the Tokyo Palace which hosts the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art. We got some really cool shots of the reflection of the Eiffel Tower in the pool that rested in front of the palace...


Naturally, we had to get closer, and we did. Like right underneath the tower and all up in its business. It was pretty cool! When it was 8 o'clock and we were walking over, the tower started flashing with all sorts of different blinky lights for like 5 minutes... I got a video of it but don't know how to put videos on here quite yet... ha ha Here are the pics of the tower more up close!


After this, we hauled our butts back to the hostel to make sure we got our bags and got on the last train out of Paris to my friend's lil flat in Jouy en Josas...

Day two to follow... soooo, to be continued...