every monument in Paris
November 18
We were out of the room by 9 in the morning and didn’t return to it until 11 at night… today was quite a day:
1) breakfast in the hotel’s mini dining room – uneventful except that I drank two American size mugs of espresso. Yes, I was quite jittery afterwards...
2) metro to Saint Chapelle Cathedral– yet again we were serenaded by a rather pushy homeless woman… it was really funny actually.
3) Saint Chapelle Cathedral – thank goodness French metal detectors are there for decoration (?). Marilena went through the detector with her Swiss army knife (AGAIN) and the dude wasn’t even looking at the screen when our purses went by! Ooh well! Hehe, Saint Chapelle was awesome – tons of gargoyles and stained glasses.
4) walk from Saint Chapelle to Notre Dame
5) Notre Dame Cathedral – really beautiful inside and out… it was HUGE too. The outside was cluttered with gargoyles and flying buttresses.
6) walk to the “island behind Notre Dame”
7) SHOPPING on the “island behind Notre Dame” – we went in just about every store on the island because they were all fabulous. Most were very boutique-ie. I wanted to buy every hat that I saw but I resisted… it was tempting. I figure that since my roots are about 4 inches long I can allow myself a few new hats to cover them up.
8) long long looooooong walk along the Seine to the Orsay Museum. Seriously, according to Rick the two were really close to each other… they weren’t at all. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day AND along the Seine there were tons of little stands set up selling touristy type things… I was quite entertained the entire time. I might have bought a gift for my best friend at home… hehe.
9) lunch/bathroom break at a little café where the ladies were big bitches and kicked us out because we didn’t pay to eat there… or something weird like that. We ended up eating on the steps of the Orsay. It was nice (minus the pigeons with the nub-legs that were harassing us).
10) Musee d’Orsay – LOVED THE ORSAY! Loved loved loved it. I was freaking excited and was running around like a crazy person looking at all the Degas, and Monet, and Manet, and Van Gogh, and Cezanne, and Munch, and Gauguin, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and Seurat, and Renoir, and Matisse, and Klimt, and Courbet, and Daumier, and Delacroix, and Renoir.... Omigod. GO TO THE ORSAY. Set aside maybe two hours for it too. It was freaking awesome.
11) more walking…
12) a stroll up Champs Elysees – there were tons of people and tons of shopping and it was really cool.
13) Arc D’Triumph – Rach climbed up it to check out the view from the top while Mar and I went in search of some coffee/Coke Light. We ended up in McDonald’s listening to Paris Hilton (Paris in Paris… hehehe, we’re so clever) and getting harassed by moooore homeless people.
14) walk to the Eiffel Tower…
15) up the Eiffel Tower (!!!) – by this time it was dark and the tower was already lit up for the night! It was so exciting! We waited in line to go up it (the stairs were closed and we had to take the elevator) for about 45 minutes. It was FREEZING cold. We were bundled and spent most of the time in line evesdropping on the three kids in front of us trying to figure out WHAT language they spoke. Seriously, it was really cool cuz they kept switching off between 4 different ones!
Marilena only headed up to the first level (she was scared of heights) but Rach and I wanted to go all the way to the top. Half way up you have to change elevators… we waited in line for about 30 minutes on the second level and it was about 20 degrees colder up there. Rach and I hardly spoke because we were so freaking cold AND annoyed by the stupid people in line behind us that were being super loud and super American.
The view from the top was INCREDIBLE. We were freaking HIGH too… I’m not usually scared of heights, but looking down from the top of the tower made me a little nervous. It was pretty lonely because EVERY SINGLE PERSON UP THERE was snuggling up with another person. Even Rachel was busy making a romantic phone call to her boyfriend of 3 years at home… psh, iiiii wanted to call someone toooooo. I looked through my cell phone book about 5 times before I settled on calling Derek. Hehe, that’s what little brothers are fooorrr… I was really excited to say “I’M CALLING YOU FROM THE TOP OF THE EIFFEL TOWER!” and he seemed pretty excited to be chatting with me (even though I think I woke him up). Whatever… that’s another thing on my to-do list: go on a date up to the top of the Eiffel tower. :)
16) walk to a café for some din din…
17) Dinner at Café Corona – I had a really really really good grilled cheese, ham, and fried egg sandwich. Marilena and Rach got really yummy omelets; the French know how to do eggs, that’s for sure!
18) walk BACK to Saint Michel – After some wine and some defrosting, we headed out on the trek to Saint Michel for some desert crepes from our FAVORITE crepe man. The walk there was a looooong one but we all felt rested and a smidge tipsy after our wine sooo the fact that it was freezing cold and starting to rain didn’t really make that big of a difference.
19) Crepes – nutella and chocolate crepes… my newest favorite food. God they were good. We sat out in the freezingness and watched people for a good hour while we ate.
20) metro back to Hotel Rocroy – no serenaders this time BUT we did run into Julie who was visiting Paris for the weekend (I think she’s studying down in Barcelona)… haha, small world!!!
Seriously, this was the longest sight-seeing day ever but I loved every minute of it (even when my feet were completely flat from walking too much). Amelia called me about going out with them to some dance club but it was past 11 by the time we got home and I was exhausted. I thought I’d have a really easy time falling asleep but for some reason I tossed and turned for a good 4ish hours before I was able to doze off. I think I had too much on my mind. I’ve actually been having a lot of problems falling asleep and staying asleep lately and I really think it’s because I think too much when it’s bedtime. It’s the time of day that I miss home the most…
We were out of the room by 9 in the morning and didn’t return to it until 11 at night… today was quite a day:
1) breakfast in the hotel’s mini dining room – uneventful except that I drank two American size mugs of espresso. Yes, I was quite jittery afterwards...
2) metro to Saint Chapelle Cathedral– yet again we were serenaded by a rather pushy homeless woman… it was really funny actually.
3) Saint Chapelle Cathedral – thank goodness French metal detectors are there for decoration (?). Marilena went through the detector with her Swiss army knife (AGAIN) and the dude wasn’t even looking at the screen when our purses went by! Ooh well! Hehe, Saint Chapelle was awesome – tons of gargoyles and stained glasses.
4) walk from Saint Chapelle to Notre Dame
5) Notre Dame Cathedral – really beautiful inside and out… it was HUGE too. The outside was cluttered with gargoyles and flying buttresses.
6) walk to the “island behind Notre Dame”
7) SHOPPING on the “island behind Notre Dame” – we went in just about every store on the island because they were all fabulous. Most were very boutique-ie. I wanted to buy every hat that I saw but I resisted… it was tempting. I figure that since my roots are about 4 inches long I can allow myself a few new hats to cover them up.
8) long long looooooong walk along the Seine to the Orsay Museum. Seriously, according to Rick the two were really close to each other… they weren’t at all. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day AND along the Seine there were tons of little stands set up selling touristy type things… I was quite entertained the entire time. I might have bought a gift for my best friend at home… hehe.
9) lunch/bathroom break at a little café where the ladies were big bitches and kicked us out because we didn’t pay to eat there… or something weird like that. We ended up eating on the steps of the Orsay. It was nice (minus the pigeons with the nub-legs that were harassing us).
10) Musee d’Orsay – LOVED THE ORSAY! Loved loved loved it. I was freaking excited and was running around like a crazy person looking at all the Degas, and Monet, and Manet, and Van Gogh, and Cezanne, and Munch, and Gauguin, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and Seurat, and Renoir, and Matisse, and Klimt, and Courbet, and Daumier, and Delacroix, and Renoir.... Omigod. GO TO THE ORSAY. Set aside maybe two hours for it too. It was freaking awesome.
11) more walking…
12) a stroll up Champs Elysees – there were tons of people and tons of shopping and it was really cool.
13) Arc D’Triumph – Rach climbed up it to check out the view from the top while Mar and I went in search of some coffee/Coke Light. We ended up in McDonald’s listening to Paris Hilton (Paris in Paris… hehehe, we’re so clever) and getting harassed by moooore homeless people.
14) walk to the Eiffel Tower…
15) up the Eiffel Tower (!!!) – by this time it was dark and the tower was already lit up for the night! It was so exciting! We waited in line to go up it (the stairs were closed and we had to take the elevator) for about 45 minutes. It was FREEZING cold. We were bundled and spent most of the time in line evesdropping on the three kids in front of us trying to figure out WHAT language they spoke. Seriously, it was really cool cuz they kept switching off between 4 different ones!
Marilena only headed up to the first level (she was scared of heights) but Rach and I wanted to go all the way to the top. Half way up you have to change elevators… we waited in line for about 30 minutes on the second level and it was about 20 degrees colder up there. Rach and I hardly spoke because we were so freaking cold AND annoyed by the stupid people in line behind us that were being super loud and super American.
The view from the top was INCREDIBLE. We were freaking HIGH too… I’m not usually scared of heights, but looking down from the top of the tower made me a little nervous. It was pretty lonely because EVERY SINGLE PERSON UP THERE was snuggling up with another person. Even Rachel was busy making a romantic phone call to her boyfriend of 3 years at home… psh, iiiii wanted to call someone toooooo. I looked through my cell phone book about 5 times before I settled on calling Derek. Hehe, that’s what little brothers are fooorrr… I was really excited to say “I’M CALLING YOU FROM THE TOP OF THE EIFFEL TOWER!” and he seemed pretty excited to be chatting with me (even though I think I woke him up). Whatever… that’s another thing on my to-do list: go on a date up to the top of the Eiffel tower. :)
16) walk to a café for some din din…
17) Dinner at Café Corona – I had a really really really good grilled cheese, ham, and fried egg sandwich. Marilena and Rach got really yummy omelets; the French know how to do eggs, that’s for sure!
18) walk BACK to Saint Michel – After some wine and some defrosting, we headed out on the trek to Saint Michel for some desert crepes from our FAVORITE crepe man. The walk there was a looooong one but we all felt rested and a smidge tipsy after our wine sooo the fact that it was freezing cold and starting to rain didn’t really make that big of a difference.
19) Crepes – nutella and chocolate crepes… my newest favorite food. God they were good. We sat out in the freezingness and watched people for a good hour while we ate.
20) metro back to Hotel Rocroy – no serenaders this time BUT we did run into Julie who was visiting Paris for the weekend (I think she’s studying down in Barcelona)… haha, small world!!!
Seriously, this was the longest sight-seeing day ever but I loved every minute of it (even when my feet were completely flat from walking too much). Amelia called me about going out with them to some dance club but it was past 11 by the time we got home and I was exhausted. I thought I’d have a really easy time falling asleep but for some reason I tossed and turned for a good 4ish hours before I was able to doze off. I think I had too much on my mind. I’ve actually been having a lot of problems falling asleep and staying asleep lately and I really think it’s because I think too much when it’s bedtime. It’s the time of day that I miss home the most…
posted by tera a firenze at 3:48 AM
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