The European Extravaganza!

Paris: Day 1

We awoke to a traditional French breakfast: bread, croissant, and your choice of chocolat (for me), coffee (for Laura) or tea (for the British). After a quick meal, we began what would be a long day of walking and set out for the Picasso museum. Although we had talked in Toronto about how Paris was huge and that we should perhaps use the public transportation system when there, we decided that the museum was close enough to the hotel that we could easily walk it. And at first, it was easy! The streets were not paved with garbage, and it was not 5 billion degrees out. It was actually quite chilly!

When we got to the museum, we were pleased to find that the admission was reduced because it was Sunday, but we totally would have paid much more for this museum! It was so cool! Forget the Lovre, Picasso is where it is at! Every room was filled with really interesting paintings that filled us with glee. Little amoebas (ok, they were supposed to be the female form), children skipping rope, 2 amoebas dancing... it was 2 hours extremely well spent. I would say that it was the best museum I have ever been to; who knew art could be so much fun? I am also glad that I took pictures while in the museum, because when we got to the gift shop, they did not feature any of the paintings we had most enjoyed. I guess Laura and I have a more refined taste in art than the general public.

We then began our long walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral, walking through a very artsy district. We found Lenny Kravitz's favourite fallafel joint, and browsed through some of the shops. Most of them did not open until 2 pm, so we decided that we would come back after the days events so that Laura could buy a "happy purse" (it is a little straw bag with a smiling face on it). When we got to the cathedral, Laura continued her tradition of not going inside because of the extremely long line to get in. You know that when people are lining up to get into a church, and this line is longer than the one to climb up to the tower and try and find Quasimodo that it has to be a pretty long line!

After taking some pictures, we made our way to the Quartier Latin, where we checked out The Pantheon (the one in Rome is cooler), La Sorbonne, and the Law School. Then we strolled through the Jardins des Tuilleries and kept an eye out for France's version of Rome's Fountain Police: the Lawn Police. If you even think about sticking your foot onto the grass, a police officer will be after you with the whistle. We then went to the Rodin museum (passing down a street with many armed guards). I guess you need to see Rodin BEFORE you see Michelangelo's David, because we didn't see what the big hoopla was. Sure we took the requisite photos of The Thinker, but we were both glad that we had only paid the 1 euro to visit the gardens (which were admittedly very pretty). Still, with the Picasso museum and The David in the backs of our minds, we weren't really impressed. Thanks again for the recommendation, Taryn.

In order to get back to the shopping district, we had to backtrack quite a bit, so we decided to change things up and stroll across the river and walk along the bank of the Seine. In so doing, we caught impressive eyefuls of the Eiffel Tower, but tried to steer clear of it (it wasn't on the schedule for that day!). We crossed at Place de la Concorde, passed by the Louvre, and strolled along Rue de Rivoli looking at all the shops. How can Paris be the fashion capital of the world? The shoes are so ugly... the best place we saw shoes was in Amsterdam! As we made our way to the shops, we stopped at a bakery and picked ourselves up a baguette so that we could finish off the rest of our cheese and paté for dinner. Laura's bag successfully purchased ( for 3 euro!), we hobbled back to the hotel. It felt much longer walking back than it did in the morning, and we cursed ourselves for constantly doing this to ourselves. 3 weeks in and we still have not learned that sometimes it is worth hopping on the metro and saving your feet. Still, it is true that the best way to get a feel for any city is to walk through it. Sure both the metro and alleys in Paris smell like urine, but the streets are much nicer to walk on than they are to walk under! If you have a map of Paris handy, locate the Cemetery of Père Lachaise, and then find the Eiffel Tower. Draw zig-zaggy lines between the 2 forming a circle, and you will get a sense of just how far we walked. No wonder our feet were sore!

posted by Steph @ 10:37 am