To get from Tours to Paris we decided to take a train, since it was only a short ride away. The day before we were set to leave Tours we stopped into the train station to get our tickets early. We thought it would be pretty easy, but our tourist French didn’t quite hold up when we were buying our tickets. We were able to come up with a complete sentence, memorize it, and recite it to the lady behind the ticket window. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as complete a sentence as we needed, and when she started rattling off questions in French we were completely lost. After asking if she spoke English, and explaining that we had very bad American French, she started speaking slower, and gesturing a lot more. We finally figured out that she just wanted to know which station we needed to get to, and if we were under 26 or not. We finalized that, and were on our way.

The train ride was fairly short, only taking about an hour or two. The countryside in France was pretty to see whizzing by. It was extremely flat, something that we weren’t used to, and very green. There is a lot more cleared land here in Europe it seems compared to New Hampshire. No great forests full of pine trees to be found! Dotting the wide, green fields were windmills, the more modern kind used for energy.

Once we arrived in Paris we hopped on the Metro to make our way to the hostel. We’re getting pretty good at these underground systems! Boston is going to be a breeze when we get home! While the Underground in London was clean and bright, much like the one in Washington, DC, the Metro in Paris is a lot dirtier and darker. I’m guessing that’s what NYC has for facilities. Lots of graffiti and litter. But, still extremely convenient, and you never felt like you weren’t safe on it.

Our hostel was right outside the Oberkampf (not very French sounding, I know) Metro station, so it was extremely easy to find, and made the rest of our stay really easy too. This one was technically more of a budget hotel, rather than a hostel. We had a little room to ourselves with a double bed and our own private bathroom. It was bright and cheery with red curtains and a red and orange striped blanket on the bed. And of course, a French wrought iron railing outside the window! We were a little too early to check into the room, so we left our stuff in the luggage storage area, and headed out to see the city.

It happened that we arrived in Paris on the first Sunday of the month, the day when all of the museums in the city are free to get into. On top of that, a lot of the museums are closed on Monday or Tuesday. This made our timing a little tricky, and we headed straight to the Louvre, taking advantage of the 16 Euro savings we would get by going for free!

What an incredible museum! You could wander for days in that place and still never see everything that is inside. Most of the things we went to see were sculptures, since Bill and I both think that they are more interesting than paintings. We wandered through rooms and rooms of neo-classical styles from 15th to 17th centuries, looked at religious sculptures from the 11th and 12th centuries, and then went even further back in time when we saw The Code of Hammurabi and sarcophagi from ancient Egypt.

Aside from all the sculptures we saw, we did manage to wander through the paintings a little bit, seeking out that famous tourist spot, the Mona Lisa. It was displayed on a large wall, all by itself, in the center of a huge room. On the walls surrounding it were other paintings from the same time period, but no one seemed to care much for those. The crowd was gathered in front of the Mona Lisa, and after elbowing our way to the front, we got to catch a glimpse of it for a few seconds. Pictures were strictly forbidden in that section of the museum, so we couldn’t capture the moment, but we were there, make no mistake.

After leaving the Louvre museum we wandered around, trying to find something to eat for dinner. It was really hard to find something that would keep us within our budget, and we ended up eating in the food court that was inside the museum. Drinks in Paris are what really do you in. You can find a sandwich or something for 3 or 4 Euros, but then your soda could easily cost just as much, doubling the price of your meal! To save money during the week we picked up a huge batch of mini-muffins from a bakery to bring back to the hotel for our breakfasts over the next few days, then headed back to the hotel to check in and crash.

On day two we left the hotel and walked about a mile to the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery. It’s a giant place, full of the graves of lots of famous people. Here’s the rundown of who we visited: Frederic Chopin, the composer. His grave was full of beautiful flowers, and had a few people around it paying their respects. Next was Jim Morrison. His grave was surrounded by a gate, so that you couldn’t get too close, and flowers were strewn about that people had thrown into the area. Although the grave itself was pretty small and average, it was surrounded by devoted fans.

After Jim we walked towards the other end of the cemetery towards Beaumarchais, someone connected to theater somehow. Bill knows who he is, but no one else does. No one was in front of his grave, and there were no flowers, just a stick laying on top. He was gated off, but it was a little unnecessary. We went to someone a little more famous next, Moliere. He was gated off too, with a small garden surrounding the gravestone. We headed to Oscar Wilde’s grave next, which was gigantic, and not gated off. Because it was easily accessible, it was covered in lipstick kisses. We’re not really sure why, or what that means, but it was pretty incredible to look at. To end our journey through the graveyard we stopped off at Honore de Balzac, where there were only a couple other people standing around. We found our way back to the entrance, and continued on into the city.

We had planned on walking to the Bastille next, but a really inexpensive bakery where we stocked up on soda that we could actually afford, and some yummy treats to eat later distracted us. We swung back by the hotel to drop off the big bottles, grabbed some baguette sandwiches for lunch, and then reworked our plan. Instead of going to the Bastille we decided to take the Metro over to Notre Dame, and stop at the Bastille on our way home from there instead.

To get to Notre Dame you have to get off the Metro at the Hotel de Ville, or the Town Hall. It is an enormous building, covered in elaborate decorations. We stopped to take a couple pictures, then made our way just across the Seine to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was packed with people, and the line to go up into the towers wrapped all the way around one side. After seeing how many people were waiting there, we decided to scrap that part of the trip, and just admire the inside.

There is no way to describe how beautiful the stained glass windows are that surround the cathedral. We were there in the middle of the afternoon, and the sun was beaming through, lighting up the giant rose windows, and letting all of the colors show. So beautiful.

As we made our way around the inside, we stopped to check out the treasury, where all of the cathedral’s relics are stored. It was a little bit creepy to think that a lot of the things we were looking at, encased in gold and jewels, were pieces of people. The bones of saints are an important thing for a major cathedral to have, and Notre Dame had a bunch. The ones that were in the treasury weren’t actually the original relics of the church though. Those had been stolen at some point in history, and in the 18th century the cathedral was gifted with all of the ones that are there now. One of the most important relics that they have is the Crown of Thorns, as in, the one that Jesus would have worn. It’s the picture with the tall gold case, and the glass around the top round part, encasing the crown itself.

Aside from the beautiful stained glass windows, the inside of the cathedral is decorated with small chapels, running along all the outside walls. These were home to incredible statues, some pretty, and some creepy. Once of them showed a man crawling out of a coffin, looking like a skeleton, with the figure of Death standing behind him. Spooky!

We finished the inside, moving along with the mass of other tourists, and went outside to get some pictures of the front and the sides. There’s a really nice stone paved area right in front of the cathedral that lets you get perfect pictures. It was packed with tourists, especially since the weather was sunny and warm.

We made our way home on the Metro, stopping at the Bastille to take a picture of the monument before hopping back on to get back to the hotel. Since the line at Notre Dame had been so huge, we planned on getting up really early so that we would be at the Eiffel Tour right when it opened. We wanted to beat the rush.

The next morning when we arrived, at 9:30, the exact time the tower opens, there were already so many people in line that we had to wait for two hours before being allowed to get on an elevator and ride to the top! It wouldn’t have been as awful as it was, but the weather had turned, and it was freezing and windy the entire time. When we go to the second level, we had to wait in line for another elevator to bring us to the top. I thought we were going to blow away! We had flashbacks to the bus tour in London, but huddled together and tried to enjoy the view. It was pretty cool to be inside the Eiffel Tour, looking out over the entire city of Paris.

At the top, the wind was even worse, and I stayed in the enclosed area. Bill ventured out to the outdoor viewing area and snapped a couple shots before coming back inside to get warm. It was so packed and touristy, definitely not our favorite place. But it is pretty awesome to be able to say that we’ve been to the top of the Eiffel Tour.

When we got back down to the ground, it was much warmer and sunnier than it had been up top, and we walked down a long expanse of perfect green grass that runs in front of the tower. At the very end we found the perfect picture taking spot, and made the most of it. Bill even played the part of professional photographer a little, taking pictures of two or three other people who asked. (By people, I mean Asian Tourists. Bill wants me to make it clear that Asian Tourists are everywhere! They swarm in groups, and have really expensive cameras. So we helped them out and took their pictures.) This was what we had really wanted it to be like. Beautiful, sunny, green grass, and no two hour lines jamming it up. Perfect!

Next comes our moment of tourism stupidity. We were swindled by Michel, the street artist! We actually weren’t that stupid though. Both of us knew what was happening, and thought it was great, so we went along with it. A chatty, friendly French man approached on the sidewalk, and asked if he could draw us. We followed along and sat still while he sketched a cartoon of us, adding in two triangles, one of which was supposed to be the Eiffel Tour, the other the Louvre. We shelled out 30 Euros for a charcoal drawing on a piece of paper, and laughed about it the rest of the trip. What a great souvenir!

We took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe, and snapped a picture of that. It was pretty cool. The traffic around it was insane! Then we walked down the Champs Elysees. What a cool street! It’s packed with all the expensive stores like Louis Vitton and Coach, alternating with sidewalk cafes. We stopped at one of the cafes to have baguette sandwiches (again, I know. They were cheap and yummy!), and there Bill took it upon himself to fulfill the quest put to him by John Azar Korbey. He sat down and penned a true anti-poem, scribbled on a napkin, at the table of a sidewalk café in Paris. Glorious.

After all that we went back to the hotel, and I took a quick nap while Bill relaxed. That evening we headed out to the seedier part of town, home of the Moulin Rouge, strip clubs, and our destination, the Erotic Museum. We had found a brochure for it in the hotel lobby and thought it looked funny, so we made an evening trip of it. It was silly, cheap, and gave us a chance to take a picture of the real Moulin Rouge. We would have loved to see a show there, but it costs upwards of 100 Euros per person! (“Even as a handicapped 6-year-old Native American student, it would still have cost you at least 87 Euros”-Bill).

For our final day in Paris we left our luggage in the storage area at the hotel, and headed off to the Musee de Rodin. A lot of the things we saw were bronze replicas, for two reasons. One, they are displayed outside, and withstand the weather better. And two, we weren’t at the really big museum, just a small one in Paris. So the real stone statues are at the other one outside the city. We did get to see some smaller marble sculptures inside though, carved by Rodin himself. He had a real gift for making things seem alive inside the stone.

For the rest of our time, we headed back to the Champs Elysees, killing time until our late flight. We camped out at a sidewalk café, sipping drinks and munching on French food. What an amazing thing French food is! Pain au chocolat, baguette sandwiches, pain au raisins… the list goes on! We reveled in the delicious things available for the whole trip, and were sad to have to leave it.

While we were sad to leave the French food behind, we were not at all sad to leave the city of Paris itself. It is an extremely dirty place, and the smell that is strongly reminiscent of feces that pervades the air ruins any of the romance that could possibly be felt. We were happy to be leaving the stink of the city behind, and hoped that Rome would be a better place.