Paris Part One

Our first two days in Paris were spent couch surfing with a Parisian near La Bastille. The only bummer was that we were sleeping on the floor. In all of our travels was actually have not had to do this so we woke up with a few aches and bruises. But we were in Paris! Our first day was spent walking around. On our way into the city center we passed La Bastille and La Place des Voges. La Place was built between 1605 and 1612 so it is one of the oldest squares in Paris. Victor Hugo's house was along this square. From there we walked down a grand Paris street that took us to our first viewing of Notre Dame. We crossed over to L'Île de la Cité to get a better look. Unfortunately, the square in front of Notre Dame which is normally a big open space so you can take great pictures of the cathedral was under construction so it was hard to get a good picture. It's little things like that which make it very clear that we're traveling during the off season. But it was still pretty grand.

The sun was out and it was a lovely day so we decided to walk through the Latin Quartier to Les Jardins du Luxemburg, where we sat and had a picnic while watching children play with sailboats in the fountain. Aside from the very feisty pigeons it was a fabulous picnic of crackers, cheese and salami. From there we walked by La Sorbonne and then got our first crèpe from a street cart. It was mind blowing. So good it made my mouth water more while I ate it.

We crossed La Seine again and went to Le Centre Pompidou where we had an amusing run-in while the public restrooms. Unlike most cities we've been to Paris actually has free restrooms scattered periodically on the streets. The catch? For a line of 3 people it takes maybe 20-30 min. After each person goes the toilet, floor, the entire receptacle in fact, is washed, disinfected and dried. This process takes 3 times longer than the time it takes to actually use the bathroom! Anyone about to have an accident, these are not for you.

We had some trouble finding the restaurant where we were supposed to meet our host because it's location and the place that Pierre marked on the map were not anywhere near each other. We ended up having to power walk 2 km to get to where we were supposed to be. Le Chartier has been around for two centuries and is a classic Parisian restaurant. It is one massive room with all the chaos and bustle of no other European restaurant. The place is designed to get you in and out because so many people frequent it every night. They serve "typical" French dishes according to our host. We all had some version of meat and fries with mustard sauce. It was pretty good although not what I would have expected as a typical meal. The hectic atmosphere and the gingham red and white table clothes made it sort of feel likes chintzy American restaurant. But hey I guess we had to copy the idea from somewhere, this is the original.

On day two we did more typical tourist things. We started the day at L'Arc du Triomphe and then walked along La Champs D'Elysees. They were beginning to put up Christmas decorations along the road. There are so many lights everywhere, they have to start now in order to get them all up by December! We walked to the Pont Alexandre III in front of Les Invalides to get our first view of la Tour d'Eiffel! After picking up some bread, cheese, butter and jam, we headed to the Eiffel Tower for a (chilly) picnic. The food was amazing and the view spectacular. We had the perfect view because no one else was sitting on the grass so we had the pick of the land. It did get pretty chilly though so to warm up we decided to climb up the Eiffel Tower. The view was pretty cool although not landmark Paris because there was no Eiffel Tower to see! We made our way then to La Place de la Concorde. We saw the obelisk and then made our way down Les Tuileries to get the Le Louvre. The gardens were not as striking as they are in the summer town when everything is in full bloom, in fact it was pretty brown, but hey, we got a better view of Le Louvre. By then it was getting pretty dark so we decided to find a café and wait until it was time to go to our new hosts house. We were going to a place in the suburbs of Paris called Fontenay-Sous-Bois. Aline is sisters with Gaëlle, who we stayed with in Belgium, and we will be staying with them for the remainder of our stay in Paris.