Stairs and Hills

If you don't like those two things, then you probably will be miserable in Paris. I climb a minimum of three hundred stairs a day. That's JUST to my apartment. It's ninety-nine stairs each trip up. Not included are the stairs in the metro which accumulate quite quickly. Today I felt as though we were walking at an incline for about five hours straight. Who needs a gym membership when you live in Paris?

Today we kind of had a lazy start. Justin and I had plans to meet at Invalides and the Pont Alexandre III at 10:00 in the morning. He gave me a list of things he wanted to see and I added a little to it. I love putting together a day's worth of activities and plan the surprises along the way.

We ended up at our meeting point at the exact same time. We walked down to Invalides and over to my neighborhood to grab a few things from the grocery store and a baguette at the boulangerie. On our way, we saw a clan of donkey walking in front of the historical building. One of the most bizarre things I've seen. Anyway, I decided that I needed to treat him to a real French breakfast in a real Parisian apartment. He was able to see just how tiny my little flat is. We had our baguette with butter and confiture and coffee and orange juice. I opened up the windows to let some fresh air in and he admired the view for a while. He asked about the church whose steeples that we could see which is very close by. As we were leaving, I called my boss to see if she was at the house so that he could see their flat and meet her. She said that we could come over in fifteen minutes, so that's when I took him by Assemblee Nationale and the church that he asked about.

Please take notice of the group of donkeys walking in front of Invalides (click on picture to enlarge). Fifteen minutes later we were at the family's apartment. Justin met Barth which was so fun because he is only the second friend from back home that has met my French family. Isabelle came in just as elegant as ever and introduced herself and offered us coffee and tea. We sat down and chatted with her about the French Open and her job. She asked about his travels. It was just a lovely conversation. I really saw how blessed I am to have such an amazing family to work for. I was very touched today by how she took time out of her busy schedule to entertain me and my friend. I really admire this woman.

I was able to go back to Les Invalides, but this time to share all I knew about Napoleon with Justin. I was disappointed with how little I remembered from my last visit. He was able to see Napoleon's crypt and we even visited the WWII museum. There are so many possessions of Hitler in there. It sends shivers down your spine just to see it.Justin posing with Napoleon's hat and frock to show that he is a bigger man than Napoleon. The alter in The Dome Church at Les Invalides
We got on the metro for a short trip over to the Champs Elysees. We walked up towards the Arc de Triomphe. I showed him the nicest McDonald's in the world. It's not even fair to call it McDonald's. We went under Etoile, the twelve-lane roundabout which goes around the arc, and found ourselves right in the middle of groups of tourists all looking at the same thing. I've been here about five times so I'm used to the enormity of it. Justin walked around and took it all in and oohed and awed.

On our way to Montmartre, we stopped at Place de la Concorde to see Tuileries and all that is contained in that small area. The Tuileries was filled with tourists. Enormous amounts of people were pouring from the Louvre through the garden. Absolute mass exodus.
From there we walked by Madeleine down to Opera. It was time for a little bit of a break and snack, so what better place than Starbucks. I've already posted pictures of most of the places we visited, so I opted not to be redundant and repost. If you remember, the Starbucks at Opera is by far the best in the world. If you've been there, I doubt you will disagree. It was a nice pick-me-up before hitting Galeries Lafayette for a free view of the city. We went to the top floor to the rooftop terrace to see Paris from up high. I am pretty sure this is only for those that know Paris well. No tourists will find this view in a guide. It's strictly limited to novices.

A restaurant/entertainment club called The American Dream. It's near Opera and Madeleine and I have never seen it before.The view from Galeries Lafayette
The metro was calling our names again. This time we jumped on and headed towards the Moulin Rouge. It's a different world over there. You can visit five areas of Paris in one day and feel like you have visited five different cities. It's such a diverse city and it's what I LOVE about it. Once we took a pic at the famous cabaret, we trekked up the massive hills to Sacre Coeur, the place of the best view of Paris. I made Justin close his eyes while I walked him to the view, then when he opened them, I am pretty sure he was breathtaken. The air is so fresh from so high up. It's a place that I will never grow tired of. However, I just realized that I didn't get any pictures from it.

I learned a few months back that there is still a vinyard in Paris and it's located in Montmartre. I've wanted to go for sometime now and I knew today that it probably would. We winded through the amazing streets to find it. I couldn't tell on the map where it was, but as we were looking around, we found ourselves right next to it. This little place was so beautiful. This amazing vineyard, just in the middle of these old neighborhoods, just tucked away. It might be my new favorite place considering my love for the spiritual significance of vineyards.It's right across from the oldest and most famous cabaret pub in Paris, Au Lapin Agile (The Agile Rabbit).
I look awkward, I know, but I love my Paris vineyard.From the vineyard, we walked back up the hills to the square that is most known to be my favorite part of Paris. Justin aptly described Montmartre as "raw" and I thought that it was definitely the best adjective. It's bohemian, yes, but it's really raw. He collects paintings from all the places that he travels, so I knew that he would enjoy this area. It's phenomenal and impossible to describe with mere words. It's a feeling. While we were walking through, we saw a camera crew interviewing on of the artists.
Sacre Coeur in the background
This was the end of our tour. We made the trip down all the stairs that we climbed up. We caught the metro at Anvers to line 1 where we made the split. He went towards his hostel and I went back home to sleep off my walking hangover. I will say that my feet are aching, very slightly. More than slightly. It was my favorite two days of touring. I feel as though I am getting much better at this. Justin and I talked about options of becoming a tour guide in my spare time. We were not kidding. I absolutely LOVE it! I've learned as much history about this city and know it like the back of my hand now.

French Open and More...

I had mentioned before that a friend from home was coming into Paris for his first time. It was all just coincidence that he was living in Pau, France and visiting Paris for the French Open around the same time that he found out I was living here. Thanks Facebook! When I found out, I jumped at the chance to play Tour Guide. Why, you ask? Because I LOVE playing Tour Guide in Paris. It's like my most favoritest thing to do ever.

We spoke last night to discuss how we would meet up. Chatelet was the final destination. Not a good idea. Chatelet is never a good idea. Wherever the original Bermuda Triangle is said to be, they are wrong. It is actually in Chatelet Station in Paris, France. Needless to say, we did not meet up there. I walked around for a long time looking for "tall male brown hair jeans white shirt" and he was looking for "short girl brown hair beige sweater set and jeans". Yes, I am wearing sweater sets these days. Don't laugh, I am just rolling with the local fashion.

After about an hour, I get a call from him saying he's hopped on the metro towards his hostel to check in. Score. In less than twenty minutes we finally meet up at Gare de Lyon. Then we took bus 63 to Odeon and on line 10, all the way to Porte d'Auteuil. On our way, we eat up the sandwiches and chips and drinks that I brought for the trip. When we arrived, I took us in about three wrong directions before I asked some police for directions. I must say that I spoke more French today (to adults) than I ever have. I was quite pleased that every person I spoke to understood me. Quite an accomplishment, I'd say!

After a bit of walking we finally made it in to the French Open. We walked around and watched different matches - women's doubles (boring) and tried our hardest to find some men playing, to no avail. The sun was brutal. Jeans.not.a.good.idea. I felt like they were painted on me through most of the day. We laughed most of the time talking about our mutual friend John Walker who played tennis in college at OU and Texas Tech. Justin mentioned that he was so jealous that we were able to come. At one point I said, "Awe Justin, you should get some Roland Garros tennis balls for John!" to which Justin responded quicker than immediately with a "Heck no, I'm not getting him anything." Boys.We saw some great stuff and had lots of laughs. During one of the matches, two couples were pouring wine into glasses and sipping throughout the match. Only in France. Something that fascinated me was the video camera. It was suspended in the air by a wire and it zoomed up and down like it was on a zip line. It went up and down capturing what was going on at each court.
Quite a bit of walking happened too. We heard that some of the players would be exiting through this tunnel, so we waited hoping to get a great photo to rub in John's face and make him really sick of jealousy. But all we got was an odd conversation from a middle (late) aged man from Sacramento. We aren't sure why he is in France. He told us that tennis was his old passion and now it's bands, so he's been traveling to hear back. His next stop is in Nashville to some other festival to hear his favorite punk band. This guy happened to look like your average financial advisor. It was good conversation but we both left saying, "That was strange."

I was so convinced that this guy was not a tennis player. Not one thing about him was convincing, except for his talent, but he looked more like a Greek cricket player, rather than a French tennis player in the French Open.
Justin had heard that after 5:00pm tickets to the big stadiums would go on sale for three euros. At that time, we hauled over to the line to get these tickets. We waited a LONG time. It paid off. Justin got us some really good seats in the red zone in Chartier. The excitement about this stadium was that Venus Williams would be playing. We arrived to find a French guy (Mathieu) and an Argentinian (Schwank) playing. We thought it would be over soon, but we were mistaken. It happened to be the biggest nail-biter of a match I've ever seen. I was screaming clapping and hooping and hollaring like a man woman. I was so stoked. Now I was cheering for both of them. I had to root for the French, but I had a little place in my heart for E.Schwank. He seemed like a nice guy and he was the underdog. Towards the end though, I was going for Mathieu because my tummy needed fuel. I predicted most of the game to Justin's surprise. It was then that I made him aware of my gift of prophesy in the area of sporting events. This, he did not know. Our Frenchie won, which I predicted, of course.I really liked this guy's beard. I thought he was a leprechaun.
The moment when Mathieu won!I got him just as he was getting up, so that's why he looks like a little turtle.
We left to begin our site seeing of Paris. We took bus 32 to Trocadero. I knew that it would be sunset and seeing the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero at this time would be breathtaking. We stepped off the bus and Justin was shocked. I think that's when he realized that he was really in Paris. We went to take some pictures and to take in all the beauty. We hopped on the metro which took us over the river to see a fantastic view, then back to Odeon for dinner. We walked to Saint-Michel. The street performers were out, so we stopped to watch a couple before looking for food. These guys are so talented and their talent is so unique. I love this part of Paris. I am always too short to get decent photos, so these were all taken with the camera suspended in the air.Saint-Michel
I told Justin that we could either eat in a little cafe type restaurant on the strip, or grab a bit and walk to Notre Dame and eat. He wasn't sure until I took him to the end of the street which has an amazing view of the famous cathedral. Without hesistation he decided on the latter. We walked back down to grab Gyros with fries. We made it to Notre Dame just in time for some good photos. The sun went down as we ate and allowed the fire twirlers the darkness to perform. Once we finished eating, we walked over to watch them. Yet, another unique talent.We hopped back on the metro towards La Motte Piquet-Grenelle. We walked a little bit to Ecole Militaire and finally the Eiffel Tower. I just wanted him to see the tower at night. I will always suggest it at night and not during the day. We arrived to find thousands of people picnicking and drinking at the Champ de Mars. It's more people than I have ever seen before, but it was the perfect example of French culture. Nothing could have captured it more adequately. We walked a little bit before I told Justin that we had to take our shoes off and walk in the grass.Earlier in the night I told him about a message by Matt Chandler. I can remember he was talking a list that he made a while back that's called "Don't Cry For Me...". It's a list that he wants his wife to read at his funeral. It's of all the amazing things that he's experienced in his life. So I told Justin that I have a list like this in my head, but not yet on paper. I am also trying to experience things to add to my list. "Don't cry for me I've walked barefoot at the Eiffel Tower." These things are priceless. That's why I love to show people Paris. It's such a breathtaking city and I want to show it all, in all of it's splendor. I want to help create some memories that will always be remembered. It's the most amazing place and I want people to know the best parts of it, to do it justice. The view from where we were sitting.We sat on the wet grass for a while and talked before some Canadian gals came up to join us. They bought a bottle of champagne from one of the gypsies and were chugging it after each other. Conversation revolved around pretty not interesting topics like partying and visiting their native Canada, eh? About twenty minutes later we excused ourselves and got on our way. I took him down Rue Saint Dominique which ends up at Les Invalides. It's one of his top places to visit on his list. He almost didn't believe me when I said I lived next door. We walked up north towards the river and couldn't believe the beauty from the most fantastic bridge. I'm so honored that it's the bridge that leads to my home, Pont Alexandre III. A little bit further north of a walk and we came to the Champs Elysees, Arch de Triomphe, and the Luxor. That was just a little taste for him because we will go back tomorrow. He hopped on the metro towards his hostel, then I walked home.I haven't been this exhausted in a long time, but I'm back in love with Paris. I love this place so much. We have plans for breakfast tomorrow, then another full day of sight seeing. Be prepared for another big blog!