Well I know this might come as a shock to you, but we woke up late today. Kind of around the time that the House keepers barged in our room for a second time (10:30ish). We started organizing for the day ahead. Which means: jeff showers, I clean up, and ryan checks his email. We had internet acess at this place so he decided to use it. Soon after ryan went to email people, I followed him down to the lobby, to do the same. So when I got there he was just logging onto his LDS Link-Up account. Wow, ryan, sure getting the most out of your vacation. I waited in vain behind him in hopes of checking my email as well. but after his 'important' Link up he had to check his 'important' school email, then it was his 'important personal email. Then I lost track. He finished 2 minutes before jeff was ready so we just had to leave. The one email I was able to look at was a forwarded news article from my dad telling me all about what was happening in London right now. "apparently there was a tube strike in London on the Day I was there, and he wanted to know if it was true." Sorry, but my feet were s till hurting.
Today our goal was Notre Dame, right after a bakery. We of course ran into a lot of gypsy pick-pockets right in front of the church. At one point I even think I witnessed rival Gypsy clans fighting/argueing about who's turf it was. But the church was cool. and after waiting an hour to hike to the top of the bell towers , it was really cool too.
From there , there was a bunch of small visitable things right in the area. One was Saint Chapelle, a small High-Gothic cathedral loacated on a secure government site. So we had to go thru heavy securing to see it, then there was this place called 'the concierge'. Its where people went right before the Guillotine, so Marie Antoinette's cell was highlighted heavily. The Brits have Lady Di, and The frenchies have Marie Antoinette.
From the top of Notre Dame we discovered a new destination, the Pantheon. It was a good trek over there, but Jeff made friends with the locals and they showed us a short cut. This place was amazing. It was humongous. It was a church at one time, but now it's not. It just has big statues n' stuff in it. Its where Victor Hugo and a few other french authors are buried. Normally you can go up in the tower, but jeff wanted to see 'something else' first really quick before we went up, which turns out to be 2 minutes to late for the last group to go up. (kind of like needing to upt money in a non-working vending machine just as the metro pulled up, then wondering why a vending machine on a train platform didn't work as the train left the station. That happened once for sure, and almost three other times.) Then again our tummies led us quickly to our next venue which was a really cool sandwich shop right next to a lovely plaza. We enjoyed life there for a few moments, then moved on.
Our next destination was the Louvre Museum. One of the most Grand museums in the world. Its super huge. A normal person might not even know where to start. But then there's me, the 'super tourist' who knew exactly where to start. We dove right into old Renissance Paintings, Nepeoleon's old apartments, then sculpture. One of the only things that Ryan wanted to see was the Mona Lisa. Thats usually a given, but this time we needed to know why he wanted to see only a few spacific things. Well, its because they were in the movie Da Vinci Code. Yup, the only reason. Then he would quote to us what he 'thought' was reality when he had actually only seen a hollywood movie. I tried to remind him that it was only a movie, but he ignored me just like when I tell my grandma she shouldn't be racist, and he continued to tell us what he 'thought' the set up would be like, i.e. the movie set. I don't think I rolled my eyes so many times in such a short period before. He was so determined to see everything about that movie there.
We finally saw the two paintings and 1 glass pyramid, and we didn't really need to see anything else, so we moved to the gardens. Even on its overcast day, we could tell that the sun was pushing itself below the horizon as we lingered there. Luckily Digital cameras look past that with a smile. We got some cool evening shots. And although I didn't take the usual amount of pictures I'm still running out of space on my memory cards quickly.
Finally to end a lovely day with soar feet and all, we walked along the river, with hopes of finding a river cruise, but only finding a place to eat instead. Around here you know when you're nearing a bakery cause jeff's eyes turn from the serious Archivist/lawyer to a kid in a toy/candy store.
Only think I've learned in the past days is how to get around, only the metro, with others. For a while I'd just sit back and let French Jeff lead away, but the building number of questions and U-turns forced me to step in. There is a difference, I think, between being able to navigate a map and knowing How. I know maps and have a good sense of direction. MOre than a few times I would come out of a subway and think our destination is one direction, but our guide leads us another, just to be informed by some friendly locals that I was correct in the first place. But no big deal. Where/when I decided to take the help is when he kept thinking/ trying to get us to go the wrong way. All I do is look at where we are, where we need to go, and then find where the colored lines match (metro plan). Innocently difficult for a friend thats color blind. NO big deal, I'll just make sure I'm the one in front of the map from now on.
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