2:30 in the morning is a little early to be starting off your day but in order to get to the train on time that is the time we had to get up. We were picked up by taxis because surprisingly even the tube isn't even open at 3:45. We arrived at the station a bit early but it was alright because we got to go get coffee, I knew it would be much needed for a day touring the city of Paris. Soon we were off on the high speed train, the Eurostar. On the train ride there I was able to get a few more minutes of sleep which was nice and the next thing I knew we were 10 minutes away from Paris. The train station as we arrived looked as though it was in a rather sketchy part of town, there was graffiti all over but I guess some would consider it art. We arrived and we had to get cash because they don't have the same currency as London. Next, we were off to by underground tickets to get us from the train station to our Big Red Bus tour. We made it to St. Michel tube stop where we came out of the ground into a city that was much different. The traffic was crazy! We decided that we would go to the Notre Dame Cathedral first and this building is beautiful!
We toured around the building and it was just a beautiful inside as the outside!
After a tour around the Cathedral we made our way out and were in search of a bathroom. We had been told that this is major difference in this city compared to the U.S. was the lack of public bathrooms. We were told to try a restaurant but we were turned away and then we found it... The self cleaning toilet stall on a street. Yes, it was quite interesting and also quite disgusting. I had some ladies willing to pose in front of it! Thanks Morgan and Alesha... Oh, and there is Danielle too!
After our interesting "Toilette" experience we were off to catch the Big Red Bus, which took us around the city and we went by the opera house and then stopped at the Arc de Triomphe. First we went up the Champs- Elysees, which is a famous street in Paris, we went by many stores like Louis Vuitton and I thought about how much we would have to pay to go in, because I don't think they would willingly let us poor looking college students come inside.
The Arc de Triomphe, is massive! It doesn't look like much from across the round about, after going under the street and standing under it, you feel so small. It honors the soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and French Revolution on it and it pretty impressive to look at. We then set off to find some food in the foreign place! After much searching we ended up at a burger place which was quite interesting the language barrier made the experience even more interesting because they call out your order number in French! Fortunately, I was able to get my order and then sit down and enjoy a hamburger, it looked really good but then took a bite and was extremely surprised at what I was tasting, I got the taste of burger and bun and tomato and saying a wee bit of horseradish would be a total understatement. I was not expecting horseradish on a burger but it was there! I like horseradish but my eyes were watering by the amount on the burger, after that first bite I wiped the bun off and the horseradish taste was diminished and tasted much better!
We got back on to the bus where the next stop was... The Eifel Tower! It was quite impressive, this world known monument is HUGE!!!!
After several pictures and laying on the ground to the right angle for some we were off to the Louvre. When we got there I recognized a bridge which contains thousands of locks on it, the Pont de l'Archeveche also called Lovers Bridge was an amazing site. People put a padlock on the bridge and then toss the key into the Seine River below in hopes of creating everlasting love.
We made our way around to the Lourve and we discovered that it was closed but got to look around the fountains outside and the glass pyramids in the courtyard.
It was kind of hard to enjoy anything after a certain point, it was really cold and kind of raining all day! We tried to make the best of it but it was a really bad day to visit this lovely city. After this experience I think it would be hard for me to say I would go back but I did cross over Point Zero which we were told if you cross over then some day you would come back to Paris. So Paris, until we meet again... I hope you are warmer next time!
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