<< Day 2 - Les Cars Rouges
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Our third day in Paris was a long, tiring, wonderful day. Overwhelming in every sense of the word, I think.
We woke up bright and early Monday morning and headed out the door at 8:30 to beat the rush at Sacré-Cœur. I also wanted to avoid the tourist "hecklers" that hang out at the bottom of the steps, although I didn't mention them to Barb and Lynn - best not to stress them unnecessarily, I thought.
We arrived at Sacré-Cœur very early, and although we missed most of the crowds, I still managed to get accosted by one of the guys that hang out there. In reaction to his grabbing my arm, a very angry "Touche-moi pas!" made him jump back, exclaiming "Francaise!?!?!" :) Apparently, French immersion, although MANY years ago, was worth it, since we were then left alone to enjoy the sights.
After that, we wandered peacefully up the stairs, passed only by a lady doing her morning exercise - running up the stairs and then doing laps around the top set of steps.
We stopped to enjoy the view, and then wandered into the church, where they are celebrating 125 years of constant prayer this year. Lynn was quite upset that we were not able to take pictures inside the church, and that was the last time we bothered to go into one.
NOTE: Sacré-Cœur was the first set of stairs we went up during the day; ~300up and ~250 back down...
Exiting from the church, we wandered through the village of Montmartre, where I was approached by several artists, all assuring my that I was their inspiration, and could they please do my portrait? While flattering, I declined, and we stopped for breakfast in a little cafe on the corner, where we enjoyed one of the most entertaining meals of our trip, having a window seat out onto a very busy little street.
Unfortunately, the art available that would have fit perfectly in with my travel wall was all a little bit over-priced for me... also, the pieces I really liked were REALLY big - not at all what you want to be carrying with you into a 12-day stay in Tuscany before heading back home. I'll get some of it eventually; for now, I have some very nice little postcards that I picked up later in the day from the bookstores along the Seine.
After breakfast, we wandered by the Moulin Rouge, then headed back to our apartment for a very quick refreshing stop, and then hopped back on the Red Bus tour. We rode it through the city, all the way to the Musee Rodin, which we were quite looking forward to, and so convinced our driver to let us off in front of it. He was very obliging, and it was only after we got off the bus and had walked around the corner to the front of the building that we realized it was closed and we were now stranded, since the next Red Bus wouldn't let us on where there was no official stop. I do believe that as the unofficial trip planner, that was my biggest mistake, and the one that upset us the most. Much to my relief, when we got to Florence, we managed to get into the Accademia without having to wait for too long, so I was forgiven.
And so began the exhausting part of our day.
We walked to the nearest Metro stop, and determined the best route to get to Notre Dame, which we wanted to see, and which was an official stop on the Red Bus tour. The route we picked had one transfer, and we exited at what seemed the closest place to Notre Dame.
All very good, in theory.
Our "One Transfer" ended up being between two different lines, and I am SURE that we walked about 5 city blocks underground, up and down stairs. When we arrived at our planned stop, we were slightly dismayed to realize that the elevator was broken, there were no escalators, and we were about 5 stories underground. Finally making it up to street level again, we were slightly more dismayed to realize that although we could see we were very close to Notre Dame, we couldn't actually SEE Notre Dame. Finally, we wandered down a couple of streets, past a subway stop we had determined was not the one we wanted to use, and voila! Notre Dame! Just at the other end of the street, across the river.
This gave us the chance to wander past the used book sellers lining the Seine, and I got my artwork. We got to Notre Dame, unanimously decided we were NOT standing in line to climb the tower, and hurried to catch the next Red Bus that came along.
Which we rode to the next stop, where we jumped off again to go shopping at the Galleries Lafayette. A huge shopping centre in Paris, several stories and two city blocks big...
Eventually, we made our way back to the bus, got on, and stayed on until the Arc de Triomphe, which was, in reality our stop, although the 5 blocks back to our apartment had never felt so long.
We rested for a couple of hours, went out for supper, and then ventured out again, this time to go up the Eiffel Tower, for which we had tickets for 10:30 PM.
We took the subway again, exiting at the stop called Eiffel Tower, walked 5 blocks past another subway stop, and arrived at the Tower approximately 20 minutes early, where we very thankfully, did not have to stand in the VERY long line, but just waited until our time, and then waited to go up the elevator. Which is a two-story elevator, and I really do think that if we had had to climb stairs to get on the elevator, we would have all turned around and gone home.
Going up the elevator, we got out, and deliberately did not climb up to the higher viewing platform, content to wander around on one level enjoying the city lit up at night.
Eventually, we decided that it was time to go, and we headed back the same way we came, dropping exhausted into our beds and looking forward to doing nothing the next day but sleeping in, packing, and catching a plane to Pisa.
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