My Day in Paris

I now had sunday to kill before catching a 7:30pm train back to Grenoble. So, I got up at 6:15, and headed into Paris. I got off the train at Notre Dame and walked around there for a few minutes before getting on a different subway to go to the Eiffel Tower. I checked that out, walked to the Arc de Triumph, and then to the Champs Elysses, where I stopped and had breakfast. It was only 9:30am. Croissants and coffee....mmmm. A met a couple from Missouri who was nice enough to take my pic. I actually heard more English on sunday than French, plus lots of other languages, some of which I recognised and some I didn't. I proceeded to walk down the Champs Elysses and the Seine river to the Louvre, which, after seeing that entry was only 8.50 euros, I had to go in. I spent a couple hours in the Louvre, although it would be more deserving of a couple days, and say the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Mile, as well as many other artifacts, sculptures, and paintings. This is a great time for me to point out that I'm a crappy museum goer. I'm surrounded by all these famous works of art, and understand that great talent is required, but don't understand why the Mona Lisa is really that different from any of the other 35,000 works of art in the Louvre. After "finishing" the Louvre, I continued walking down the Seine river to Pont-Marie, which is a small island in the middle of the river where it widens. My French host, Alain, suggested I find a specific ice cream parlor here and have a scoop; so I did, and it was delicious! Praline Pecan, and it was the creamiest, butteriest and best Praline Pecan ice cream I have ever had. For those of you who find yourselves in Paris and want to experience some truly wonderful ice cream, it was called Bertillon. There are actually three locations on the island, but only one is a dedicated ice cream parlor. It's sort of in the middle of the island, and not one of the two places you see when you first walk onto the west side. (Just FYI). From here I walked to where the Bastille had been, then down to Place de La Nation, and trough some open air furniture market. It wasn't really my intent to shop for furniture, as I was looking for the Promenade Plantee, which is apparently a covered shopping area where Pariseans go. But, I never found it and was getting tired of walking. So, I started walking to the train station. Once I arrived, I found a crepe vendor, bought a Nutella and banana crepe (delicious!) and sat down after 8 hours of continuous walking. I hung out at the train statino for a few hours and then caught my train back to Grenoble. This also highlites why I am a crappy site seeer (Is that a word?). Now, I won't claim to have seen all of a Paris, but I hit many of the major tourist locations before lunch! I guess that just reinforces what I already knew...I like vacations where I go to do something. Don't get me wrong, I had a good time walking around and see all these things, but not something I would want to do for two weeks. Drinking coffee at any of the thousands of cafes or bars, that I could do for two weeks....if I only spoke French.