Mon. 09-03-07 -- Paris, France
Originally published on: 09-09-07
This morning we didn't have a lot we needed to get done, so we slept in until 10am. We slowly got ready then took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. The tower really is WAY bigger than I thought it was. We paid the €11.50 each to be able to ride all the way to the top. We rode up to the 2nd floor and got out to look around. The city spread out in all directions as far as I could see. It was neat to see the Seine snake around, and I spotted the Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, & Notre Dame. We took the elevator to the top floor and from there, everything was so tiny! It was really windy up there too! We circled around the platform, took some pictures then went back down to the 2nd floor. We were getting hungry for lunch, so we checked out what kind of food we could get on the tower. The fast food place had a meal of 2 sausages, fries & a coke for €7.40. We bought that, sat on a bench and split the food. After lunch, we walked down the stairs to the first floor, walked around, and finally took the elevator down to the ground. It was neat seeing the city from so high, but the Eiffel Tower wasn't in the skyline! :(
We walked away from the tower toward Trocadero Square and took more pictures of the tower from there. With an album-worth of pictures, we left the Eiffel Tower behind and started toward the Arc de Triomphe. We could see it peeking through the trees, so we knew we were heading the right way.
Once we finally found the underpass to the Arc, we walked under the Arc for a while and then sat down. We received an email from Jessie this morning confirming that Sept. 7th in San Sebastian is a go. So while we were under Napoleon's Arc, we decided how best to conquer France and Spain for the next week! We came up with ideal & backup plans for train trips and wrote them out on a piece of paper. Our through was that if the person at the ticket window couldn't speak English, she could probably still book our tickets. The only place we know where we can buy train tickets is at the train station, so we hopped the metro to the nearest station (Paris has like 6). Once there we hunted down the ticket office and tentatively approached the counter. The lady we got spoke English pretty well, so we didn't have much difficulty getting our desires understood. The noon train on the 7th was no longer available, but there was a 7am train that got us to San Sebastian by 1:30pm. Stage 1 of our trip booked! We were happy to find out that there were still beds available on the night train to Barcelona on Sept. 9th. Stage 2 booked. Our final step was a train to Nice on the 11th, and sadly we discovered there is no night train from Barcelona to Nice. The best we could get is an 8:45am train on Sept. 11th, which means not even 24 hours in Barcelona. However neither of us had any deep desire for Barcelona when we first planned the trip (we weren't even going to go to Spain until the idea of the Jeff & Jessie rendezvous came up on our last night on Maui). The train will get us to Nice around 7:30pm, so it's about an 11 hour trip including a 2 hour layover in Montpellier. A long trip, and I kind of feel like it'll be a waste of a day, but on the bright side we could really use a down day, and the scenery along the French Mediterranean coast should be nice! So with that our trains to Spain and back to France were fully booked.
With a sense of accomplishment filling our sails, we hopped the metro back to our hotel. We are checking out of our hotel early tomorrow, so I wanted to pay our bill tonight. We needed cash to do that, so we asked the hotel desk manager where we might find a cash machine. She gave us some vague directions and we set off. We had to wander around a bit but we eventually found one. As we were wandering, we found this quaint courtyard with a church and playground and a few cafes surrounding a fountain. It was idyllic small town in the heart of the big city. I wanted to sit down at an outside café table and soak in it for a while, but Kara & I were too intimidated by the language gap to attempt it. I felt lame as we walked away, but we'll have 2 more nights in Paris after we return from Normandy, so I have a few more chances to try it!
When we got back to the hotel, we used the free computer to send and email to Jeff & Jessie to let them know when and where we are arriving. We also sent emails to a few hotels in San Sebastian to see if there are any availabilities. With that done, it was time to find dinner. We are tired of store bought meals, but we are intimidated by French restaurants, so what ever shall we do? We came up with the perfect plan, go to the Indian restaurant we passed on our long walk home a few nights before. I mean Aloo Gobi as Aloo Gobi in any other country, right? So we retraced our steps from a few nights ago and found where we went wrong. This time the walk seemed much shorter probably because we weren't tired & lost! We were able to read the menu, Kara got Aloo Gobi and I got Poulet (Chicken) Tikka Masala. We also ordered garlic naan, which was so tiny compared to back home (about 6 inches in diameter, a perfect circle). The food was really good (Kara says her Gobi was the best she's had in a long time). We mostly spoke English, and they understood us.
After we returned to the hotel, I devised a way to get our pictures from London & Paris onto my website. The free computer at the hotel isn't locked down (software-wise) so I was able to install my image resizer, an FTP client, and attach the camera to get our pics off. The sign says that gusts should limit their use to 15 minutes, but I must have been on there for 45 minutes or so! :s
With that finished, I went back to our room and packed up most of my stuff since we are checking out tomorrow... We're going to Normandy for about 24 hours, then we'll be back in Paris (same hotel) for 2 nights, one day. So far this trip is a blast!
