The following is a chronological listing of what Josh and I did on my birthday trip to Paris! For Paris pictures, click here.
6/5
- Train: surprisingly long (two hours from door to door), stiflingly hot, awkwardly crowded; a couple was oddly making out amid the chaos
- Louvre: someone tried to swindle me with a ring trick, but Josh pulled me away; there was, shockingly, no line for tickets; rooms were unevenly cooled and some were very hot; display of Egyptian sarcophagi was our favorite
- Soggy pastry: I shouldn't have waited to eat it
- Dinner: the duck confit was awesome, the steak was inedibly tough; both the creme brulee and lemon tart with raspberry sorbet were divine
6/6
- Awoke on my birthday to a thunderstorm; weather.com reported rain every hour; was really bummed, but had to admit that the rain sounded so pretty on the terrace outside of our window
- Checked online to see what to do during rain, and one posting said "put on a coat, get an umbrella and suck it up -- it's not like you're in a beach town"; I decided to take that advice
- Bought expensive birthday pastries for breakfast (yes, breakfast) from the hotel/Louvre to Champs Elysees; ate the pastries in the Jardin des Tuileries, between the Louvre and Champs Elysees
- Walked down the Champs Elysees and ducked into Louis Vuitton, which was a zoo; Speedy 25 was priced at 440 Euros
- Arc de Triomphe: I disproved the existence of any sense of direction when I asked "oh, is this another arc?" after failing to realize that we were walking in a semi-circle
- Eiffel Tower: walked the first two stages up after waiting only ~20 minutes in line for tickets; the top is not at all picture-friendly
- Seine: took a boat ride to Notre Dame, which was close to our hotel
- Notre Dame: long line that moved surprisingly fast; free entry
- "Rue de Pet Shops": walked down a random street that had several pet stores; such a pleasant surprise; bunnies, kitties, puppies, birds, chinchillas, hamsters, birds, fish, reptiles, mice, chicks, ferrets; quite possibly the best part of my day
- Pastry shop: overwhelmed with the options, I picked a pear tart; it was okay
- Birthday dinner: felt ill from all the butter I ate, and was craving a Japanese dinner; the hot miso soup, crisp salad and clean salmon sashimi tasted awesome; Josh had beef with cheese on a stick; picked lemon sorbet, not a flaky pastry, for dessert
- The rain didn't come back all day after stopping in the morning; happily, weather.com was wrong
6/7
- Sacre Coeur: hawkers everywhere; crypt, to Josh's disappointment, was closed
- Parisian lunch: we sat there for over two hours; the waiter asked, "cafe?" and I said yes, expecting him to ask me what kind of coffee I wanted; the waiter left without asking for details and returned with a small cup of what tasted like the liquid crack kind (the only kind worth drinking?)
- Chairs in the cafes are arranged classroom-style so that diners face out onto the street instead of each other
- Salvatore Dali exhibit: another pleasant surprise; placards were very informative, and I felt like I learned a lot about Surrealism; almost 50 kids swarmed the smallish exhibit, first sketching outside the museum and then listening to explanations inside; Dali loved crutches, spindly legs, drawers; Josh's favorite was the elephant with spindly legs
- Train back to the airport: like an oven baking unwashed bodies; deodorant is apparently not consistently used, and some people really need it
