I got a good deal to Paris on President's day weekend, so I went. It was
just for the weekend, ("flying to Paris for the weekend"), and the 3-day
weekend gave me a little under 24 hours in the city, with the rest of the
time being flying time.
I had only the flight reserved, with no other plans -- I didn't even have any motel
reservation for the one night in Paris. And this being my third sightseeing visit
to the city, I really didn't have any items on my "things to see" list left over.
Well, of course there were plenty of things I hadn't seen around the city (Loire
Valley castles etc), but that would mean renting a car and I really didn't feel
like driving this time....
So... that meant roaming around town on foot, which is what I ended up doing the
whole day!
After taking the metro from the airport to the city, I roamed around the Montmarte
section of town, walking into a "boulangerie" for lunch, a "pattiserie" for dessert,
and a Comfort Inn to book a room for the night. When I went inside the motel, I asked
the lady behind the counter, "parlais vous anglais?", and she replied back, "oui, I
speak floont [fluent] English." Well, that's good... she was floont. I asked for a
room for the night and they had one, so I checked in, but the room wasn't going to
be ready for a few more hours. That was fine.... I just roamed around some more.
After tiring myself on the hills of Montmarte (including a 200+ steps climb up from a
metro station on a spiral staircase), I made my way to the Place du Concorde -- where
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had got their heads chopped off. And then on to the Seine
River, walking along the river crossing all the bridges up to the Eiffel Tower area.
Took a few "obligatory" pictures of the Eiffel Tower from Pont Alexander III -- one
of the prettiest bridges in all of Paris... then made my way to Musee d'Armee -- one
place I had never been before but was always curious about.
Well, the real reason why I went there was because I was freezing my butt off
walking around everywhere! Paris in winter can be quite harsh! But anyway, the
museum had an exhibit on France's involvement in World War 2, history of the Vichy
government, french resistance, etc... I didn't really spend too much time there
since most of the information signs were in French. I need to learn that language
some day! I want to be floont in French.
Ok I'm getting off track here.. back to the story...
The museum is also home to Napolean Bonaparte's tomb. But never mind that. It had
a cafeteria inside, and of course like all such places it was a tourist trap and
quite expensive. I had some kind of a dessert which I can't even describe... it
had some kind of vanilla-type-pudding-thing topped with a huge ball of some kind
of meringue-type-thingamajig. just a big concoction of what was basically sugar.
8 euros, and worth every penny of four of those euros!
Yeah, and Napolean's tomb was ok too.
Next I made my way to that big 1000-ft tall blob of metal that symbolizes the city of Paris.
I bought a ticket to the top -- cost 10.50 euros. Yes I had been there before, but I had
nothing else to do right now, so "why not?" ... The first elevator takes everyone up to
the second floor of the tower, and when I got off there and stood in line for the second
elevator to the top, a strong wind started to blow.
Paris. Winter. Freezing temperature. Strong wind. Not a good combo. Everybody in the
line was shivering, no matter how many clothes they had on. It must have been about
a 10 or 15 minute wait, but felt a lot longer. Couldn't wait to get inside the warm
elevator!
The top floor has separate indoor and outdoor sections. Of course everyone stayed
indoors, and that got too crowded so I went outside. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah cool crisp air
on my face! A few snow flurries, but nothing much. And the views -- well, I knew from
last time that the views from the top floor of the Eiffel Tower aren't really that good.
It's just too high up! But I didn't care, I had nothing else to do anyway!
Spent a good hour or more there, being entertained by all the people cramming inside
the small room just to stay indoors, while outside really wasn't all that cold anymore.
I wanted to stay on the tower until the evening lights turned on. Finally I decided to
head down again -- back to the 2nd level, then the 1st, by now the lights had come on
and I took a couple of pictures with the lights and finally came all the way down.
Well, after dark, the temperature dropped quite drastically, so I didn't stay out too
long. Just walked to the fountains at Trocadero, taking some more pictures of the Eiffel
Tower, and took the Metro back to Montmarte. One 5-minute stop at Moulin Rouge and another
10-minute stop at a patisserie later (for dinner to-go), I was back at the motel.
Then a funny thing happened. It was one of those things that I didn't think was funny
at the time, but now looking back on it, I can laugh about it! The floont-English speaking
lady this afternoon had reserved my room at the motel and told me to come back later
because the room wasn't ready yet. At night there was a guy sitting behind the desk. I
asked him politely, "Parlais vous anglais?" and got a quick reply back, "No." Just then
another customer walked up and started talking to him immediately in English, and
HE REPLIED BACK IN ENGLISH! This with me standing right there, after he's just told
me that he doesn't speak English.
And the tourbooks say the French people aren't rude! HA!
So of course I started talking to him in English, and finally got my key to the room...
The next morning was my flight back home... end of a day trip!
Paris:
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