A Week's Travels, Part 2: Paris

Okay, I've got wireless back now. Turns out it's been on for a while, but I only found out about it now. What are you willing to bet it came back right after I posted tat it had gone down?

Anyway, back on topic...

We got into Paris late Sunday morning. No, that's not right; we got into Gare De l'Est just about 10:00 PM, but we spent the next two hours wandering hopelessly lost around a Metro station, and then on the streets of Paris because the directions our Hotel gave us were crap (go to this Metro station and walk 300 meters. In which bloody direction?) So we didn't get to our hotel until after Midnight on Sunday.

Sunday was kind of a boring day. Samantha has a friend who lives in Paris, so she went to hang with her while Dreama and I wandered the streets for a while. Eventually, we made our way to the Arc de Triopmhe, then met up with Sam at the Eiffel Tower.





Honestly, I have to say that the Arc was quite underwhelming. It's much smaller (10%-15%) than I'd expected. The Eiffel Tower was nice, about what I though, and I must say I was somewhat impressed by it.

Monday we did the Free Walking tour of Paris. That was interesting. While we never made it back to either the Arc or the Tower (though we did get glimpses of both), we saw pretty much everything else there was to see in Paris, including Notre Dame, the Paris Opera House (of Phantom of the Opera fame), the Louvre, and a whole bunch of other places that I really can't remember. Sorry (it has been a week, after all!)

Well, anyway, here are some pics of everything.











After the walking tour, we went back to the Louvre and went inside for a little while. Found both the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.





I'm almost ashamed to say this, but neither work of art impressed me much. No, that's a lie; the Venus is quite magnificent. The Mona Lisa, on the other hand... it's... it's just... tiny. I mean real tiny, like smaller-than-your-average-portrait small. Honestly, it wouldn't look out of place hanging on my living room wall back home (and that's saying something).

So, anyway, getting myself back on topic before I go of on a pointless rant about art...

Tues, we tried to get to Normandy Beach. I say tried, because we made it as far as this little nowhere town called Bayeux, about 4.5 miles due south of Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery, before everything fell apart. According to our guidebook, you could either hire a special taxi service or take a tour bus once you get to the train station. First thing we saw after getting off the train was a sign for a taxi service. We call the number, and they say they'll be right there. Half-hour later, no-show. We call back, and they tell us that they're not running the taxis any more that day. So I run across the street to the tour bus station (it's just after 1:00 by this point), and ask if there's room on their 1:15 tour. Guy at the counter says the bus just left, and it was the last tour of the day. Even though it wasn't scheduled to leave for another 15 minutes. So all we could do was wait for the next train back to Paris.

Does the word "heartbroken" mean anything to you?

We were able to salvage some of the day; I got to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. That was pretty spectacular.



Wednesday, we left for Amsterdam. I'll do a quick post on that in a little bit.

Until then, peace.

-Raptor