With all the homework I have to do for one class (dammit, Pierre!) and the cooking class I have to go to in about an hour (Lyon is the food capital of France), I don't have a whole lot of time to write a blog post...or put up pictures...or e-mail. But I'm going to try to crank this out at least because 1) I'm sure you're all just dying for an update (ha) and 2) if I don't write this soon, I'm not going to remember everything I did this past weekend!
The first supremely exciting thing that I did when we went to Paris on Friday was forget my rail pass. D'oh. I needed to have my rail pass in addition to my seat reservation ticket in order to get on the train to Paris. So Mark had to wait in line to change our tickets for a later train, and I had to take two metro trains back to the hotel and walk up the-worst-hill-in-the-history-of-hills so I could grab my pass, run down the hill, get back on the metro and get back to the train station. So that was fun.
But it worked out. We got a later train, made it to Paris, and somehow navigated the Parisian metro system. The metro stations in Paris are enormous. Makes you feel a bit like you're running around in giant hamster tubes or mouse mazes because there are so many halls; the Parisians have somewhere to hide (and live comfortably) if there's ever an apocalypse (2012 anyone?) and they're forced underground. We went to Centre Pompidou, the main modern art museum - which has a lot of creepy stuff but also a ton of Picassos and cool modern art, and then walked around the Notre Dame area. We headed over toward the Louvre but didn't go in (since we'd both been there before), rode an extremely over-priced ferris wheel ("One of the best views in Paris!" it was not), ate a fairly over-priced dinner (beware the tourist traps, my friends), and then walked up the Champs Elysees at night and checked out the Arc du Triomphe.
Saturday was Les Invalides, which was a hospital under Louis XIV and has since been turned into the museum of the French army and of warfare (cue French army/war jokes). It was really cool because it starts with armor and weapons from the 13th century or so, but after the 1000th suit of armor, I was starting to drag. Of course "dragging" in a museum means you're walking rapidly through each room toward the exit. Mark was still reading about all the guns and canons and helmets and uniforms until he realized I was sitting on every bench I found, so we finally headed to Napoleon's tomb, which is also in Les Invalides. Remember Napoleon? And how he had that complex about seeming a lot bigger and greater than he actually was (even if he did do some cool things)? Yeah, well, his tomb is exactly what he would have wanted. Huge sarcophagus under an elaborate dome surrounded by twelve giant statues of Lady Victory and stone frescoes of Napoleon doing various things - and looking very muscle-y as he did them. Stay tuned for pictures.
After Les Invalides was the sewer museum. Yes. Actually, it's pretty cool, because the Parisians have an extremely extensive network under the city and the history of it is really interesting. Of course the museum is also in the sewers, so it doesn't exactly smell like sunshine and flowers. And the unidentified muck in the water underneath the grates under your feet is probably exactly what you don't want it to be. But interesting nonetheless.
Bear with me, I know this is a long post: after a stop in a cafe with a fairly-Parisian (read: slightly grumpy until he realized we were only going to speak French with him) waiter, we went to the Eiffel Tower. In line at 7:30, up to the second floor by 9, in line again, up to the top floor in time for the sunset and then to watch the city light up. When the Eiffel Tower itself lit up and then did its little flashing light show, everyone on the ground cheered, which was really fun to hear from 1000 feet up. After waiting in several lines to get back down, we bought a bottle of champagne off a "vendor" (aka Dude Selling Champagne to Hapless Tourists), and sat on the Champs de Mars (Paris's version of the Mall) with hundreds of other people and watched the Tower light up again at midnight. Super cool.
Finally, Sunday we checked out he neighborhood our hotel was in. We were close to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur, so we walked up to the basilica (which was unbearably crowded) and around the neighborhood. It was a totally different area of Paris - a lot less touristy. I would definitely go back to wander around some more. We wanted to go to Les Galleries Lafayette, but they were closed - because everything in France is closed on Sundays, and I'm only exaggerating slightly. We sat in a cafe instead, and this time had very nice waiters. Take that, stereotypes.
The title of my post comes from an experience in the train station on the way home when I told a French family (in French) that the vending machine they wanted to use was broken. They thanked me and then the little seven year-old boy looked at his dad and said, "Papa, comment dit-on 'merci' en anglais?" (translation: "How do you say 'thank you' in English?") and then thanked me in English after he learned from his dad. Lesson learned: even little kids know you're American when you've said all but ten words. Second lesson learned: they can be adorably polite about it.
And that wraps up Paris!
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