Dude wheres the metro, dude wheres the last supper

  Paris, France
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

And so the day begins... hair is stable (at least that what I am trying to convince myself) - phone... dead.... yeah.... I may have left the European adaptor at Steph's house in my other bag..... sorry Anne....
speaking of Anne, last night Anne had a great fight with the shower... she ended up crouching under it... apparently the owners of the building expect their tourists to be midgets... its moments like that I don't mind being vertically challenged.... oh right - sorry wee bit of a tangent there..... all items of clothing accounted for? Check - keys present and not inside of bag before locking? Check.... we stumble downstairs with only minutes before we are due to leave to go into the city of paris - grab a croissant from the breakfast room and dash out the doors to the bus... exceptionally well timed.... we weren't the last ones on the bus.... so its all good... oh yeah - I haven't mentioned the other Top deckers yet... ok so to break it down there are 5 Korean girls, 4 South Africans (saffas), 7 Kiwis, and 27 Aussies - yeah I know outnumbered much.... the Korean girls and one of the guys were late to the bus and had to do dead ants... its the top deck punishment for delaying the bus... (yeah delay it longer and look like a tourist freak)
so Anne and I joined up again with Rachel and Michelle (after scoffing down delicious crepes we bought from a vendor near the Eiffel tower) - and decided on the days proceedings - pretty much hit as many of the monuments as humanly possible... Starting with the Arc de Triomphe....it's HUGE and arch like and in the middle of the CRAZIEST round about EVER!!! To get to the top of the Arc de Triomphe - you have to battle - yup you guessed it - a spiral freaking staircase... so we hoofed it up 273 steps to get to the top where we were greeted with an amazing view of Paris... yeah - that made the exercise worth it... after spending about 10 minutes taking in the sights - taking many photos... it was back down and out to have a look at the base of the arc, lots of sculptures that undoubtedly have something to do with battle... I only assume because of the angels wielding swords here...don't worry I took pictures... By The Way!!! This was napoleons big project that was built AFTER Napoleon died - haha sucks to be you bro... after my mad photo happy spree we departed the Arc and took a stroll along the Champs Elysées (quickly darting to the middle of the road to get a picture in front of the Arc) where we expertly purchased some pan au chocolat "bonjour - trois pan au chocolat si vous plait" the one thing we could actually afford on this road... its said to be the centre of Parisian life... and if that's the case pack up my things I'm moving here and finding me a wealthy Frenchman... these shops are INCREDIBLE... any who...it became increasingly obvious that we were on the longest road known to man because we walked... and walked... and walked.... And weren't entirely sure if we would ever end up at the Louvre, which according to the map was at the end of this road... we did eventually make it and cleverly found the one entrance that didn't have an enormous waiting line - HAHA TAKE THAT OTHER TOURIST PEOPLE! Inside we were greeted to a sight of the finest art and sculptures imaginable... but we were here for one thing... the legendary miss Mona Lisa - we stalked the corridor with fierce determination - Rachel starts talking about how if we can spare some time - she'd like to check out the last supper too...I'm thinking to myself - Isn't that in Italy?? - But we press on till finally we find her... she's surrounded by dozens of Asian tourists and for a brief moment - I can't figure out where she is. A space clears and the four of us get the brief glance we've been waiting for.... And my god... how small is that painting - I mean seriously, she's no bigger than an A4 canvas... we all wander out feeling slightly disappointed but accomplished at the same time... Rachel pipes up again with the last super idea, and despite our warnings that we are sure it isn't in this county - she decided to ask one of the staff where is located - to which they amusingly reply - Italy...

Back out into the sunny courtyard of the Louvre I approached a nice looking French man in a bright yellow vest to ask where the tube station was:
Tara: excusez-moi   parlez-vous français ? (excuse me do you speak french?)
Frenchie: *looks at me like I'm a lunatic*
Tara: *feeling totally stupid* Je suis-vous désolé, parlez-vous anglais ?? (I'm sorry, do you speak English?)
Frenchie: non
Tara: oh - um, do you know where the tube station is anyway???
Frenchie: *looks at me like I'm a lunatic anyway and walks away*
After letting my humiliating moment pass and the laughter to die down we all simultaneously notice that the tube station we are looking for happens to be the thing across the road directly in front of us with a great big sign that says METRO - smooth huh. Best. Tourists. Ever.
We bought these Carnet passes and hopped on board the next metro heading towards Notre Dame.... But naturally we got off somewhere not in the direct region but close enough to walk and take in more of the sights of paris -oh yeah we totally planned that.... Anywho, once we actually got to Notre Dame I hung about in the sun - a wee bit tired from the aforementioned walking, watching some kids playing their guitar and singing, and this little old dude feeding a swarm of sparrows while Anne, Rachel and Michelle took a plethora of photos of the Huncbacks home.*mental note - get copies from anne* when everyone found me again we headed off to this church we were advised to visit - a must see - called St Chappelle... what can I say but WOW. It's this little old gothic chapel buried amongst all these new buildings, kind of a blink and you'd miss it thing... when you enter it looks like a really old chapel. Pretty but basic, but when you head upstairs you are greeted with the most awe inspiring stained glass windows. It's so hard to put it into words. The room lights up like a rainbow when the sun hits them just right. Turns our the room we entered downstairs was the church for the poor people and the rich ones came upstairs to pray... nice.
 
Alrighty... after much sightseeing we all headed back to the Eiffel tower (which by the way has all these military dudes with rifles guarding it) and hung out on the grass, the line to go up was far too long, and we just didn't have the energy - will have to go up next time - and there will be a next time people! We sat and chatted for awhile, constantly being interrupted by people trying to scam money out of us (little advice scammers, if you are trying to convince us you are illiterate and poor try making your sign grammatically INCORRECT and throw some bad spelling in there huh?) - once that got beyond irritating we headed to our planned top deck dinner 'under' the Eiffel tower... and I use the word loosely as the dinner was not located under at all - more to the point nearby under some trees. Our cook Kate had prepared a bit of a BBQ and for the brave a real French delicacy of escargot - but I'm sorry dad - there was no way in heck I was letting that slug go anywhere near my mouth - no matter how foreign it is.
 
After dinner we headed for our Canal Cruise. That was pretty cool, got to see the Eiffel tower light up again (my new favourite thing) and yell and scream under every bridge we went under - it's a tour thing - I don't expect you to get the randomness.... But let me tell you - there were a lot of bridges and my voice is hoarse.
 
Off to sleep - and listen to Anne have another epic battle with the shower... off to Switzerland tomorrow!!
 
Bonne Nuit.