Key Word: Walking

Bonjour!

It is only day two and I am already beginning to adapt to the French ways. We wait less at "Do Not Walk"signs, seldom smile in the Metro, and are even picking up a few different local words. This has been an fantastic experience already. Catching the Metro this morning we picked up a fresh baked pastry and cappuccino. 

Our first event of the day was the Louvre Musee (Musuem). First comment about the Louvre: it. is. beyond. massive! I had no idea it could be so large. The thought you might see everything in it is very funny, once you've been there.. I took over 500 pictures, so I'll only put in a few of favorites and highlights. 

This sculpture was enormous, I have been set for size effect only. 

We did manage to think we'd seen all the sculptures.. Only to find there was an entire section dedicated to them on the other side of the museum. 

Adorable. 

The installment upon the entrance, within one of the glass pyramids. 

Just a fragment of the elaborate outside building. 

Mum, having a wonderful time.

Venus de Milo, of course. 

I adored the feather detail on some of these sculptures. 

And onto the paintings..

Fancy..

Mumsy expressing our joy for the Louvre! 

And the Mona Lisa. Apologies for the photography quality, but when people are shoving you around and potential stealing your Euros, you don't have much time for camera focus. 

A very elegant gentleman to bid us farewell. 

And lastly the Hammurabi Code. Hundreds of symbols and hieroglyphics all over this. Amazing.

There was yet more to see, but we were a bit tired... 

Walking away from the Louvre, into the Gardens of Louvre which were, not surprisingly, huge.

Everyone was eating or napping within the bushes.

Au revoir Louvre!

The Gardens have a carnival inside!

Walking through the Garden, because we hadn't already walked miles or anything like that.. (Yes, yes we had.)

Between the row of trees, there is a barely visible corner of the Arc de Triomphe. We decided to walk there too. Yeah..

At this point, we strolled down the Champs Élysées. This street has the highest profit earning McDonalds in the world, being a very high fashion shopping district. 

The small purse in the corner of this window was over 2500 Euros, which is even more dollars!

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a heavily staffed Marriott on the street.

We decided to get on the Metro ere and go back to Notre Dame. Here I discovered someone had swiped my day-use Metro ticket. Brief moment of panic, but I soon discovered that's all they took. And I suppose if that's the worst that happens we'll be completely fine. Still, you can't be too careful.

At Notre Dame we went inside and under into the crypts.

There was prayer and confessions taking place. 

The stained glass is mind blowing. 

Candles for purchase.

While it was gorgeous architecture, the place made me feel quite general disturbed. 

Then, of course, we had dinner (No picture this time) and dessert (of course.)

This was the dessert shop options. 

 We hope to do so much walking that we just even out all this dessert!

We returned to the steps by Notre Dame and watching dancing and acting steer performers for a bit and also took a stroll through the Latin Quarter. Just to get a little walking in. (Ha. Ha. Ha.)

Eventually, it is time to head home though. You need a lifetime to see Paris, I think. However, a week will suffice. 

As a final note: Because we didn't really get in enough exercise today, it's a good thing we have this lovely four flights of stairs to climb when we arrive back at the apartment. ;)

Well, it is 11:30 pm here and tomorrow includes much more to do and an early alarm, so I bid you Bon Soir (Goodnight).

~Roaming Rapunzel 

Day 1 in Paris

After flying 4,295 miles from Chicago O'Hare, what with sleeping upright and less than delectable air meals, we finally arrived in the first stop on our adventure: Paris. 

Upon starting this trip, mum and I discovered something quite unexpected, we thought I would be the wild, running-through-the-streets type and mum to be the slightly overly responsible adult, but we had a role reversal! Mum would be speeding off down the street with me trailing behind saying, "Are you sure this is the right way? That's not how you pronounce that! That is not a cross walk!!" Blame it on the jet lag, maybe..

When we came into Paris, I was so exhausted that I was thinking it seemed like America with less smiling and significantly more culture, but I got over it when I took a nap later. 

We immediately embarked on an adventure known as, "Finding the Right Metro". Which was surprisingly hard, but with a bit of help we finally got out of the airport, 

And onto this moderately colorful mode of transport here.

It was later we discovered that the lines used on the maps for certain Metro numbers change from map to map, and are not city wide. 

"Oooh!" Says mum. 

Promptly, we moved onto the next journey, "Finding the Apartment", which could also be referred to as, "Going Absolutely Anywhere in Paris". 

The streets here are not easy to navigate on any level. The rue (road) that we are staying on is small, and so it's not on the maps. It's quite easy really to get completely lost, which mother and I got right to doing. It took us an extra hour but we finally, FINALLY found our apartment. Our host is lovely and speaks fabulous English. Our flat is tiny, and I mean minuscule. I will post pictures when there is light again to take them. Here is a picture of some of the winding stairs up to it though, it is on the fourth floor. 

After the general flat orientation, we took off to pick up some necessary tickets and such, and jumped into the navigating Paris challenge again. This time with a whole new, equally confusing setting! We managed to find all that too though, and felt quite proud. To understand a bit of how confusing the maps are, here is one for you to see. 

In addition, there are "Walk" and "Don't Walk" signs on the crosswalks, which is helpful. Except the French people don't bother with then when walking, and you neither do some of the motorcycle riders. Keeps you on your toes!

We had dinner at a restaurant on a nearby street corner. 

It wasn't a great meal, by any standards. But the pain (bread) and thè parfume  (flavored iced tea) was incredible. 

 This was our meal. Filet Mignon de Porc. Sliced pork with (mustard?) sauce, pasta, and salad. 

Then we spent some time walking around the shops and general Paris area.

We saw the Notré Dame. Before we came I wasn't all that thrilled with it, I was looking more forward to it's crypt than anything else, but then I saw it... 

I immediately fell in love with it. I took about 35 pictures and could spend hours just looking at it. 

We walked over the Love Locked Bridge. The LL Bridge is where people in love come and put a padlock with their names or initials on the links in the bridge. It's pretty cute, except for the fact that the City of Paris cuts hundreds of locks off it every year to make room for more.. Sorry to shatter that romantic gesture, lovebirds. 

It's still a great place to see, over the Seine River. 

I chatted with a few pigeons..

 Mum found an alleyway she really liked. 

Continually ran into scenes like this around the corner.

The Fountain of Saint Michael 

This incredible gate and matching clock!

And the Justice Center, adorned with the nation's flag. 

At this point we decided to call our walk to and end so we could go back to the flat and get a few groceries. However mum wanted to walk, so as to get better aquatinted with the city....

Let me just show you how that went.

I'll have you know that we did pretty well, for some time (we being mum). Until finally it got very cold and started raining and we had just made a circle so she decided to take the Metro back, am that was much better. 

We burned way more calories looking for a dessert place than what we ended up eating. But the desserts were well worth it and amazing at that. See? 

Yum:) 

We had a brief moment of terror because we couldn't operate our door to exit the apartment, but we figured it out. 

You can probably tell, but we have had a pretty wonderful first day in Paris. 

Valuable lesson of the day: don't follow streets, follow monuments! 

Thank you for reading~

Roaming Rapunzel 

Bon Voyage✈

And we're off! Leaving Saint Louis to Chicago O'Hare. 

Stay tuned Readers.. 

Roaming Rapunzel:)