Remember when Julie and I were searching for the ultimate traveling shoes? Well, my shoes are holding up admirably, if I must say so! Keen's - Black Mary Janes
I've had no blisters (Julie has a tiny one on her foot) and although my feet are TIRED at the end of the day, they're ready to go by the next. May I say that Julie and I are walking noticably slower these days?
Today, we went on a Julie and Michelle pilgrimage. #1 thing to do: get pictures of the Eiffel Tower during the day.
Our day dawned bright and perfect - no clouds! I think that's a first for this trip and the weather was fabulous - 72F.
We bought a 3 day pass for the Metro - the woman at the train station spoke no English but we managed to get our point across and obtain tickets. We even managed to get ourselves to the correct colored train; Unfortunately, by the first stop we discovered we had gone the wrong way. Remedied.
Time: 8:25
Paris - Rush hour
Need I say more? We had to wait for a second train since we couldn't even get in the door of the first.
After we climbed the Metro steps, we searched the horizon for the tower. Unfortunately, it was behind a building so it took us a litle bit to figure out which way to go.
Time: 9:10 a.m.
Julie took many pictures (I used my last roll of film) in a variety of angles. I will say, the tower is prettier from farther away. We did not go up in the tower car; it costs about 10 Euro; Julie wants to go at night. I'm skipping it. I liked the skyline from Sacre Couer. There's a park between the Eiffel Tower and some sort of military building which we walked through. Nannies had children in tow and Parisians were walking their dogs. Very peaceful.
Time: 9:45 a.m.
Notre Dame is by far, the most awesome of all the churches we've seen. The interior was breathtaking. The craftsmanship awe-inspiring. What made the entire experience was the choir singing to the heavens. Their voices just soared in the space. The interior of the church is huge - wood carvings, statues, you name it, its in this church. There were silent prayer areas around the sides and back of the church. A woman was praying the rosary at the rear.
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Quilt Store - yes, they have these in Paris! And, you know, if they have one, I'll find it. The fabric was beautiful and Julie and I bought enough to make (small) quilts to preserve our memories.
Next stop: Movies
We managed to get to the movie metro stop with no problem but had a bit of a problem locating where the cinema was. We asked a fellow American (I thought she was American since she was reading a Patricia Cornwell book in English) and later a hotel clerk. Turns out we should have stayed in the underground since that's where the mall is.
Time: 2 p.m.
Revenge of the Sith - Cost: 9E
Fabulous; the beginning was a little slow but it felt good to sit down; my feet were worn out! The end made up for the slow beginning. Now we can say we've seen Star Wars in Paris.
After the movie, we stopped at Starbucks (gasp!) and got Mocha Frappacinos! They werre sooooooo good - nice and cold!
Julie is searching for the shoes that all the Amsterdam and Belgium women are wearing - a type of slipper sneakers. Puma makes quite a few styles but they're very expensive - 120E. She just looked them up on the web and it'll be cheaper to get them at home.
Time: 5 p.m.
Finally back to the hotel; we saved ourselves until we got back to our hotel for the bathroom. We tried to use the one at the mall even though they were charging 40 cents to use it. I thought it was no big deal until I saw that there were no toilet seats. Luckily, we could wait until we got "home."
Time: 6:35 p.m.
Ending this blog entry. We leave tomorrow at 9 a.m. for the Catycombs and all sorts of other things - we'll be back with the group.
Thank you to all of our wonderful readers - the answer is: yes, we will be happy to do a lunchtime brownbag for anyone who's interested once we get our pictures ready.
Au Revoir - Michelle
Time to eat....
No comments:
Post a Comment