Wednesday: Magots = Wise Men, not Maggots.

Today was museum day!! We hit the ground running.. or.. slightly dragging and with one extra cup of coffee for us both just to keep our legs going. We wandered through a little street market around the corner from our hotel and walked past the Montparnasse cemetery where Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Porfirio Diaz, and some guy named Maurice LeBlanc (who must have been extra awesome) are buried. We believed some guy that told us an elevator was not working, so took some crazy back route to the Musee Jean Moulin. This was a museum dedicated to the French Resistance and underground. It was tiny and somewhat new (Chirac commissioned it while he was still mayor of Paris), but very impressive. We both learned quite a few things about what the French people went through during the German occupation. To borrow Lisa's words, it was interesting to learn French history NOT in America. :) It made us very thankful to be Americans, but also showed what people are capable of during hard times if they really believe in something. Really amazing.

On a lighter note, we forgot to mention yesterday that we stopped into a pet store on the Champs Elysees and got to sweet talk some puppies! Puppies in Paris!! One of them woke up for us and tried his little heart out to lick us through the window. It meant we were supposed to take him home. But, when sanity kicked in, Aimee just told him about how great his new French home would be and how they would tell him "bonjour" every day. I think we love him.

More meandering through neighborhoods, then we attempted to actually eat at Cafe Les Deux Magots (that we mentioned the other day). The word "attempted" was intentional. It is very clear that the pace here is very laid back, and we have tried to accept this. However, our mistake is in going to cafes when we are hungry. So, we drank water that was so overpriced we are not even going to mention it for fear of the lectures we will get from you, talked to the cutest old Australian guy EVER (He even said he had been here for a fortnight taking a writing course! A fortnight! No, really! He said it!), then bailed out and grabbed some really cheap crepes at a stand across the street. We ate them in the courtyard of the oldest church in Paris that the vikings reportedly sacked four times.

We paid for the water. No worries.

We crossed a new bridge to get to the Louvre and spent quite a while there. The collection is very impressive, but the building itself might steal the show. There is a section at the very bottom that includes an excavated portion of the original palace of Charles V, which was built in the 1300's. We were able to walk through what used to be the dungeon and the moat! More things in America should have dungeons and moats. Just saying.

By the time we left, we were exhausted and our legs had almost locked up completely. However, this did not keep us from crossing the river and getting back to our neighborhood at a dead sprint. We barely stopped to wait for the signal that it is safe to cross the street. We attempted to eat our last dinner at a cafe that we decided earlier in the week was our favorite, but it ended up much like the Deux Magots experience. This time, though, we ducked into another cafe immediately across the street and had a fantastic and very appropriate last Parisian meal.

On that note, we must sign off and bid our Parisienne blog adieu. We should mention that there are millions of stories yet to tell that just couldn't fit in the blog, so you will all be hearing about them in person soon. Thanks for indulging us (this was really a great part of the trip!) and for keeping up with our adventures. This is sad for both of us, but it will be nice on some points to just get home. What a fantastic city! Now, back to Texas, where the cokes have ice and water costs less than a dollar!

God Bless America!

We're coming home!

All our best,

Lisa and Aimee

And one last random picture:

Tuesday: More hilarious Frenchmen, a fortress, and a Basilica

Wow. We are tired. And, we have writer's block. We slept in a little bit today but made it to the lobby in time for breakfast, although all of the pain au chocolat was gone. And the croissants. I guess this is what a rough day in Paris is like. :) Anyway...

After breakfast, we began our fifth day of trekking across yet another route through Paris. We came upon this exquisite little French jewelry shop where furthered our efforts to hit the detaxe limit; good stuff! We wandered down the street to a little store selling chocolate at the window and finally bought some--very worth it.

Aimee's historical landmark note for the day--we think we walked by the place where Miles Davis used to live. Not sure, but we at least walked down the street.

After perusing a few more stores and stopping for lunch at Le Cafe du Pont Neuf, we walked over to the Louvre only to find that it is closed on Tuesdays (for the record, Lisa's guidebook says it was closed on Mondays). We took some pictures and vowed to return on Wednesday morning. The change in plans meant hailing a cab and heading to Le Sacre Coeur.

The Sacre Coeur was impressive, to say the least. It seems to be the place to hang out on Tuesday nights. There were people scattered all about on the steps and a three-piece band (complete with electrified bass and guitar) jammin' out to everything from Pink Floyd to Bob Dylan. Imagine Jim Morrisson with a French accent. Great (though oddly out of place) soundtrack for our visit! From there, we walked up the steps and encountered a French musicien carrying a gig bag who apparently thought he could charm us with what little English he knew--the only word he could manage was cheeeeesebooooourggggeuuurrrr. Yeah. Hot.

The Sacre Coeur really is breathtaking. There is an amazing view of the city in front of it, too. We walked inside and caught the end of a mass (we couldn't take any pictures) and read a few plaques in German and Italian. Of course, we got some great pictures outside before we hailed a cab for a ride back to the hotel. Consequently, we drove by the U.S. Embassy and got all wound up again. Imagine that.

Now, on to crepes. Jambon et fromage! (en anglais: "ahhhm and chiss") Bonsoir!

Mission for Monday: Traipse with Crepes*

Today was supposed to be a big, long day and it was. We probably doubled the amount of walking we have done in any one day so far. We loaded up on coffee at breakfast and walked through our neighborhood, the one to the north, and then across the Concorde Bridge. It is partially built out of stones the Parisians brought over from the destroyed Bastille prison. At the North end of the bridge was the Place de la Concorde where the guillotine was set up and used during the revolution. So much history here! It is great to stand in a place and close your eyes to think of what happened RIGHT THERE so long ago.
Now then, remember how excited Aimee was to go to the American embassy? Well, we did! And we were promptly turned away! Three times! I know what you are thinking (because I would, too). "You were turned away by Marines with big guns." You would be wrong. We were told to leave by Frenchies. In very prissy blue hats.
Goofy Frenchmen: "Dew yew have an appointment to zee zomeone?"
Us (still smiley): "No, but we are Americans!"
Goofy Frenchmen: You cannot come in, zorry. No souvenir! No pictures either!!"
Aimee (not at all smiley): "But, this is OUR SOIL. What if we needed asylum or something????"
Goofy Frenchmen, still wearing dorky blue hats: "no, zorreee, you must cross the street now."

So, we crossed the street completely intending to take a picture anyway, which Lisa set about doing. However, while she was still taking pictures of the park and before she got around to defying our French nemeses, one of them crossed the street himself (in the prissy hat) and motioned for us to come over. Which we did not. When HE got to US, he asked again if we had taken any pictures and made us prove to him that we did not. Although she would have been proud of a rogue picture of the embassy, Lisa was more proud that she made one of "les guards" cross the street. Heh heh.
Which brings us to another point (the one where we were walking off in a huff thinking what we should have said). One of our follow up questions to the FRENCHMEN keeping us from our soil and our fellow Americans SHOULD have been, "Hey, by the way, do you speak any German?" "Non." "Yeah, YOU ARE WELCOME!" Seriously, there is not enough space here to convey how mad we (still) are about that. At the very least, MARINES should have been the ones to tell us to go away. Anyway, Paris....
SO! We went shopping and stuff, and then we went to the Arc de Triomphe and walked the Champs Elysees. We think that perhaps we witnessed a movie premier because we saw a crowd of people crowded around a theater complete with photographers and red carpet. Really, it was a good day, even with nowhere to go for asylum. The story only validates our "freedom fries" jokes. And, it's pretty funny now that we aren't standing there dumbfounded at the situation.

On yet another nerdy note, Aimee was excited when we first got here to find that the clementines at the street markets were wrapped in paper. This is probably not exciting to anyone else, but when Hemingway wrote of his time in Paris, he mentioned that he would buy this exact thing on the streets. These and the roasted nuts you can also find fresh on the streets here would carry him through a day of writing. I told you, nerdy.

Another thought...we are getting reallly good at Franglais. What's that, you ask? Do you know what Spanglish is? Yeah. Except with French. Also, we've begun to master the crazy excuse for a system that these personnes have for numbers. Awesome.

Tomorrow...wait, we're not going to tell you. That would ruin the blog, after all. :)

Bonsoir!




*Mission failed. Although we did traipse, we passed up the crepes in favor of another bargain of a meal on the Champs Elysees. Yes, the Champs Elysees. The picture of the guy making the crepes is from Saturday.

Lazy Sunday...in Paris.

Today, we managed to catch breakfast at the hotel (hooray for pain au chocolat!) and trek all the way across a new route to the Eiffel Tower. Going new routes proved worth it when we stumbled upon the Dome Church, which is the location of Napoleon's tomb (We also saw a lady totally wipe out on the stairs--she was wearing these too-sassy high heeled boots, so we felt bad for her and then thanked God for our tennis shoes). It's impressive how much walking we've done in the last couple of days and today was no different. We were determined to eat at a restaurant with a view of the tower and settled on a cafe northeast of the landmark. We managed to order our now-customary ham and cheese "sandwichs" from a waiter who was true to the Parisienne way of "laid-back" dining (read: he blew us off repeatedly and the entire meal took about two hours :))

We should mention that neither of us brought a watch or a cell phone, of course (I mean, after all, we're on vacation, right??) But we've managed to check the time via Lisa's camera because it notes the (American CST) time each time a picture is taken.

After lunch, we walked across the river to the Eiffel Tower and went up to the top. Awesome but crowded, and let's just say the French have a completely different idea of what constitutes acceptable personal space, and PDA is perfectly fine--in fact, encouraged. Regardless, the ride up the tower was worth the wait and we got some cool pictures of the view.

One last mention before our time at this computer runs out--we saw the tunnel and impromptu memorial for Princess Di today. It is centered around an exact replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty.

Addendum to yesterday's post...

Yesterday, we forgot to mention a bit about the apparent immigration-related protest we stumbled upon while walking along la rue Odeon before touring Notre Dame. As you can see from the picture, a group of we-don't-really-know-who's were standing with signs and chanting, "Liberte! Pour touts! Egalite! Pour touts! Fraternite! Pour touts!" (Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood! For All!) Check out this picture.

Saturday. Tuesday? No, SATURDAY. In Paris.

Ahhh.. so day two! We slept through breakfast, got used to our "hair dryer" (Aimee is affectionately calling it an "air tube" since the claim that it will dry your hair is a brave one), and covered some serious Parisian ground! We left the hotel and went to the Luxembourg Gardens. It is so fascinating being in a city with so much history! So many people have been there before us and so many will come after. It is just amazing. There were little boys poking at rented toy boats with sticks in the main fountain in front of the Senate building and the requisite "lovers in the park."

On the way, we had a generous offer from some random French men (who felt it necessary to inform us that they were, indeed, French. REALLY?!) to guide us around the city. Apparently the looks on our faces gave the impression that we were far from interested, so they asked if we "needed zome time aylone?" Um, yep. We ditched them and went to the Isle de la Cite and the Notre Dame cathedral. The cathedral was incredibly impressive. There is not an angle that is not breathtaking, inside or out.

Just outside, we had fabulous crepes made right in front of us by a guy that was quite a character. I think the day has revolved around the people we met. This guy, the drunk guy who insulted us, welcomed us to France, then asked for money, and the would-be tour guides. Everything is fun!

On a pretty major but not super well known historical note, we stumbled onto Cafe Les Deux Magots today. We will probably go back to eat there, but for now we just have a bunch of pictures. Wikipedia it. It is great.

Our plan from here is to find a cafe where we can eat outside and have cheap stuff and a carafe of wine. That is the literal plan. In those words.

Aimee in the hotel: "Let's get cheap stuff and carafes of wine."

Lisa two feet away: "D'accord!!! Cheap stuff and wine!"

We made it!!

The plane ride was safe, the shuttle from the airport was NOT (we decided traffic laws are suggestions here), but whatever WE ARE HERE! Our room is "french sized," but cute so I think it will be great for the week. We took some pictures of the view from our window that y'all can see later, but the one here is looking left down the street from our hotel. Everyone has been super friendly and helpful and we are slowly learning the French disdain for rules and timetables. Obviously we found an internet cafe just a few blocks from the hotel, so we should be able to keep in touch. We are going to leave from here to take a cruise down the Seine. Miss you all!!!

Hugs!

Aimee and Lisa