Chilling on the Seine

So I didn't have any captions for my pictures yesterday, but here are some thoughts/highlights to consider:

• Gardens in Paris are beautiful, but they officially close between 8 and 9 PM (and guards come to shoo you out)
• The palace in Paris is cool too, but apparently only on the outside. It's where the royals lived (other than Versailles) when people revolted during the Revolution. Notice the seagull bathing in the fountain?
• The Pantheon in Paris (yes, there is one of those in Paris too), and famous dead people are buried there. I think it looks rather like St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
• Notre Dame is really cool. I like it, especially the statue of some clergyman, who looks like he's flipping you off from a certain angle.
• Food in Paris is absurdly expensive (along with everything else), but Ariel and I found a decent dinner special at some Himalayan Tibetan restaurant: tomato soup with cheese and Himalayan salad (appetizers), chicken curry and beef stir fry (main dishes), and rice pudding with raisins and loquats in syrup (dessert)—all for 8,90€ each.

Today, we woke up and headed out fairly early. After a nice breakfast pastry (very buttery, but entirely delicious), we headed to Notre Dame, so we could go inside. I kept thinking about the Disney movie (Hunchback of Notre Dame) the whole time. Haha. I'd forgotten about the gargoyles who come to life. Inside, there's a statue of Joan of Arc too.

After walking through the church (very impressive and free), we walked over to Saint Chapelle's Cathedral, for which I used my Paris Museum Pass and Ariel used her French teacher's ID card so we could both get in without paying more. Beautiful stained glass everywhere. 

By the time we'd finished both cathedrals, it was not even 10:30 AM, so we headed over to the Musée d'Orsay, which is my older sister's favorite, I think. It's an old train station converted into a museum—and a rather extravagant one at that. I liked it. Saw some great Impressionist paintings. Sadly, couldn't take pictures.

It only took me an hour to get through it all. Frankly, I'm museumed out still. And I still have the Louvre to explore. We shall see how I manage. After the museum, we met up with some of Ariel's friends by Notre Dame. This time, we went behind it. Nice.

We were hungry, so we all went to lunch. Ariel's friends decided on an expensive place though, so Ariel and I kept walking and found a place that was more suitable for our price range. I had some fish while she had turkey liver. I tried a piece, and I do not like it.

After walking around following lunch, we made it to the Louvre. Sadly, it's closed on Tuesdays. But we still got a picture. I've gotten much more tan over the past few weeks. Excellent. 

There's also some gate that had a quadriga atop that looked like the one on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Could be copied...Napoleon stole Berlin's after he marched through the city. It was returned after he lost at Waterloo, I believe.

We met up with another of Ariel's friends in the afternoon for some tea and bread with some awesome spread at her friend's apartment. Really nice place. On our way to dinner after that, I saw a sign for a "Hummer" burger. Had to take a picture.

The others wanted French Onion Soup, which is much harder to find than you'd imagine. Ariel and I just decided to eat the rest of our bread and buy some cheese, salami, and drinks to go with it. We ended up sitting by Notre Dame to finish our food. Food for a few bucks and a view that's priceless.

We spent an hour or so there just chilling and waiting for the others. As we waited and as the sky grew darker, more folks came out to the edge of the river. And then the beer sellers came. So I bought two Heinekens. Not the best, but hey, at least they were cold, and I didn't even have to get up. Plus the guys were from Bangladesh, so I was trying to support them in their ventures.

Made it home an hour ago and am going to bed now. Tomorrow, we head to Versailles. Looking forward to more exploring!

Sam