Paris-Day 2

Day two of Paris, Friday. We got up and got ready to head out to this market we had heard about in an area called Belleville. Not Bellville, Illinois! We got on the metro and set out for the market with the sky spitting a cold, nasty rain. When we arrived we got off and surfaced in a little neighborhood. Luckily the rain had stopped. There were two narrow streets and in between there was a wide area with booth and booth of everything you could possibly imagine. Venders were bellowing out prices for fresh fruit and fish and bread. It seemed to go on forever. I'm sorry to say I didn't take any pictures because I was afraid I would get mauled if I even took my camera out. We walked for several blocks before we came to the conclusion that this was not for us. It was a lovely market, but one that truly was not for the faint of heart and none of us wanted to spent the entire morning being heckled by people in French. So we resigned ourselves to going to the Champs-Élysées and see the Arc de Triomphe.

So we made our way back to the metro station and got back on headed west. We got off at one of the Champs-Élysées stops and started walking down the wide boulevard towards the Arc. There weren't that many people on the street except for tourists and unfazed French motorists sped past taking no notice of the pedestrians diving out of the way. I would be terrified for my life if I were to own a bicycle in Paris. So we walk and walked for awhile until we got to the retail part of the C-E. I guess I had just come with this romantic notion of Paris, but I was kind of disappointed to see the C-E lined with shops like the Gap, Louis Vitton, Zara, the Disney Store, and Virgin. That's what I get for being obsessed with the film An American in Paris. I had imagined that the C-E would be lined with trees and little benches to sit on, instead it was a thriving commercial retain district making a bang off the Americans' buck. I guess it's all well and good for the economy, but it just wasn't what I was expecting. We stopped in a few stores and the girls I was with did some shopping, while the ever frugal Sullivan that I am, just looked on. Thanks Mom.

After that we walked and ate our sandwiches and apples looking like slightly malnourished students. I consider that a pretty fair description of our current situation. So we're walking and walking and walking and eventually we get up to the Arc de Triomphe. So, it's big, much bigger than I could have imagined, but other than that it's kind of plain. I'm sure if I could read French and read the inscriptions on it it would be alot more meaningful, but since I was lacking in that department I could only appreciate for it's architectural qualities; which don't get me wrong were amazing. Again we walked around it for a little while and then headed back down the other side of the C-E towards our metro stop. It was still rainy and nasty so I'm sure on some other day we all would have relished this experience alot more. Stupid weather!

From there we went in search of Sacre Coeur which proved to be alot harder to find than we thought. We got off at what we thought was the appropriate metro stop, but were so turned around that we couldn't find it and I took the girls on a wild goose chase of trying to find it when the whole time we were heading in the opposite direction. So much for my internal compass. However, on the way we found the Montemarte Cemetery which was beautifully eery. We found ourselves at the Moulin Rouge which is nothing to get excited about. Perhaps it was because at this time I was so frustrated about not finding Sacre Coeur. It's small and red, and is now a cabaret for tourists. I'd stick to the film if I were you. After leaving the Moulin Rouge we decided to just get on the metro and try to find Sacre Coeur again. We got off at another stop and low and behold there it was just up the hill.

We passed a whole bunch of tourist shops and some little crepe stands and got to the bottom of the Sacre Coeur steps. We narrowly escaped a hoard of creepy scam artists trying to give us bracelets, and started climbing the steps. First) it has alot of steps. Second) it has a lot of steps. I am an seasoned climber due to my mother's insistence in doing some outrageously long hike every summer since I was a wee babe, but it really came in handy today. We climbed and took pictures and then climbed some more and took more pictures. We finally got to the top , well sort of. We got to the platform below the top and the girls said they could go no further so I let it go and we just went trigger happy with our cameras. It was still a disgustingly cloudy day so we couldn't see very far, but it was still really cool. Perhaps if I have the time to go back to Paris I will go back to Sacre Coeur and actually go inside...

After we left Sacre Coeur we headed back to our hotel to rest up before going to the Louvre that night. After resting we got on the metro and skirted down to the Louvre for an evening of art. Now I don't pretend to be an art connoisseur, but I like art as much as the next person, and probably quite a bit more than the next person. Anyway, we got to the Louvre and were first greeted by the enormous glass pyramid. I don't care what Inspector Fache says in The DaVinci Code, the glass pyramid is wicked awesome. It was all lit up and looked stunning against the very ornate facade of the Louvre. Snappy snappy with the cameras and then we got queued up to go inside. Our reason for going Friday night is that on Friday's after 6pm it is free for students. Woo!!! So we got inside and got ourselves a map before heading off to explore. 

The Louvre is similar to the British Museum in that it is so expansive that it would take you months to go through it and see every piece of art. It is also incredibly exhausting to go through. We started out by going through French and Italian sculpture. Then 2 of the girls just really wanted to see the Italian paintings so we headed up towards you-know-who. Lisa or Mona or whatever you want to call her, is small. But she's not as small as everyone critiques her to be. She can't help that she is little. After all, it really is just a painting of some guy's wife that DaVinci was commissioned to paint. He can't help what he was given to work with. So we saw her, but I like his Madonna of the Rocks better. Actually my favorite painting that we saw there was probably this painting by Paul Delaroche called the Young Martyr. Look it up if you get a chance. It's dark, and despairing and wonderful. Anyway, we walked around some more and saw the Napoleon apartments and the Venus de Milo, and by that time 2 of the girls were getting tired of seeing art so Brelyn and I (the art enthusiasts) agreed it was time to go. We had been there for over 2 hours by this point. We left the Louvre and I said I would like to see the Place de Concorde, where the fountains from An American In Paris are, so we headed down that way. From the Louvre we could see all the way down the Champs-Élysées. It was pretty spectacular. When we got to the fountains I skipped about in joy and they all looked at my like I was crazy. Nothing new there. We all took pictures and then found a metro stop to take us home.

We chilled in our room that night and went to bed because we all had to get up early.