Bath: Day 28

Pictures:
(1) River Seine
(2) Streets of Paris
(3) On the bridge
(4) Self explanatory
(5) Our hotel
(6) Cute little cafe outside
(7) Arc du Triomphe
(8) Louvre
(9) Close-up of the second arc
(10) Ferris Wheel near Louvre
(11) Dome where Napoleon's tomb is
(12) Us with a stupid bee that got caught in our picture- his name is Pierre.
(13) Tribute to Diana
(14) Tower

THE FIRST DAY IN PARIS!

Gosh, are my feet ever tired. I'm not sure if it's as bad as the hiking experience in Tintagel...but yeah, they are pretty done. Today we ventured all over the city in 90-something degree weather. I was such a mess. We actually walked around the whole thing. We started off on the left bank where our hotel is, Hotel Galileo, and then walked across the bridge (across the Seine River) and all around the right bank.

Of course, the first stop was the Eiffel Tower. I expected it to be huge, but it's totally different in person. It's pretty amazing how they built that and the detail is awesome. You could take a little car up the side of it all the way up, but that wasn't really for me. Plus, the line was forever long and it required you to walk up stairs to about half-way up the tower in the sun. No thanks. What did annoy me there; however, was the beggers. There were a ton of women who were holding little cards in English saying they were Bosnian and had ___ number of children and needed money. Yadda, yadda. I'm sure you can imagine the audacity. They march straight up to you and give you their shpeel in their whatever language and put their faces on to beg. But there are just so many of them and you see them talking that you know they're working for someone. And if they hear you speak English- you're hounded. They assume you must have tons of cash and are stupid if you speak English. So Amanda and I learned quickly to speak Spanish to them. We did the same for the hawkers which worked pretty well until we came across a guy who spoke fluent Spanish...we walked away quickly. It's sad but you really have to be rude because they don't leave you alone. It kind of reminded me of Battery Park in NYC. But we sat on the lawn of the park around the tower and took pictures and watched the little ones running through the sprinklers. We also started a trend: our arms up in the air pictures. People saw us doing that and they all started taking pictures like that, haha.

We had lunch at this little, out of the way cafe that was super tasty. I made sure to order in French. I think it's important to at least try to speak their language. After all, the French already have a pretty strong opinion of Americans so I would like to dispel that as much as possible for one person to do.

We also saw the memorial to Princess Diana, the Arc du Triomphe, the Ecole Militaire (which was built by King Louis XV in 1750- Napoleon graduated from there), where Napoleon's tomb is (he built this massive structure that served as barracks for his men- and it's elaborate!), went to the Louvre where everyone was hanging out in the fountains since it was so hot. You couldn't walk around in them but you could put your legs in if you sat on the side. It was definitely needed. They have a ferris wheel right by there and a bunch of gardens with tons of statues in rows of hedges. There seems to be marble statues everywhere you look here. Another big thing we hit today was the Arc of Charles de Gaul.

Okay, by the way...the men here are way forward. You could be looking disgusting and sweaty and they will hit on you. AND THEY DO NOT GO AWAY. Even if you ignore them! We had one creepo who was older that was like Borat. No joke. Amanda and I were walking, minding our own business when this guy goes, "Nice. Very Nice." WE ARE NOT FOR SALE, SIR. CREEP!! We ignored him and kept walking and he followed us and offered to buy us a drink and I was like, look, we are going to meet our friends. No. So finally he left us alone. UGH!

We then took a little nap and got cleaned up for dinner. We found this place called Vesuvio's. AMAZING FOOD!!! Oddly enough, you really don't find many "French" restaurants there. Most of it is very eclectic and a ton of Italian joints. So we tried it here and it was Italian and awesome. Of course I had a bowl of tagliatelle and some white wine and I got a lemon merengue for dessert (hey, I walked enough). The best one I have ever had in my life. Plus, our waiter was super hilarious and the inside of the restaurant was very cool. And most of the eating places are pretty open so you can see and hear everything going on outside, but it's not obnoxiously loud. I really like that cafe feel where you can people watch. They had a funny bathroom though. You had to step on this button (and hard) with your foot to get the water to go from the sink. If some lady wouldn't have told me, I never would have known!

After dinner we went to the Moulin Rouge because Amanda really wanted to see it. No, we didn't see a show because those tickets are insane. BUT OH GOSH- I didn't realize it was in basically the Red Light district of France. I was totally comfortable in my little Champs-Elysees bubble and then I was put in that atmosphere. I was like, ooookayyy I am ready to leave now! It was mostly bars and adult attractions so we took our pics in front of the Moulin Rouge and hopped a cab back- quickly.

We were SOOOO lucky to have a jerk of a young cab driver. Might I add here that Europe has an odd custom where you MUST go to the first cab in line- they won't accept you even if you ask them. But Amanda and I didn't like the looks of this guy and nobody else was waiting for a cab so we were forced to take him. Right off the bat I knew he was a moron. I told him where we needed to go (in French) and he had no clue what I was talking about so I wrote it for him and he still didn't know so he plugged it into his GPS and finally got it. Then he thought he would take advantage of American girls because he assumed we didn't know the streets well enough. Well he drove us in a circle to make the charge more and we obviously knew that. Once we got to the hotel the charge was about 13 euros and I gave him a 20, but he started yelling and arguing and I told him to just give us the change. Well, he obviously didn't have change enough for a 20 cuz he's an awful driver so I wound up giving him 15 euros which he could make change for and we did NOT tip him. Such a jerk. That was really the only bad experience we had with the French.

But the tourists are awful. They are so ignorant and don't move when you're trying to take pictures and nobody has any concept of personal space. I swear. Americans must just be very different. They are wayyy into their PDA here too. Like people will literally just stop in the MIDDLE of a super busy street to make out. Disgusting and rude. AND their service is so darn slow. I understand the concept of enjoy your food and company, but c'mon...I am not into spending over 2 hours eating. I like my American customs just fine: I will definitely appreciate prude, rushed, space-loving America again.