Ah Paris! The city of sleeping in. Well, for us anyway. We had another late start this morning. We ended up staying up with Virginie, so it was excusable. However, our late start did force us to re-arrange some plans. Virginie was leaving for a weekend trip, and we had decided to meet at her train station for some coffee around 5:30ish. We had planned to go see the Mona Lisa, but since it was already almost noon, we would have been rushed. It felt good to be able to say "Let's just go to the Louvre tomorrow."
First on our list was to go see Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre. Sitting at the top of a hill, the church had an amazing view of the city. It was a short walk to the church via two walkways on either side. Regretfully, we decided to take the less crowded path. As we came to the top, we were met by a blockade of 4 gentlemen trying to sell friendship bracelets. Selling isn't the right word. Remember those scammers we wrote about? Kaylea picked up the pace and managed to push past as one of them stepped directly in front of Aaron. The man smiled, said excuse me, and forcefully grabbed Aaron's wrist. They had made a move for Kaylea's wrist as well. Aaron swiftly pulled his wrist away and was getting ready to fight when Kaylea came and pulled him away. Even though they had smiles on their faces the entire time, they were aggressive and forceful. We quickly made our way back to a crowded area. It was more than off-putting. The time it took us to come down off the adrenaline rush made the inside of the church much less enjoyable. When we left, we were a little turned around, and needed to ask for directions. There have been armed police walking around several places in Paris since the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and we saw a few nearby. Although they didn't point us in the right direction, they were very kind and helpful. We found it interesting that we felt more comfortable talking to the men with automatic weapons than the men who made friendship bracelets.
Our next stop was Notre Dame. On our way, we saw another crazy person on the subway. He started singing, not to us thankfully. We learned not to make eye contact with the mumbling mad men of the Paris metro. Once we got to Notre Dame, we sat outside and ate sandwiches as we stared at the building we had only seen in our Disney dreams. A German teenager asked Aaron for one of his Pringles. Still rearing to fight, Aaron punched him in the face. Not really, but that would have been awesome. The inside of Notre Dame was stunning. It's not really something that can be captured in pictures. The line to go to the top was a bit too long, so we ended up missing out.
After Notre Dame was Jardin du Luxembourg, which was a beautiful place to have a sit. A pool, statues, a gorgeous day. It was perfect.
From there, we made our way to the Pantheon. Underneath the Pantheon was a crypt, but it wasn't nearly as creepy as the Catacombs. Actually, the crypts were kind of awe inspiring. Most of the displays with historical information were in French, which made us wish that we knew more French -and history. We grabbed some ice cream and macaroons from a place called Amorino down the street from the Pantheon. They made the ice cream into a flower.
It was nice saying goodbye to Virginie. We got to meet one of her friends as well as her boyfriend. They were both fun to talk too. Now that she's gone, we're officially on our own for the next few days. We probably wouldn't have made it this far without her.
First on our list was to go see Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre. Sitting at the top of a hill, the church had an amazing view of the city. It was a short walk to the church via two walkways on either side. Regretfully, we decided to take the less crowded path. As we came to the top, we were met by a blockade of 4 gentlemen trying to sell friendship bracelets. Selling isn't the right word. Remember those scammers we wrote about? Kaylea picked up the pace and managed to push past as one of them stepped directly in front of Aaron. The man smiled, said excuse me, and forcefully grabbed Aaron's wrist. They had made a move for Kaylea's wrist as well. Aaron swiftly pulled his wrist away and was getting ready to fight when Kaylea came and pulled him away. Even though they had smiles on their faces the entire time, they were aggressive and forceful. We quickly made our way back to a crowded area. It was more than off-putting. The time it took us to come down off the adrenaline rush made the inside of the church much less enjoyable. When we left, we were a little turned around, and needed to ask for directions. There have been armed police walking around several places in Paris since the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and we saw a few nearby. Although they didn't point us in the right direction, they were very kind and helpful. We found it interesting that we felt more comfortable talking to the men with automatic weapons than the men who made friendship bracelets.
Our next stop was Notre Dame. On our way, we saw another crazy person on the subway. He started singing, not to us thankfully. We learned not to make eye contact with the mumbling mad men of the Paris metro. Once we got to Notre Dame, we sat outside and ate sandwiches as we stared at the building we had only seen in our Disney dreams. A German teenager asked Aaron for one of his Pringles. Still rearing to fight, Aaron punched him in the face. Not really, but that would have been awesome. The inside of Notre Dame was stunning. It's not really something that can be captured in pictures. The line to go to the top was a bit too long, so we ended up missing out.
After Notre Dame was Jardin du Luxembourg, which was a beautiful place to have a sit. A pool, statues, a gorgeous day. It was perfect.
From there, we made our way to the Pantheon. Underneath the Pantheon was a crypt, but it wasn't nearly as creepy as the Catacombs. Actually, the crypts were kind of awe inspiring. Most of the displays with historical information were in French, which made us wish that we knew more French -and history. We grabbed some ice cream and macaroons from a place called Amorino down the street from the Pantheon. They made the ice cream into a flower.
It was nice saying goodbye to Virginie. We got to meet one of her friends as well as her boyfriend. They were both fun to talk too. Now that she's gone, we're officially on our own for the next few days. We probably wouldn't have made it this far without her.
YOU'RE THE BEST VIRGINIE!
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