Paris is a beautiful city and lives up to all of its romantic ideals. Even though we spent only two days here - we promised to come back in the spring but, as always, this plan has fell through - and even though it was somewhat cold and rainy, we were blown away by the sheer brilliance and vibrant life of Paris. Strangely, the late-night bus from Geneva to Paris was the most uncomfortable and sketchy bus rides we had ever taken, and was only to be rivaled by the one from Paris to London. Compared to the buses in Turkey, this was 3rd class and 3 times the price. We were informed of our arrival into Paris, an hour ahead of schedule - which was surprising because the bus was an hour and a half late on arriving into Geneva - with a blase bus attendant repeating "Pa-ree" "Passenjairs for Pa-ree" with the smallest amount of energy he could muster. Feeling like we were entering this great city by the backdoor, we hesitatingly left the bus, not even certain whether we truly were in Paris. We took our bags down to the metro station, and headed towards Montemarte, where we had planned to stay. The area was very beautiful, and we both immediately felt that we had made the right choice with our hostel. A bit expensive, but worth it considering we were in one of the richest cities in Europe. We weren't able to check into our room until four, so we left our bags at the reception desk and caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We found the temperature much warmer than we had expected, and were able to walk a lot - something we weren't able to do during our stays in Sofia, Budapest, Belgrade and Vienna. We strolled down the Champs Elysee and the Seine, saw the Arc de Triumph, and just tried to soak up as much of the city as we could. Unfortunately all the museums were closed, and so we could not see two art museums as we had planned. But we were not too disappointed, as we kept telling ourselves that we would come back. So we headed back to the hostel to check in. After a brief rest we went looking for some used clothing stores that Hannah had read about online. We bought a few things, ate a pretty meager and unispiring Chinese dinner, and then headed towards Sacre Coeur under a light drizzle, misty street lighting, and the sounds of French drifting past us. From there we had a few drinks at a cozy bar and then walked home, quite ready for bed. Overall, a very Parisian night and a great end to our first day in the city.
Day Two:
The second day was even better, and things worked out for us extremely well. We woke up early, way before the sun had risen, ate our free continental breakfast at the hostel's downstairs cafe, and left the hostel with our umbrellas - as it was rainy pretty hard. Fortunately, by the time we came up from the metro the rain had dissipated slightly; but that didn't matter too much as we had planned to spend most of our day in the Louvre. On purchasing our ticket we found that the museum stayed open to 9:30 p.m. and that we could enter and reenter as much as we liked with our ticket. So we spent a few hours wandering around the enormous museum confronting the ever-persistent, camera-in-hand tourist and at the same time trying to enjoy some of the great classics of Western Art. We avoided the cheaply printed signs pointing towards the Mona Lisa, saving her for our second Louvre visit, and mostly wandered around the Renaissance Gallery. After a few hours we felt a bit tired and in need of some fresh air. We walked to a nice Falafel restaurant where we scarfed down our pitas, then found a glitzy Parisian cafe and had crepes and coffee for twice the price of the falafel but well worth it. We then began the three mile walk to the Eiffel Tower, stopping for a few minutes on the way to wait in line to see Saint Chapelle. Given that the line was too long and we did not have much time (we wanted to walk about the Eiffel Tower before sunset), we decided to pass on Saint Chapelle and save it for our visit in the spring. Somewhat of a shame since Saint Chapelle is truly magnificent. But we trudged on, pointing out Notre Dame in the distance, and quickening our pace along the Seine as we saw the sun slowly sinking. We arrived at the Tower with plenty of time to climb up the many steps to the second tier and spend our time looking at the magnificent cityscape, taking pictures, and watching the sun set over the river. Feeling cold, and wanting to get back to the Louvre in time to see the Mona Lisa and some more art, we walked down the steps and then took the Metro back to the Louvre. There we saw more Renaissance art, the Mona Lisa, a few other Da Vinci's, and some great Neo-Classical pieces by David. Our favorite image, however, was a painting by Ary Scheffer portraying the two lovers Paolo and Francesca appearing before Dante and Virgil in the Underworld (here). We left just as the museum was closing and went by underground to our hostel where we checked out and caught the 11 p.m. bus going to London.
