Jour Deux

or Day Two in Paris..

After a good night's sleep, we were up and about early the next day, this one promised to be a full day as well...so much to see and do..

There was a lovely little Pattiserie, Boulangerie Pattiserie a couple of minutes walk from our apartment. That's where we started each day in Paris, hot Cafe Au Lait's(2 for Nidhi :D ), wonderfully moist croissants(2 for Nidhi :D), macroons and maybe an odd cake(remember "intense" shweta?) to fill us up and prep us for the day ahead. The girls there were sweet and always threw in some little free tidbit for us..a coconut cookie, a macroon etc.

Word from the Wise: when you're out and about on a self guided tour, meal times are skewed. i.e. dont expect lunch at 12:30PM or Dinner at 8:00PM .. your best bet is to start the day with a full stomach..
After breakfast, we headed for our friendly neighbourhood metro, on the way I was so busy taking in the sights and sounds of everyday life in Paris that i walked into a pole :))

We took the metro to the station close to the Louvre, the museum was top on our list today... Once out of the station we started walking in the direction of the Louvre per our map, about a minute away from the station we saw a lovely building accross the street with lovely sculptures, so we stopped to admire/take pictures while we tried to figure out where the Louvre was. Finally we stopped and asked someone "Excuse me, Where is the Louvre"? - "Right there" (Points to the Building we were taking pictures of)..:)). It seems we were looking for the glass Pyramid, something that we identified with the Louvre, however we had ended up on the other side of the Louvre (the rear entrance) and so obviously..no Pyramid!!

Word from the Wise: Paris is not completely tourist friendly, even major attractions like the Louvre do not have clear signs outside indicating their esteemed presence. So when in doubt..ask to save time and effort..we found the people of Paris to be friendly and readily trying to help us in English.

We moved into the Louvre, through the doors into a courtyard - the courtyard dominated by a fountain and surrounded by other architecture and from the courtyard to the front. The building set in a U Shape has the most beautiful sculptures on the roof and in the centre - the Glass Pyramid.

The Main Glass Pyramid is surrounded by two smaller glass pyramids, and the main pyramid is now the main entrance into the Louvre. The structure was commissioned to be built in 1984 by then French President Francois Mitterand. There was a controvery at the time because people thought the modern glass pyramid structure was out of place in the otherwise classical architecture of the Louvre, but today, it is a much loved structure that everyone identifies with the Louvre.

We spent a lot of time admiring the Louvre from the outside (read taking pictures) and eventually went inside. Once inside we figured it was best to take an English Guided tour to truly appreciate the large museum, however, there were no english tours that day but there were the next, so we decided to come back.

Change of plans! Now instead of the Louvre, we took the metro again and headed for the Eiffel Tower. We had appreciated the Eiffel on day one already, however we didnt go up the tower. This time we got into a loong line waiting to get into the elevators to the top of the tower.

The Eiffel has four elevators for general use and a fifth elevator exclusively for patrons of the Jules Verne restaurant on the 2nd floor. It was built and for the world fair in 1889 to mark the centennial of the French Revolution and just like the Louvre Pyramid, people at the time were unhappy with the building of the structure and thought it would be a blot on the city's otherwise classical look

We waited in line for about an hour before we were in the elevator whizzing up to the 2nd floor. As you move up the view of the city starts to amaze you. On the 2nd floorAs soon as we hopped in the elevator we went esctatic. First stop was the 2nd floor which had great views of the entire city and a souvenier shop! Girls being Girls thats where we headed first, while Ashu being Ashu was setting up high tripod and clicking away somewhere ;)

Soon we were ready to hop on the 2nd elevator and go right to the top of the tower. The view of Paris is amazing, unlike the USofA where a view from the top would show you rectangle chunks of land, Paris has an almost circular layout, with a wonderful mix of architectural delights clearly visible from the top like the Louvre, Les Invalides etc. Other than the 360 degree view of the city they have all around tiny flags of different countries with names of their major cities in the general direction of where the city would be and with kilometers indicating how far the place is from the Eiffel. Yes, we were 7026 KM's from good Ol Mumbai!!

After spending a great deal of time taking in the sights of Paris we were ready to head out and get some food. We followed our Fodors guide book and walked for about 20 minutes - on lovely cobblestone streets - to a restaurant in the 7th district of Paris - Cafe Du march. The restaurant was closed and hungry as we were at that point, we walked right into the next door cafe. here we had some of the best stuffed pasta, pizza, wine and topped it off with tiramisu and creme brulee!! Aahh truly a lunch fit for kings!

Word from the Wise : Ashish was carrying the Fodors guide to paris, this helped us greatly in not only finding restaurants but also understanding the history of the places we visited. Definately worth the investment!

After lunch, we headed to Les Invalides. This was built as a hospital and home for the veterans by Louis XIV, today it comprises of museums and buildings dedicated to the military history of France. We reached the place about an hour before closing, so we only had time to see the most famous part of Les Invalides - The Royal Chapel containing Napoleans Tomb!

When you enter the center chapel, there is a gigantic hole in the center where you can see a gigantic casket, there are 7 caskets of different materials - one inside the other and in the innermost it is said are the remains of Napolean Bonaparte! Under the casket, all napoleans major victories are written on the marble flooring and all around on the walls are carvings indicating Napoleans Life.Here too we took an audio tour which greatly helped us appreciate the place.

On leaving Les Invalides, we realized while we were a little tired, Paris was shutting down for the day! Yes, most places close around 6-7 PM. We decided that since it was still early, we would mark off a few more places if only from the outside.

So we took the metro to a station close to St. Sulpice church (thats where the last pic below was taken :) ) and then walked and walked and walked from St Sulpice Church, past the Lucembourg Gardens, to the Pantheon and the Odean Theatre. All this aimless wandering was interesting but very very very tiring too... by the time we were done it seemed like we had seen the entire city on foot!!

We ended the day with dinner at a Tex Mex restaurant near the Odeon Theatre - a disappointing meal (esp after the awesome lunch we had that morning) - and we decided to stick to pasta for the rest of our days in Paris!

With semi full stomachs and very very tired feet..we headed back home and straight away hit the bed..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!