Tuesday May 18, 2004

I woke up at 8:30 on Tuesday. I woke Sarah and we both went downstairs for breakfast. We came back upstairs to eat. Breakfast consisted of a half of baguette each, jam and a pot of coffee to split. (About two good sized cups of coffee each.) The coffee is served with warm milk and sugar cubes. I have taken my first cup black and my second cup with milk and sugar both Tuesday and Wednesday.

We showered and dressed, leaving for the day at about 10:00. We started off trying to get to the Louvre. We walked about 20 minutes in the wrong direction, realized our mistake and doubled back. On the way we passed two Internet cafes and made a point of remembering where they were and how to get back to them.

We walked to the Louvre through an open market. In the market, we purchased lunch: a baguette, cheese (in a pot), strawberries and cherry tomatoes. We also had our first crepe in France. On the way, we found Eglise St. Eustace. As of Wednesday night, I think I can speak for both of us when I say that it has been the architectural highlight of the trip. When Sarah wanted to go in, I though "great, a boring church." However, when I walked in, I was taken aback at the beauty of it. The building was absolutely gigantic, the architectural detailing was amazing. The building really was awe inspiring. As there were no tour buses and hardly any people there, I felt like Sarah and I had found our own little undiscovered treasure. Sarah found a person who represented the church, they spoke for a bit, we took pictures, and Sarah lit a candle for her mother and grandmother. We left and ate a delicious lunch at the garden outside the Louvre.

With our bellies full, we proceeded to the Louvre only to find out that it was closed on Tuesdays. This really didn't disappoint us much though, as just walking around the grounds, taking in the beautiful gardens ans sculptures, was enough for us. With the Eiffel tower in sight, we crossed the Seine and found another huge museum. The museum was surrounded by vendors selling water, paintings, trinkets and more. We found one vendor who was selling original enamel on copper paintings. We purchased three for 20 euros. Besides the cheese pot and some postcards, this remains our only souvenir! After much discussion, we decided against visiting the museum. Instead, we traveled along the Seine to L'Hopital De Invalides. This building was originally a veteran's hospital erected by Napoleon, While it still serves this purpose, it has been largely converted to a military museum. As Sarah was reading a plaque outside the main entrance, two people stopped us and asked if we were going to enter the museum. When we said yes, they handed us free passes for the rest of the day to any museum in Paris! These were worth about 18 euros each. We thanked them and went inside.

The museum was strictly a military museum. A lot of guns, a lot of armour, a lot of histories of battles. It also had a beautiful church, the tombs of many rulers of France, and Napoleon's tomb. We took many photos, walked around the gardens, and continued our trek to the Eiffel tower.

At this time, it was about mid-afternoon. We were getting a bit tired, so we stopped at a cafe. I had an espresso, Sarah had a glass of water. Due to a lack of communication and a slightly sleazy bartender, it turned out that the water cost us 3.20 euros, while the espresso was only 2 euros. (Which was still high.) We were a little disappointed in being taken like this, but we got over it and once again continued on our trek to the Eiffel tower. After a _lot_ of walking, we finally found it. We had a quick snack at the base (on the side opposite the tour buses.) The Eiffel tower is a lot more detailed and ornate than the photos indicate. We took a picture from the base, hopefully showing some of the detailing. We then decided to hop back across the Seine and head over to the Arc de Triomph.

On our way their, we both started feeling the day's travels, It was now about 5:30 and we started the feel tired. Sarah had a blister on her foot, my knees started to hurt. We got to the Arc, it was beautiful. We took pictures, and rested for a few minutes. With renewed strength, we decided to hop the metro and get back to our hotel area. Once there, we planned to return to the Internet cafe and send out our first message.

We arrived at our metro destination, but getting back to the Internet cafe proved to take far more time than we had anticipated. (Likely due to us being tired and slightly injured.) We eventually got their. Reading our messages of congratulations was great, but things took a turn for the worse when we started looking up the last minute trains out of Paris.

In short, there was nothing good and what was available left at 7:00AM. This really depressed Sarah, as she started worrying about having to pay full fare.

- We went back to the hotel. I cheered her up, told her 
  we had enough to pay for it all, left her at the hotel 
  and bought dinner
- Dinner: Baguette, two kinds of cheese, Apple, 
          banana, Wine, lemon tart, grapes.
- Asked hotel person and went to closer Internet cafe, 
  thought of some plans, returned.
- 80s American pop at Internet cafe; last thing I expected to hear 
  in France was "She's Like the Wind"
- Sarah got tipsy
- We felt better about our ticket prospects.

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