I have a lot to tell you since my last entry! After arriving at the hotel we took showers and changed clothes. While I was in the shower my mother found a self-guided walking tour around Paris that she thought would be a good idea. This is the part of the horror film when the audience knows not to do it, but the actors have no idea; we were the actors.
I wrote down the directs and we headed for the Arc de Triomphe as instructed. After going the long way around the arc, we found the street that we were looking for. The website said that it was a ten minute walk, but after walking for awhile my mother said that we had passed a sign for the Trocadéro that was supposed to be the first stop. Since she saw the sign I decided to let her lead; even one of the actors knew not to go into the killer's lair at this point in the story. We wandered around for what seemed like forever without finding the Trocadéro. I was admittedly bent out of shape and was ready to call it quits and head for the hotel. We finally found the Trocadéro, but I was in no mood to enjoy it. The throngs of tourists, Eiffel Tour souvenir vendors, and heat was really getting to me.
We regrouped in a park and decided to sit at the base of the Eiffel Tower for a bit. I now must concede something terrible. If you've seen the Eiffel Tower, or most other landmarks in Paris, in pictures then seeing them in real life is way less awe inspiring. I would skip seeing the sites entirely and go straight ahead to what we decided to do next--a walk along the river.
The Seine is beautiful, not because it's a river, but because of all of the green space running along its banks. Walk along the river. Go towards that interesting spire in the distance. Cross a few bridges. Don't waste your precious Parisian time hunting for tourist easter eggs. If I were to do this day all over again I would have skipped the so called "self-guided tour" and gone straight for wandering around on a whim.
We did manage to see some sights during our walking. Saint-Germain-des-Prés is beautiful and looks and looks a lot like 5th Avenue in New York. All of the buildings in Paris are beautiful, so don't worry so much about where you are but how breathtaking everything is. We also saw the torch statue of the Statue of Liberty with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower in the background. There was also Petit Palais and Grand Palais as well as the Musée de decorverte.
Next we went to the Champs-Elysées to find the Mercedes store to buy my dad a keychain. It's so busy in the afternoon that you can barely breathe and is filled with boring stores like the Gap, H&M, and Lacoste. Blah. By this time my feet were killing me so we went back to the hotel.
After a four hour nap (yep, that actually happened). I awoke to my mom who was dressed and standing by the window. She said that she was going to the McDonald's to get dinner for us. I decided to put band aids on my feet and go with her. I took us down the wrong street by accident which turned out to be a great mistake. We found water bottles at a small store, and dinner!
We got food from an Arabic restaurant. Two chicken sandwiches with potatoes, tahini sauce, chicken that was shaved off of a big rotating stick, and pickled vegetables. At the cafe I learned valuable lessons. 1. You don't have to speak a lot of French to order food. 2. Do not leave the counter to pay or else someone will grab your sandwhich before you can say baguette poulet! Be agressive. This lesson should be applied to everything from crossing the street to getting a cab. Don't be rude or the angry American version of aggressive, but go for what you want and don't pay attention to the rules. If there's no car in the road, cross it.
I promise to upload pictures soon, but for now it's time for bed. We have a wake up call at 6am for our 8 am train to Switzerland. Bonne nuitt!
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