Bienvenue à Paris!
We left lovely Vienna this morning and took flight to Paris on an airline I had never heard of before…Transavia. They were moving people around to spread load the passengers - since everyone decided to pick seats at the front of the plane - so I ended up with a whole row to myself. As soon as we were at a high enough altitude I put my seat back and slept (I don’t think any of us got more than five hours of sleep last night). The view wasn’t great out the window anyway as it was cloudy the entire flight.
We took a long cab ride to our flat with someone originally from Cambodia as the driver. It was a good hour long drive and he gave us a nice tour of the city - as well as an introduction to the crazy Parisian drivers. I had wanted to rent scooters, but am not so sure I will survive if we do. We are staying in the 18th Arrondissement near Montmartre. Not sure if it’s the nicest part of Paris, but it’s pretty easy to get to the city center. We had these weird quesadillas/tacos for lunch (from a place called O’Tacos) with a ton of mayonnaise and fries in them. I kind of liked them, but others not so much.
We took the metro to Notre Dame and proceeded to get poured on. I think this is the first bad weather day we’ve had on this trip. In a way it kind of adds to the whole atmosphere of Paris. However I don’t like having soaking feet, which happened rather quickly. There was a line getting into the chapel - probably so people could escape the rain. The short wait - including some young school girls practicing English on us - was definitely worth it. Inside we were rewarded with a dimly lit room playing hymns/chants softly in the background. There are huge ceilings and some of the most beautiful stained glass windows especially behind the organ pipes.
We got hot chocolate after as a way to warm up a little and then made our way to the Louvre. It was fun finally seeing the famous glass pyramid in the middle of the palace courtyard. There weren’t that many people walking around outside - unsurprisingly - but inside was a different story. The inside was impossibly big - and there must have been thousands of people walking around the various halls. I can’t even imagine what it’s like on a weekend or during the summer. There are thousands of pieces of sculpture, paintings, tablets, from all time periods focused primarily on the European continent. In addition to this the building itself was a work of art on the ceilings and walls. I made a point to see some of the famous works like Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, The Raft of the Medusa, etc.
I tried to get money out and an ATM decided to eat my debit card (I later found out the bank decided to cancel my card for some reason). I may have been in a little bit of a bad mood after that. We went to a Japanese restaurant, and then a creperie for dessert, and after getting home proceeded to pass out on the couch because I was so tired.
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