Eight ~ Feb 23rd

Chelsea was still sick so she decided she was going to let us go out for the morning and then come back and get her that afternoon. So Mimi and I went out with out our guide, but we had been out yesterday and had gotten a feel for the Metro, which isn't that different from the tube. So we mapped out what trains/lines we needed to take & switch to get to Ile de la Cite one of the little islands in the Seine river. Which is the center of Paris and where Notre Dame & Sainte Chapelle are located and our destination for the morning. So we got off at the Cite stop, Chelsea told us that it helps to rename the stops to English words to helps us remember. For example we took our line the blue or 2 to Barbes Rochechouart then to Cite. So to help us remember Mimi called it Barbies Rocket chair and of course City was not hard to remember.

Sainte Chappel was our first stop we got in line went through security and found our way into what we thought was the chapel which had a gift shop and a few little stained glass windows. Mimi suggest that maybe they will open the only door once more people show up & do a tour. After purchasing a few souvenirs I turned to look out the door we came in when I saw the entrance that led to the stairs, all we had to do was turn around to see it. I also spoke two words of French to the woman who worked at the souvenir shop, true they were merci & au revoir but hey I did it. Unlike when I said yes in Spanish instead of french the night before to our waiter. He told me not to worry about it when I tried to correct myself.



It was easy to figure out that sortie was exit but for some reason we had a hard time finding how to exit, we couldn't leave the way we came we finally had to watch others to figure it out. Yes we could have asked but we tried to blend in as much as possible. We figure it is smart not to let people know you are a lost tourist. There were sortie (exit) signs they had just been covered by a van.

Next up was Notre Dame.

Since Chelsea wasn't there I had to be in Mimi's pictures I feel like this day was the Connie day.
See here I am again walking down a street looking for The Shakespeare & Co book store. I only knew it was by Notre Dame I decided to ask a police officer because it is fine if he knows I am a lost tourist. He gave us perfect directions in perfect English and was very nice about it as well.
See we found it.
I love book stores and if they are old, it only makes them all the more magical.
But I did make Mimi let me take a couple of her.

Waiting for our train so we could go and pick Chelsea up & get some lunch.



After getting Chelsea we went to the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph) then we walked down Avenue des Champs-Élysées for some shopping. We took it all the way to a park where we got some lunch from a stand. I had a baguette with tomato, lettuce & mozzarella then a crepe with chocolate & banana, it was heaven.

I loved this art we saw when walking. We then went to Père Lachaise Cemetery sadly it was closed. We were very disappointed we had not been paying attention to time and had some trouble actually finding lunch. While at the first stand the guy left to take a phone call and after waiting awhile we finally moved on. We were very sad to miss seeing the graves Oscar Wilde & Jim Morrison. So we then moved on to check out The Latin Quarter of Paris & The Panthéon.

Here is a little tip for travelers, if you are young or if you like the hip scenes go to where Universities are. They are bound to have cool shops, art, music & the food is bound to be cheaper. There are different schools in the Latin Quarter and they had a lot of cool shops around.
The Panthéon - We had not thought we would have time to stop by so we didn't get there before it closed but it was beautiful to see. We were sad we could not sit on the steps, but glad to see it.

This is the view from The Panthéon, isn't it lovely. You can see why people would love to sit on those steps and eat their lunch.


We made our way back to the metro so we could go see the Eiffel Tower again and so Mimi could by her Eiffel Tower statues. That girl is crazy about those statues, she brought home a crazy amount. Chelsea loved to tease her that customs were going to accuse her of trying to steal their country. I wish you could hear the accent Chelsea would use, any accent Chelsea would do is a special treat.

The line we were trying to get on was confusing and not like the lines we had previously been on. But a nice young man saw us and came to help us find which way we needed to go. He was very friendly but not to pushy, he even came back to explain that we needed to watch to make sure we got on the right train that two different trains would come.


This time we came to the Eiffel tower from a different direction and walked towards it by the river.

I may have embarrassed Mimi & Chelsea but seeing all the lights misty in the river made me think of Les Mesirable so I started singing On My Own & I Dreamed a Dream.

Chelsea was also talking about how Javert committed suicide by jumping into the Seine.

We thought we would go and try and catch a movie but man where we tired and did my feet hurt. So we headed back over to our hostel but got some dinner at a cafe close to the hostel. It was a place full of local regulars and the staff was very friendly. People keep asking were the french rude to you? Really we did not talk to a lot of people but the ones we did were very friendly. Some have suggested it is because we are girls, I really can't say I didn't ever feel anyone was being rude to us.