The Inner Circle, take two

Ah, Paris, what a wonderful weekend. The city was beautiful, and the weather was warm, a welcome change from the steadily cooling climate of London. I went with Robi, Andrew, Kamani, and Maike.

Day 1: We arrived in Paris Thursday afternoon just in time for dinner. We all wanted to dive head first into the culture, so we went out to a restaurant for crepes. This turned out to be a bad idea because none of us know much French. All we had to work with was my semester of dumbed down high school French, so it was very stressful trying to convey our orders to the very confused francophone waitress. I had a ham and cheese crepe, and learned the word for fork - forchette, when I somehow lost mine under the table.

After dinner we decided to go for a walk around the city and ended up at the Eiffel Tower, a shining beacon in the city (and very close to our hostel). It is AMAZING at night. Did you know it sparkles?

Our return to the hostel was horrible. We got lost, and ended up doing a mighty circle around the tower (that's where this post's title comes in). It took three hours and flared tempers all around to find the hostel that was only about a half hour's walk from the tower.

Day 2: In the morning we walked through the underground catacombes. There are millions of bones down there stacked upon one another. The catacombes were the French answer to an overflowing cemetary and a pervasive stench. Andrew and I, with our combined experience with Latin and French, were able to partially translate some of the stone captions placed in different parts of the tunnels. It was really neat.

Then we headed to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is a gargantuan building and a sort of surreal experience. As a place of worship and tourist attraction, there is a really interesting dynamic inside.

For lunch we went to a grocer (much easier) and bought baguettes, cheese, and meat for a picnic lunch in the park. Oh, it was so tasty and so relaxing. How French!

In the afternoon we wandered around the Louvre, seeing all the well-known pieces, including the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory, and walking through most of the rest of the museum. To really do the museum justice, we should have been there all day, so we had a very superficial trip. By the end, though, we were exhausted and we have no regrets about leaving when we did. We even ended up retiring early that night.

Day 3: Intending to spend most of the morning shopping, we made the trek to one of the city's giant flea markets. We were disappointed with the selection, so we gave up after only half an hour or so and went to the patisserie down the street. There we each had a different kind of French pastry and some gourmet coffee on an outdoor patio.

Then we headed to Moulin Rouge and looked around a bit and shopped, shopped, shopped. I ended up with two new sweaters and a pair of new shoes for a total of only 35 euros!

After the shopping we had another baguette lunch, a visit to the Arc de Triomphe, a cruise down the Seine River and a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

While we were on the Eiffel Tower a man proposed to his girlfriend, we took pictures of the city at night, and we watched a thunderstorm roll in across the city. It was such a great experience.

So, really, we had a good time and saw a lot of very famous, very beautiful things. Since we returned I've been working on recovering from our hectic pace, and Maike and I are headed to Scotland in two days. I love life in Europe!