 Top of the World |
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10:30 am
I got up at about 7:00 this morning even though I wanted to stay asleep and I felt like bowling balls had taken up residence atop my eyeballs. I stopped for a croissant, spent €10.80 mailing postcards, and just saw the 'hood waking up slowly but surely. From what I've seen so far, Paris is very clean. Also, there are lots of police. (Speaking of, I almost plotzed upon seeing the soldiers at CDG with their giant guns! I just stared at them, and they stared right back, like, that's right, sister, this is me and my giant gun so watch yourself.) I went to the Cluny Museum which is literally like a block from my hotel, and it was really all quite cool. How can you not get a teary over the lady and the unicorn? I loved all of it, the statues, the stained glass, the tapestries. 
I think that if I don't get some kind of protein soon I will collapse. My sister gets here soon! I'm going to suggest that we grab a sandwich and eat at the Luxembourg Gardens and then head to the Marais to walk around and go to the Picasso museum and one of the cafés that our cousin suggested. I think she would like that. I can't believe we are going to be reunited in a few short minutes! 11:50 pm We were reunited outside the Luxembourg Gardens after I waited for her and watched everyone looking at the Paris Liberation exhibit photos -- Robert Capa! Cool.  We settled her into the hotel room and took off walking. I'm writing this in the subway station. We got a couple of quiches and a frozen lemonades and headed to St. Chapelle. Her ham and cheese quiche was quite good but the one I got that I thought was a veggie one had some very fishy fish and ew. Our lemon freezes were super yummy. When we got to St. Chapelle, we went to the lower chapel first and were like -- ah. Well. Lovely. I said, "Well, it's too bad that half of the windows are dark because of that building next-door!" She looked at me and said, "Um ... I think there's an upper chapel." And so there was. Phew! And it was just as beautiful as everyone said it would be! 
(Side note: We are in Gare la Motte-Piquet Grenelle, the most FOUL PISS-SMELLING METRO STATION IN ALL OF EUROPE! Please, come, train, for the love of God in heaven!) It's now midnight. St. Chapelle was awesome. On our way there, we passed by Place de la Sorbonne, where there was a man singing "The Boxer" in a very strong accent and it was very touching when we heard our favorite verse (that last one, of course). (DEAR GOD, MY NOSTRILS ARE AFLAME AS IF INHALING HYDROCHLORIC ACID.) We decided to take the hour-long river cruise from the Pont Neuf. We each got an ice cream (her: strawberry vanilla cone, me: double chocolate caramel), and the cruise was lovely! Hot but lovely. 
We then walked over to the Marais which was cool. So much going on. She got a crepe with nutella, bananas, and honey and I feverishly drank an orange Fanta like it was the nectar of the gods. We stopped in little shops and played by the fountain at the Pompidou Center and went to Victor Hugo's house. We also walked down the adorable Rue Vielle du Temple and chickened out of going to Cousin's favorite "horseshoe" restaurant because we are goobers. We took the metro back to the hotel and I ran cold water on my feet with the shower nozzle and it was ecstasy. 
We then walked and walked and walked and walked to a restaurant called Le Jardin des Pâtes, which was delicious. They gave us a menu in English and we drank nongassy water and beer with lemon slices and ate beautiful salads and pasta marinara with giant basil leaves and dollops of melting mozzarella and rice noodles with carrots and peppers and zucchini and broccoli and tofu and ginger and if you know me at all you know that is MY KIND OF DINNER, YES, MA'AM! 
We then decided that what we had to do was the Eiffel Tower. So we did! Metro again! We didn't get there until 10:00. One the walk there from the train station she told me more about her Greek friends and we continued our day-long quest to remember the lyrics to freaking "He Wanted to Say" from Ragtime, a song we both used to LOVE but of which are now drawing total blanks on bits and pieces. Every now and then all day one of us would pop out with "HOW I ENVY YOU YOUR INNOCENCE?" or "I would shed this skin if I could to stand with you and fight!?" Good times. 
Lines, lines, lines at the Eiffel Tower. So glad we didn't do it during the day or we'd have fried like bacon, you little freshman piggies. 1:30 am We are finally showered and back at the hotel, about which my only complaint is the moldy shower curtain in an otherwise pristine bathroom. Oh, sweet mother of God, French Survivor is on! What I would not give right now for some English subtitles! The formula seems to be identical -- the tribes are even named Mogo (just one Mogo this time) and Chapera. It's too much. Okay, so, the Eiffel Tower. At first I was very pro-second level only, but then we said, what the hell, why are we doing this if not all the way? So we did! As we stood beneath the tower in line, the lights started twinkling like one million camera flashes at 10:00 exactly. The sideways, slanted elevator to levels one and two was very rickety-sounding and my sister was not a fan of seeing the giant gears turning but I thought it was kind of cool and it reminded me of that Christmas movie with the mice and the clocks. More lines. Then the elevator to the top. I cannot tell a lie. I had to close my eyes for most of it. It was a very long ride. And I was mashed right up against the doors out of which I felt I might be shoved at any moment. So, the top was very crowded even at nearly 11:00 and honestly it was so high that the view was ultimately better from level two anyway. But I'm glad we did it because it was very exciting in a claustrophobic, acrophobic, mob scene kind of a way, and Notre Dame and the Seine and Sacre Coeur were actually pretty enchanting way down in the distance. 
After we finally got down at 11:20, we got some ice cream and avoided the many peddlers and walked what felt like one million miles to the Pinky Tuscadero metro station and began our urine-scented journey back to the hotel which is luckily very very close to a much less repugnant station. How, how, how can these stations smell so rancid? How? It's really my only complaint about the city so far. The metro itself is easy to use and convenient and swell -- but the smell -- oh, sweet hell! And ... Vicky just got her torch extinguished and had to leave tribal council immediately. Bye, Vicky! About this time in ...
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