I awake on the couch bed to the sound of swearing. Not what I expected to be woken up to, but life is full of surprises. Amidst the swearing, I learn that Jennifer somehow spilled coffee all over the bathroom (?) and got some of it on the dress she was going to wear to the wedding ceremony in less than two hours. David rushed in with a roll of paper towels to help her deal with this great misfortune. After some time, they reemerged from the bathroom with many coffee soaked paper towels, and Jennifer pointing at the stain in her dress. Which, I must be honest, I couldn't see. As Jennifer and David were leaving in less than an hour for their friend's wedding, Elizabeth and I took the opportunity to sit down, and have a couple cups of coffee as we waited for the bathroom to be empty.
During this time we worked out a plan for the day. We were in Paris, so obviously, we would go see the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and walk up and down the Champs-Élysées. Not a massive itinerary for the day, but we were still quite exhausted from our adventures yesterday. As Jennifer and David left, we were able to get ready for the day. While waiting for my turn in the bathroom, I was looking at the map in order to find the best way to get to the Eiffel Tower. The Metro seemed like the obvious choice, but that is not always the case. This time it was, however, we would first have to go to a different station than the one we were used to, which proved to be rather eventful later in the day and indeed trip.
When the both of us were ready, we placed the key in the agreed upon location in case Jennifer and David got back to the Airbnb earlier than we did, and headed towards the other Metro station. Which at first completely confused my sister as she initially refused to walk the "wrong way to the Metro" before I told her that we were going to a different station. The walk to the station was uneventful until Google said "You have arrived" and we were nowhere near a Metro station. It took us longer than we'd like to admit to finally work out that the station was indeed at this location, but it was underground so we would have to look for an entrance somewhere. Most of the Paris Metro stations are clearly marked staircases down into the darkness below the city with a large sign overhead that reads "Metropolitan" however, some are hidden inside buildings so as not to be part of the scenery but blend in with it.
This station entrance, for example, was connected to the reception area of a large and relatively modern office building. It must be admitted that it took us a good ten minutes to find, however, in our defense the front of the building was being cleaned that day, and there were many things in front of the sign. Once we got inside the building, I told my sister to look for the sign for the "6" train, only to turn around and see that she had gone down an escalator into the lower area of the station. (Although not a theme, this does happen often enough to be rather annoying.) After looking at the signage, she ended up being correct, so I followed her down the escalator thinking that maybe she knew where we were going as well. All of my hopes were quickly dashed away as she asked me when I got to the bottom what train we were taking.
I elected to ignore what had just transpired, and tell her the train number. We entered the station and went to the correct platform for the train. There were many other tourists on this platform so we knew we were on the right one. This part of the Paris Metro had stations both above and below ground, which I found to be rather interesting, but I don't think Elizabeth shared my queries. We followed the crowd to the correct station, and followed them onto a street filled to capacity with tourists, peddlers, and scooter traffic. Every so often, there was a break in the skyline and we could see it, the Eiffel Tower. Much larger in real life than it is when you picture it in your head. It towers over the local skyline at 81 stories tall. (Just to clarify how tall it is, it is the largest building in France, and was so until the Millau Bridge/Viaduct opened in 2004. It was also the tallest man-made structure in the world for 41 years, until the construction of the Chrysler Building in New York City.)
(The Eiffel Tower was originally built for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, and was scheduled to be taken down soon after. However, the city fell in love with it and has kept it ever since. There are stories about people who have legally married the tower, and my personal favorite, the story of the man who ate lunch underneath it every day because that was the only place in the city where he could not see it, and he loathed its existence. Of course, the tower now has its practical uses as a radio and television broadcaster thanks to its great height, and during the war, it served as a communications relay for both the Allies and the Axis powers. Today, though, it is an entirely different story. Although it still sends radio and television signals, the main purpose of the tower is tourism, and it does its job well.)
As we navigated the steady but constant tourist traffic both going towards and away from the tower, we were able to stop and take the occasional picture. It was during this point where I remembered viewing the tower on my previous visit to Paris, and how few people there were at the spot we decided to view the tower from. As I tried to remember, we made our way closer and closer. As we were two people, and not a large tourist group, we were able to snake in and out of the crowds. When we got to the park where the tower is, we were in for a shock. The local powers that be in Paris determined that the Eiffel Tower was such a tourist attraction that they could charge people to enter just the park where the tower was. Of course, the reasons cited were terrorism protection, and while that may be a factor, you can protect a monument from terrorists without charging people.
At this point, I stopped looking at the tower, and across the river where I saw it. The place where I viewed the tower the last time I was here. I mentioned this to my sister, but she decided that we must first go to a cafe and eat lunch as it was nearing two in the afternoon. She took out her phone and found a relatively cheap and not too far away cafe for us to go for lunch. The cafe was only one street away from the Eiffel Tower, and compared to the throngs of people we spent the last 20 minutes with, it was completely deserted.
The Eiffel Tower from a comparatively deserted street.
After eating at the cafe, which was both delicious and cheap compared to the prices we expected from it being so close to a tourist destination, we continued on our tour of Europe's grocery stores as we went into one across the street from the cafe. I will spare you from the details of the grocery store as I am relatively confident my reader has been inside one before. The only difference is that the labels are all in French. We both picked out a liter of water, paid, and continued on our journey. (Always buy water bottles from grocery stores if you ever visit Europe. For the prices that they charge at the little kiosks for a small bottle, you can buy two liters of water for the same price at a grocery store.) While following the map to the location I had spotted from this side of the river, we encountered multiple street performers, and an overabundance of peddlers.
The Trocadero Gardens are, in my humble opinion, the best place to view the tower, and be able to do so while not being worried about having your pockets picked. The fountains in the garden are beautiful, and the mist from them is very refreshing. The park is filled with numerous shady trees and benches to sit and contemplate life. If you do not like tourists, like myself, this is the place to be.
Elizabeth requested an "artsy" pic of her near the flowers by the tower
and then complained that I didn't take it right.
The view of the tower from the balcony at the Trocadero Gardens.
Another view featuring this pigeon who couldn't be bothered to move.
But would look towards the camera every time you took
a picture of him.
One of the other great things about viewing the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero Gardens is that it is just a short walk (~10 min) from the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées. Both of which are must-sees for those visiting Paris. The Arc de Triomphe is one for France's monuments that are almost everywhere, but none, of course, compare to the original. As I had seen this beautiful monument before, I was more interested in the traffic flow around this great roundabout in the center of Paris. The flow of traffic is chaotic, but somehow flows together like a dance. All I could think of at the time was that if this were in Cleveland, it would be nothing more than a 100+ car pileup multiple times a day.
The Arc de Triomphe in all of its glory.
Following our encounter with the Arc de Triomphe, we headed down the Champs-Élysées, which clearly, until now, Elizabeth thought was just a street covered in monuments because as soon as we turned down the street, her eyes lit up. The Champs-Élysées is indeed covered in monuments, however, they are indeed monuments to capitalism. The entire street is one giant outdoor shopping mall with all the posh stores and chains you could imagine. From jewelers like Tiffany&Co. to fast food like McDonald's, to even car dealerships, everything was here. I knew I had one stop to make, and I knew Elizabeth would want to go in and out of many stores, so I settled myself in for the long haul. Luckily for me, the store I wanted to go into was one of the first we came across that either of us was interested in. The Swatch store.
(I have a bit of history with this store, which I realize seems crazy given the city I was in and only really having history with a watch store. You see, the last time I was in Paris was in 2014. I was a Sophomore in high school, and we were in France for a French class trip. Back in these days because I was with multiple chaperones, and of course many friends, we did not include an international plan on my phone for that trip. Instead, I was borrowing my friend's plan, and we would reimburse their family after the trip. Because of this, I made sure to keep my phone calls short sweet and to the point. And this time was no different. I went into the Swatch store with a couple of my friends, and bought a watch. A very nice one without any batteries, and charged with the motion of your arm. Right after purchasing the watch, I called my mother and said "Hi, France is great, by the way, I bought an expensive watch. Love you, bye!" and hung up before she had a chance to answer. My friend Kenny thought it was hilarious and has been an inside joke ever since.)
Naturally, on a trip that was mostly Switzerland, I wanted to buy another Swiss watch, however, I did not want to pay Swiss prices for it. So I decided to purchase it at the same store that I bought my last Swiss watch. The Swatch store on the Champs-Élysées. My sister thought I was crazy, but I almost felt as if it were necessary for my return to Paris. So, thirty minutes later, I walked out of the Swatch store with the second watch I had purchased there, and a tradition was born.
The Swatch store on the Champs-Élysées featuring the watch I first bought there
(on my wrist) and the new watch I had just acquired (in the bag).
Following this, we weaved our way in and out of clothing stores and the occasional home goods store before we found ourselves rather tired from walking around all day. Just as we were about to turn around and head back down the famous street, we saw the Tiffany&Co. store. Elizabeth wanted to go inside, and as I imagined that they would have some really nice watches, I followed her inside. Let me just start by saying that there was a visibly armed guard who opened the door for us. I walked into the store and stopped. A rush of cold air hit me as I realized that this was the first store in Paris I had been in with air conditioning. (A lack of A/C is not uncommon in Europe. In fact, it is more uncommon to have it.) In front of me was a marble staircase that ascended for at least three floors, and a giant jeweled chandelier hung in the center of the spiral. We perused through the jeweler relatively quickly as we determined that we weren't rich enough to even breathe there.
As we made our way back to the Metro station at the top of the street near the Arc, we discussed what we wanted to do for dinner. We decided that both of us were tired of crowds of people for the day, and wished to stay close to the AirBnb for the rest of the evening. Soon enough we determined that we would get dinner at one of the outdoor cafes near the subway station in the neighborhood of the AirBnb which were both quiet and relatively cheap. A quick glance at our phones told us that dinner would have to wait as they were both on the verge of dying.
Once we got back to the apartment, it was closer to 5pm however, dinner for most restaurants in Europe does not start until 7. We took the time to put our phones on the charger and take a quick power nap as walking around all day in the heat and sun takes a lot out of you. We headed to the restaurant we had chosen around 6:30pm (18:30) with both ourselves and our phones recharged. When we walked up to the restaurant and asked for a table outside, the waitress told us that the kitchen doesn't open until 1900 however if we would like to wait at the table she would be more than willing to serve us drinks. Instead of walking back and forth, we took her up on her offer, and sat down at a streetside table.
As we were in France, and were both of legal age here, we determined rather quickly that we should have wine while we waited for the kitchen to open. Elizabeth chose the local Rosé and I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. The waitress first came back with a cup full of potato chips, which I found to be rather humorous, before coming back with our glasses of wine.
Regrettably, this is the only picture I have from that meal.
When the kitchen finally opened, we both decided on the House special of the night, the Ravioli. Although delicious and quite possibly the best ravioli I had ever eaten, a true Italian and noodle aficionado would tell you that the ravioli noodles were actually tortellini, but at that moment I could not care less. Over dinner we determined that we both wanted to get a bottle of the wine we were drinking, and started looking for (you guessed it) a grocery store on the map. We were so engrossed in looking at Elizabeth's phone looking for one that was close to us, that when the waitress came to clear our plates and give us the check, we were rather surprised to find one that was right across the street the whole time. We both decided not to mention this to anyone of course, but I found it rather hilarious, and figured my readers would as well.
After dinner, we went into the grocery store and purchased our bottles of wine. A rosé for Elizabeth, and a Sauvignon Blanc for myself. Initially, the plan was to go back to the apartment and pick up a bottle uncorker and some wine glasses to take to a park, however on our way back it started to rain. We decided to abandon that idea, and had a glass of wine at the table in the apartment instead. It was during this time that Elizabeth announced that she had found a gelato shop near the apartment and wanted to go. By this time the rain had stopped, and it had gotten rather dark, but we figured screw it, and went anyways. As she could not find the hours on the website, or couldn't read them as the website was in French, we were hoping that it would still be open by the time we got there. Luckily for us, it was. And, I must say, it was delicious.
Please ignore the Snapchat filters.
(Yes, lemon basil is one flavor, and yes, it is delicious.)
We took a different route back to the apartment, which really annoyed Elizabeth, however, I wanted to see more than what we had already seen, even if it was all closed and dark outside. When we finally did get back, however, there was not much that happened. We very quickly got ready for bed, and were soon fast asleep.
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