Oui, Paris!

Jason brought his netbook, and since they're both still jet lagging, I will have the mornings to post away on this blog in the wee morning hours(10am here, 1am Texas).



Yesterday we arrived in Paris from London via the Eurostar. This is a high speed rail from London, that runs under the English Channel, thru the French countryside and into one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been into. The number of palais's and grand structures that I' ve seen here so far is flooring. It's the streets are single laned but wide. The city is build on traffic circuses where roads proliferate from the center like expanding sunrays. The boulevards that run out from the circuses are kept with nicely trimmed hedges and great views of other 1800 french style apartments. I've got to hand it to the frogs, they've completely impressed me with this city.



We started the day at Arc de Triomphe. Even though the French are known to be surrender monkeys, Napoleon won enough battles against the eastern europeansm that he erected this building for his soldiers after the battle of Austerlitz in the early 1800. Today was Bastille day, so military parades and displays were aplenty at the capitol city of France. It's the french July 4th holiday. We managed to get a french legionaire to take a picture with us in his jeep.



We then walked down the champ towards the grand palais. It was a nice stroll in the 70F weather. Although running low on water, the sights were more than enough to keep us going. We saw some really nice palaces along the way and arrived at the army museum.



This place was built by Louis the 14th to house disabled veterans and troops who were stuck begging on the streets. It now houses one of the finest military museums that I've ever seen. Everything from the stone age up to WW2. Since it was Bastille day, everything was free! Whoohoo! Built into this structure is the Sun King's dome chapel. Napoleon is buried here and we snapped a few pictures of the tomb. The greatest French military general was actually an Italian!



Then we made our way to the Eiffel Tower via champ de mars. It got a bit dusty and it was packed with people who were waiting for the evening fireworks that would fly off the Eiffel tower itself. We were pretty tired by then, so we pushed off for the hostel to eat and rest up a bit. While Tommy is disgusted with my choice of a one star establishment of a 70% rating, we're on a budget that I intend to keep. Tough luck little hombre.

We ate at a little cafe near by and we got the rumpsteak, french onion soup, and a quiche. All of which are very good and put La Madeliene as just another French cafe. Despite what people may say, the french have actually been quite nice up until this point. Service is prompt and they haven't refused to serve me even though I know only two words of French.

Our last excursion of the day was to go to Trocadero to see the fireworks shoot off from the Eiffel tower. Crowds were swarming up and pouringinto the streets. People on mopeds and bikes were idiotic and trying to drive through the crowds. It was annoying. We actually found a decent spot, but tall people kept moving in front of us so we ended up shoo-ing back a bit further which offerred a better view. Ambulance and riot police were everywhere which should've tipped me off that this would be like new years in Madrid.

It got so packed with craziness that you couldnt move and people started punching and shoving. I get clausterphobic in large crowds. In fact, I really really hate being stuck in a position where I can't decide my own movement. We got completely jammed in the middle of the Trocadero. I felt my ass patted by pickpockets for a wallet atleast 7-8 times, but they got nothing. Everything was well hidden in my secret pouch under my shirt. I caught the hand of an old lady who had her hand in my backpocket who had a crutch. She was making the most noise about trying to get through the crowd. Distraction?

Anyway, after the fireworks ended, the crowd started to disperse and we managed to push our way out to the underground trains. My back was killing me and it hurt to stand up and/or sneeze. I think we'll be taking it nice and slow today.

More later!