Paris: Days 1 & 2

It's Friday afternoon, almost 6pm, and we have taken a break from all the site seeing to relax before shabbat. It's been a fun 3 days so far!

All in all, I have yet to fall in love, like many said I would, but there's still time I guess. :-) Perhaps some of it has to do with the incredible pain I find myself in after hours of being on my feet. Paris is definitely the city of walking and stairs...lots and lots of walking and stair-climbing. Our baby will be lucky to be blessed with Andrew's feet, as flat as they are, and not mine.

We arrived on Wednesday morning, and after getting to Paris from the airport, checking in to the hotel, walking around the area to learn more about the 9th Arr (9th district), we headed to grand boulevard of Champs Elysees, detouring near the Louvre to walk through the gardens. Our first stop was the Orangerie Museum, where Monet's masterpiece, the Water Lilies, hang. It's a small museum and the Water Lilies are the focal point (we'll be driving to Giverny, Monet's home and gardens on Monday).

Afterward, we took the metro 3 stops to the top of the Champs Elysees, which features the Arc de Triomphe, France's war memorial. There is a tomb of the unknown soldier at the bottom and beautiful city views at the top. Mind you, the top is 250 stairs up a spiraling staircase. So I huffed and buffed and made it up, but not without losing my breath a few times! As we climbed back down, a re-lighting of the flame ceremony had just started. Apparently, they re-light the flame near the tomb of the unknown soldier every day at 6:30pm. And it's not just re-lighting of the flame. It's a whole ceremony with French veterans, flags, shaking hands, a band, etc. It's weird to me that they do this every single day with all the pomp and circumstance, but hey, it's France. They have all of the pre-20th century war fighting to be proud of!

We walked a bit down the Champs Elysees, but besides for a grand boulevard with lots and lots of high-end shopping, there's really not much to see. So we metroed back to our hotel for a break and dinner. We ended up just eating at a small place near our hotel at around 9pm, since I fell asleep as soon as we got back (and not to mention my foot pain...). I would estimate that we walked a total of approximately 5 miles all day. For some of you, perhaps not so much; for me, it's a tiring hike worthy of a damn good drink at the end...but alas, no drinking for me. :-(

Thursday was our first real full day here. We started it off by sleeping until past 9am...we only had around 3 hours of sleep on the plane Tuesday night, so we deserved it. We grabbed some yogurt and headed for the Louvre. When in Paris, everyone goes to the Louvre, but I think more so because of what it represents (largest museum in the world, formerly king's palaces, etc) and because of what it holds (Mona Lisa and a handful of other famous pieces of art), then because they actually really enjoy the experience. The Louvre is immense. Plain and simple. We hit the highlights and just that took us around 2 hours because of it's sheer size (and don't forget all the stair climbing!). We had a real good book that guided us through, so we had an idea of where we were going. Doubtful I'd go again if I'm ever in Paris in the future.

After the Louvre, we took the metro to the 4th Arr, the Jewish Quarter, to get some lunch. We ate at a dairy joint called Pitzman and had some fantastic pizza. After, we walked across the Siene River to start the Historic Paris Walk, which took us into the Notre Dame, through the Latin Quarter, to the Cluny Museum, and finally the Sainte Chapelle. Because of the winds, the top of the Notre Dame tower was closed, but there was still a long line to climb the tower anyway. We skipped this (I decided it was best not for me to try to climb 400 steps if I wouldn't be rewarded with a good view at least) and instead sat in the square outside of the historic Notre Dame church to take in the view and read about its history. We then toured the inside of the church and then walked through it's gardens towards the Left Bank (Paris is split by the Siene River, so you have the Right Bank and Left Bank, with Notre Dame on an island in the middle). In the Left Bank, we walked through the Latin Quarter, had coffee at a small cafe, and toured the Cluny Museum. We then walked to the Sainte Chapelle, which is a church that was built in 5 years basically to be the home of the Crown of Thorns. The church has beautiful stained glass window panes. We got lucky to get in-- little did we know, but the church sometimes closes early to prepare for evening concerts. This was one of those evenings. But because we had bought a 4-day Museum Pass, we didn't have to buy tickets so they let us in. By the time we finished at the Saint Chapelle, it was after 6pm, so we went back to the hotel, rested a bit, then headed out for dinner at a kosher Indian restaurant.

It's getting late, so I will end here. For shabbat, there's a restaurant 2 blocks from our hotel that takes reservations and serves dinner and lunch, so we reserved for both. There is also the grand Rothschild Synagogue not too far from here, so we should make it there tomorrow for shabbat services. After that, we'll see. The problem is there is no eruv, so while we can walk to our hearts (and feet!) content, I can't carry any water with me (nor can we carry our passports, which we've been doing. So we'll see...shabbat ends at 9:10pm, so we have a long afternoon on our hands.