We found our way on foot from the train station to the hostel pretty easily. It involved a walk through downtown Paris with was very interesting. We walked to Le Sein River and then along the river to our hostel. On the way, we saw in the distance the Eiffel tower and the church of Notre Dame, along with lots of other fascinating buildings and people.
After dropping off our luggage, we decided to visit the closest sites, primarily the Notre Dame church. We used a Rick Steves audio tour to walk through the area, starting at Notre Dame and ending at Point Neuf, with 13 other points of interest in between. It was great to get his audio interpretation of everything. Much cheaper than hiring a tour guide, but you can't ask the MP3 questions.
The church was the most amazing thing we saw today. It took 200 years to build - started in the 1100s and finished in the 1300s. The statues, architecture, windows, and atmosphere are breathtaking. It's a marvel of architecture and religious superstition. There was a mass in progress as we walked through, but only a tiny minority were paying attention to that or participating. Most were just in awe of the building. I found the gargoyles particularly interesting. They double as rain gutters, with the runoff coming out of their mouths. I learned that the words "gargoyle" and "gargle" come from the same root word.
After our tour, we walked back to the hostel, checked into our room at 3pm, and got cleaned up. We took a walk around the neighborhood, took a nap, had dinner at a nearby restaurant that served food that looked kind of Chinese, but had a curry spice to it. It was delicious! Abel had shrimp and I had beef. And both were on a generous bed of rice.
Our hostel is much different than the one in Munich. It's very quiet, and most residents are either groups of school children, or older folks like me. There aren't people hanging out in the lounge area like there were in Munich. The rooms are clean, and we only share our with one person, a man named Horatio from Argentina.
A few observations about Paris:
- The pigeons are gargantuan! I'd swear these pigeons are as big as the average chicken. There are also lots of really big dogs, too! We saw one that looked like a bear from a distance. I guess the French like their pigeons and dogs extra large!
- I had high school and college French, and though it was 30 years ago, I remember some of it. Everyone knows the nasal nature of the French language. It isn't exaggerated. When I hear people speaking French, I find myself thinking they surely must be exaggerating. But no, that's really how they speak! They rarely pronounce the letters at the end of a word. Bon Jour is BO-JOO and the Louvre is the LOOV.
- Paris is much less friendly to English speakers as Munich. There aren't nearly as many signs or speech in English, so a person is forced to try to learn the language. Not a bad thing, I guess!
- There aren't as many bicyclers in Paris as there were in Munich. But Munich and Paris bikers have one thing in common. They own the road! I bike quite a bit back home and I always feel like a second class citizen in Duluth. I get honked at, stared at, and generally feel like I'm in everyone else's way. It seems to be the opposite in Europe. Bikers fly through crowds of people without slowing down, smiling happily as they go by. Behind that smile is the thought - "I'll run you over if you don't get out of the way!" And it's true. You don't want to get in their way.
Tomorrow promises to be a very busy day - time for bed!
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