our hotel's location is excellent. everything major is in a walking distance. day 2 and 3 are the most walking we have ever done. possibly 25 miles or more. if blisters could talk.
-start the day at 6 am.
-walk to notre dame. inside is huge with lots of stained glass windows. elaborate carved woodwork.
-pass through the bridge and wander around the isle of saint louis. cute, narrow streets with lots of shops, cafes.
- buy 2-day museum pass from the cluny museum. pass lets you see a lot of major museums and beats the crowds by not waiting in line.
-saint chappelle. gothic chapel with rich colored stained glass windows.
-right next to it, is the execution building, conciergerie. eerie place where they held the prisoners before they were executed. marie antoinette was imprisoned here.
-go take a look at one of the originals of metro station that was built and it is still being used.
-gather all your energy and start walking to the louvre museum. my eagle eye from afar reads the sign "efes" on a red owning. boom; we are already there. let's get some good old turkish doner into our bellies before we tackle the louvre. they are all turks. the waiter is nice. brings us 2 doner sandwiches. omg is it bad or what? how could this be? in fact it's horrific. cold, some blob of meat god knows what, i spit it out and again french fries come to my rescue. eddie on the other hand, eats it like it's no one's business. poor guy!
-we are in louvre. yes it's big. when we arrive, it's not that crowded. we tour the sculptures section, napoleon apartments then head out to find the turkish bath painting. as we are looking for it, there it is; the sign that says "ancient city smyrna exhibit". wooww what a coincidence. my hometown city: one and only, adorable izmir is being exhibited in louvre??? that day is the last day of the exhibit. we immediately dart in, see a huge panoramic photo of symrna. see lots of ancient artifacts, sculptures, statues, utensils, coffins (you name it, smyrna had it) brought to daylight from bc times.
-see 2 vermeers. since vermeer had less than 40 paintings, these are rare beauties.
-next room is covered with rembrandts.
-we locate the turkish bath painting; soft plump women and their boobies sticking out.
-i know the moment you have all been waiting for is finally here my friends. mona lisa. don’t get your hopes too high though. from a far far away and small galaxy, there she is, looking confused like i am. not only she is caged in a glass shell but also she is roped off 3 meters away. crowds in front of it are foaming at the mouth to capture an eternal moment of her so they could proudly say, been there done that. i am one of those. as i cut through the crowd, i hit the shutter button 5 times hoping that one of it will turn out ok.
-then walk miles through the enormous huge tuileries gardens from the louvre to champs-elysees.
-pass through palace de concorde.
-walk through champs-elysees. wide open street with lots of shops, etc. not my favorite.
-arrive at arc de triomphe. napeleon’s gift to greet you after managing to walk that far from louvre.
-that’s not enough exercise, so take the very narrow, winding and never ending stairs all the way to the top. thank goodness i have been doing stairmaster at the gym. arc is at the center of the city so all the roads lead to the arc in paris. good views of paris.
-from there walk all the way to the eiffel tower. yes i know we were there the first day but it was raining and cold now it’s great and sunny so take advantage of that and begin climbing the eiffel tower through the stairs. you heard me right. on foot. climb all the way to the second level and soak in the views. there is only an elevator access to the third and last level so skip it. we need more exercise hahah.
it has been a really inspiring day. it’s beginning to turn into my favorite time; dusk. we need to satisfy the monsters that have been roaring in our stomachs during these rigorous exercises in the name of paris exploring. that means time to eat. this time, let's follow rick steve's suggestion.(rick steve’s book of "best of europe 2010" helped us lot in most of the situations so i would like to take this brief moment to send my thanks to him)and eat at cafe du marche.
we take a look at the english menu. it's a menu for americans. everything seems so boring. like chicken, pasta etc. nothing that suggests a french culinary adventure and besides there are no prices listed. i guess they charge according to their bowel movements that day. let's hope that everything went smooth. Oo la la! so we skip it and wander around more looking for menus of different cafes. everything is french, we have no idea of what these foods might be. finally we go to “cafe central”, ready to settle until this menacing garson appears. he orders us to sit at a small, cramped two seat table. it makes sense since we are only two people but when i look around, i see all the french couples spread like american eagles in 4-seat tables. at where we sit, it's cold so i point to the menacing garson that we are moving to a warmer table, he yells again; “not to 4, to 2”. “ok rest assured dingle berry”, i say to myself, “2 it is.” so we move to a 2-seat table. but one of the french highness's purse is also enjoying the pleasant evening on one of our cramped 2-seat chair. so we kindly ask her to take her purse and gently shove it. she doesn't seem to like the idea at all.
the food that i am drown to is a two lined french food. the only words that make sense are salmon and baguette, so i dare ask the menacing garson who starts us by saying "YES". i ask what that 2 lined french food is, he goes salmon. i go “OK salmon but what? a baguette?, like a sandwich? and he insists on saying "no salmon". i say on plate? he says "yes on plate", yes but with what??? he goes “lettuce”. on top of his voluntary lack of information, add his rectum demeanor; that can only mean one thing in gulem’s book. “come on darling, we are not eating here”.
what blows me away is that this is rue cler: one of the most famous and touristic streets. there are billions of tourists in paris and let me tell you, paris ain’t cheap at all, especially for tourists. they milk you in any way they can. so a friendly advice to them would be at least show some respect to your bread providers.
ok i still have faith in french humanity; i want to believe in them. we scout out rue cler a little bit more and come to a small but cute crepes place. we are immediately greeted with friendly and smiling face welcoming us to the restaurant. the woman speaks french but we communicate just fine. we sit outside. another smiling, friendly man appears. maybe her husband or brother. it’s apparent that this is a family-run business. i order veggie crepe; feta, mozzarella, green peppers, tomatoes with mediterranean herbs and to wash it down; carafe of red wine. woowie, woovie, wooww. red wine; divine, crepes; divine. am i dreaming? we are on rue cler, sitting outside, dusk time, perfect weather, with divine wine and crepes, nice hosts, watching people pass by. And the prices are not expensive at all. embarrassed with earlier thoughts, i restore my faith in french again.
ohhhhh what’s that? hold onnnn. wait a minute. stop there. what do i see on that chalk panel written down? greek food? as soon as i see that, i hear them talk greek among themselves. woow. so they are not french after all. how very disappointing. they are warm blooded, fun-loving, hospitable greeks just like their arch nemesis; turks. i feel so comfortable and at home. we order a second carafe of wine and the greek guy gives us more wine on the house and charges us less than the money we owe. hey maybe french could learn a thing or two or nine from the hospitable greeks. (later we read that rick steves also suggested this place)
all right now the night time is upon us. time to take the glass boat trip. sliding through the seine river underneath the starry sky with soft french music in the background, i close my eyes and make a wish as we pass under the "make-a wish-bridge". What a day!
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