The crew slept in a bit this morning since everyone was so tired from yesterday. We set out to find breakfast and pretty quickly came to the realization that some French bistros charge you some 15-25% more for food if you are American or speak English (maybe they forgot, but there's a little thing called D-day...one serving of 'freedom fries' please).
After some food from a local bakery; we made our way to Notre Dame. Built in 1163 A.D. from limestone of the Paris quarries (which would later be converted into the catacombs) in accordance with the Gothic architecture of the time period. To describe the grandeur of this building in words is beyond my literary abilities. The choir was practicing in union with the 1,800 pipe organ....the acoustics were surreal. During WWII, all of the individual stained glass pieces were removed from their settings for fear the Germans' air raids would blow out the windows, or worse, destroy the building itself (fortunately none of this happened).
Rain started falling while we were inside the church, but we humped it to the Pantheon of Paris which was roughly a mile and a half away. The entry fee here was 5.50Euro with a student discount. In 1744, King Louis XV recovered from a serious illness and attributed it to prayers made to Saint Genevieve and pledged to dedicate a prestigious church to her name. The building was completed in 1797 and turned into a national Pantheon some years later. The huge edifice was home to Christian worship until finally being converted over for secular use in 1885 as a temple to house the remains of the nation's great leaders.
Following the Pantheon we headed across the city to the Catacombes of Paris. Unfortunately we got there 15 minutes after they closed.
As disappointing as this was, we decided we were rested enough to attempt the climb to the top of the Eiffel tower -- however, as luck would have it, the 3rd platform of the tower is only open durring the tourist months (which apparently doesn't open until late February). Long story short, we opted to save 8Euro and climb it when we come back in later months.
The evening ended with us grabbing some cheap food and returning to the hostel for some much needed rest (the sheer amount of walking we endured was a feat in itself).
Back at the hostel the group parted ways; Charlie and I made our war down to the lounge and met a group of Australians traveling abroad for the month of January. They were seated in a large roundabout booth with two Canadians we had met the previous night (Connor & Jeff). The conversation wandered for half an hour or so until we were joined by a male Russian named John who was also traveling abroad for the month of January. He soon enlightened us that he was an international politics major which of course sparked a thousand questions I wanted him to answer. A few drinks later and we were in a pretty fierce (but friendly) debate over world politics. An hour or so went by, and we ultimately decided to call it a night but not before I'd gotten a pretty in depth view on how Russians view Americans their international position.
I was ready for sleep at this point, as was Charlie. We still had entire day in Paris before us, no need to be overly tired from the get go.
Author's Note: Keep checking back as I recount my 3 days in Paris.
All good; all the time,
Thomas
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