Day 24

Turns out that the Artist’s Square was also close to our apartment so since we had an artist amongst us, we just had to have a look. For me, it was alright. Just another square with lots of art. We lost Sandra for a little while too – she had decided to walk around the square without telling anybody (apparently she told me but I didn’t hear her). And we thought that was going to happen in China.

A little further past the Artist’s Square was the Sacre Coeur (famous church). This place was pretty cool. Out the front, it also had an awesome view of the city.

Outside the church we started to get a feel for the scams/begging that were common in France. Every city seemed to have a different flavour. You know they are, because you see them again and again at different tourist attractions. France had the following:

• The woman comes up to you with a head scarf, and says ‘Do you speak English’. Tourist says ‘yes’ (to hich I did). She shows you a note saying they just migrated from country X, and needs money <PUTS ON SAD FACE>.
• Dude comes up to you with string, and unless you are quick enough, starts tying it on your fingers. They never managed it with us, so we can’t say what eventuated from this one.

Keeping with the theme of famous churches, our next stop was the Notre Dame. We took the Paris Metro stop closest and headed further into the city. The line at Notre Dame wasn’t too bad and we got in relatively quick. This place was awesome. The most impressive one we’ve seen so far. The ones in London could have been better but since I didn’t want to take out another mortgage to look inside, I’ll never know. Maybe one day when I’m old I’ll be happy to pay 17 pounds to go into a church.

We then walked across the Seine and got some drinks at a french cafe. Expensive (it is Paris), but really nice atmosphere. We then walked along the waterfront to the Louvre. 

The line here was nuts, so we decided to do it tomorrow instead and just go for a small walk down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. I made a new friend along the way although I don't think he appreciated my jokes.

The Champs Elysees is a busy street (as said by Art vs Science), as well as long. It took us a couple of hours to get down it. This did include a food break and the most expensive toilet stop so far (2 Euros each). Apparently the women’s toilets were awesome but I certainly didn’t see my 2 Euros worth.

The Arc de Triomphe was pretty cool. Massive monument in the middle of a massive roundabout. As recommended by all travel websites, we didn’t cross the roundabout via the road, as french drivers are crazy. Luckily there is an underpass but it took us a little while to find it as there were some street performers performing right in front of it which meant that there as a huge crowd in front of it so we couldn’t see it.

The Arc itself was awesome. They also had a ceremony on as well. This was both good and bad. Good because we got to see something new. Bad because it prevented us from standing at the front and underneath.

After such an epic walk it was home time. However, a subway accident made this more difficult. Finding out that it was a subway accident was a little harder. From our point of view, we all got on the train, heard a voice over the PA say something in French and then saw everyone who could speak French get off the train again while the rest of us looked at each other with question marks above our heads. When this happened again with the next train, we found an attendant who could speak English and got them to tell us what was going on. By the way, for all those with in iPhone, the MetrO app is useful for dealing with subways in other countries.

On our way home, we stopped by the supermarket to pick up some grub and also stopped off at the Moulin Rouge to see if they had any tickets available while we were there. It turned out that every tourist and his dog wants to see this show (even though it’s 80 Euro minimum each) and they were booked out for a month. Next time!