So I decided to take a walk all the way to Les Invalides and La Tour Eiffel. According to Google the walk was supposed to take 1.6 hours. Now there's a serious problem. None of the maps I have have my school or the area around it. In fact, all the maps don't dart till the Luxembourg Gardens on northwards. Do you know how much of Paris that actually skips? So I had to write down the directions in Google, but they didn't work anyways because Paris has magical street signs that come and go as they want. I swear Parisian drivers must have super-hero vision and crazy foresight to know where the hell they are going.
I set off a little after 11am and I basically fell off the directions almost right away. I passed through several outdoor markets and although I would have loved to pick up some stuff, I knew I had a long walk before me and that then was not a good time to get food. So I continued walking on and on and on, down some cute streets...although most of them were just...streets.
I passed by a creperie and sandwich shop that had a side window you could get quick crepes and sandwiches for cheap. I was't hungry but I really wanted to try something, yet I more so just wanted to find out where the heck I was. When you explore I guess you don't really need to have a destination, but just so I didn't get lost when I had no map of southern Paris I really needed to stay on track with my mental directions and while the sun was still obviously in the east. So no food for Alicia.
The first thing that tells me I am going in the right direction is when I hit Montparnasse Cemetery. I really liked it there. It wasn't this dull and gloomy thing cemeteries are in the US. There were beautifully tree-lined streets, all the graves were above ground (kinda creepy), and everything was huge and pretty. I felt really relaxed here and didn't feel bad about bringing out a map amongst the graves so I could see if I could finally see myself and where I was on the map. No luck. Luckily I remembered once looking at a separate map and seeing the cemetery somewhat north of my school, so I was feeling pretty confident of where I was going.
I must have done a huge circle somewhere because after what I thought was the west side of Invalides, after I passed it and walked some more I came to the south of Invalides...or maybe this one wasn't Invalides...I have no idea what it was. Both buildings were huge and kind of dome-y, yet there's only one of those on the map...but they looked different...so I don't know. I think I went crazy.
I didn't see the Eiffel Tower until I was right on top of it. I had gone mostly north and then east, and all the while I couldn't see the tower but just guessed where it was (you'd think you could see such a big thing from anywhere, but that isn't so!).
Prior to this my camera ran out of batteries so I had to go into a souvenir shop to buy some (I had not walked all this way not to take pictures). The batteries literally lasted me for about 15 photos and then died. They were expensive too. Oh well. Lack of batteries also led to me having no pictures of the second domed building I saw and the park I sat a bit in.
So the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, I wasn't *that* impressed. I mean, it was impressive. But I think there's too much hulabaloo about it. I liked it for the fact of having previously read 'Devil in the White City' and thus basically for the architectural brilliance of it all. Maybe I'll be awed more when I see it at night. It was cool though.
So then, while I was trying to make my way to the RER stop (walking to the Eiffel Tower had taken me about 3 hours and I wasn't about to walk back), I was somehow silly enough to cross Pont D'Iena (bridge), which was not in the direction in which I was supposed to go. This led me to the Palais de Chaillot and the Jardins du Trocadero. The fountains there were pretty darn cool. I walked on a bit but then realized I was going the wrong way, so I had to walk all the way back to the bridge, where instead of heading to the closer RER stop in the east I walked even further to the RER stop in the west. Don't ask.
While on the bridge I passed by someone dressed as an Egyptian coffin...at least that was my take on it. They had the golden mask and then a gold cloth draped tightly all around them...and they weren't moving at all. That must have been ungodly uncomfortable, but it was interesting. (Dedicated to you, Adam!!!!)
Now, I was kind of dreading this whole RER thing because I had to transfer trains and what not. I'm sorry, but Paris does not make things easy for anyone to get around. Yes, they have a fantastic transportation system and lots of bikes you can rent (I just found this out today and I am hopefully going to rent one on one of my next excursions). Yet their roads go everywhere, their street signs are hard to spot, and their transportation system map looks like a coloring book gone wrong. Yet, I made it without any problems. My ticket to exit even worked!
My day wasn't done yet. I started walking in the same direction from the RER as I had done earlier in the day, but realized the super market, if open, would be in the other direction. I doubted that it would be open, but I had seen another one opened somewhere else earlier in the day and I hoped this one would be too. Wrong.
So I just walked, trying to keep my turns in my mind. I went into a bread store but didn't know how to order so just walked out, haha. I went inside a small market store but things were really expensive, so I continued walking until I found a much better store, called Casino. I got some brie cheese (this is the second time I have had brie and I am still not a big fan), salami, and peaches. The owners were really nice...well at least the guy was. I figured I would buy more things when I go to a cheap and fresh outdoor market in the future.
I finally found my way back to the bread store because I couldn't find my way around, and although I felt embarrassed and my pronunciation was awful, I got some bread to go along with my brie and salami.
Meanwhile, this whole time, through all of these hours, my mouth and throat are dying of thirst. I almost fell for a high-priced ice cream cone at the Eiffel Tower. Yet the whole time I persuaded myself that I could stand my dry and dying mouth and throat so as to save myself more than 2 euros for a bottle of water I would get stuck carrying around.
So finally, at 6pm, about 7 hours after I left, I finally get home. I quench my thirst with glass upon glass of water and have two pieces of bread with brie and salami. Yums. Maybe I'm not a fan of brie, but everything else tastes great and makes the brie taste rather good.
I think it's time to relax now and maybe get an early night's sleep for school tomorrow.
P.S. I have a theory about Paris. They put a chemical in the air that makes everyone want to drink wine and coffee all the time and which also makes them immune to hunger...except that is when the chemical wants them to all go out and buy a baguette.
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