Paris - Day 2

Tonight (Friday May 15th) I'm sitting in the hallway trying to recall everything that happened yesterday. As a beginning disclaimer, I'd like to apologize for the quality of the photos in this blog. You must know, I'm no photographer and along with that, most of my pictures are taken quickly as we walk between destinations. Being in a group of 17 doesn't allow for much waiting on sightseers and pictures, which is definitely a huge downfall. 

I also apologize for being a day behind as I write. Trying to blend with the French doesn't allow for much blogging time. Sure, they walk fast, but they only arrive places more quickly to allow for more time to get to the next place. The struggle is real boys and girls. I honestly think I've forgotten how to feel pain in my feet because they're just numb. 

Anyway, Paris day 2, which was yesterday (Thursday)...

After being awake for so long as mentioned on day 1, I slept from around 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. This I believe is because of the jet lag; it felt more like an afternoon nap. Katie and I were up for about 30 minutes, and then I fell back asleep until my alarm went off at 8:30 a.m. which was nice. However, I woke up with the continual headache. I feel like I've been living on Ibuprofen: totally not good for my liver. We left the hotel at 10:15 after a breakfast of yogurt, fresh orange juice, a hard boiled egg, and toast with jelly. We walked to the nearest underground metro stop, then transferred to the underground  railway, which took us to east Paris where we met Dr. Stebbin's friends, Philłipe send Harriet. Phillipe is a retired French banker, and Harriet is an American who moved her life to France and never returned after meeting Phillipe. They talked with us about French culture and doing business in France. 

We spent this time in their beautiful, but small apartment. I loved Harriet's advice and insights about France and the French people from an American's perspective, although she has dual citizenship since they've been married 42 years. She's actually written 3 novels on the French and their way of life. 

One thing I learned from them is that the French care little about money and wealth. They receive up to 8 weeks vacation per year and only work an average of 35 hours per week because they desire more leisure and family time than money. Even so, they are the 3rd highest productive country in the world. 

Phillipe and Harriet are very wealthy, but because that is looked down upon in France, they don't flaunt it, which is why they live in a small, urban apartment. However, they also own a castle, which I wish I could show you, but that photo is on my phone and I'm currently on the iPad. 

After talking with them, Phillipe and Harriet took us to lunch at a local restaurant where we had couscous, an Argentina/French dish that's a favorite in the area. We also tried Rousa (sp?) wine, which was very strong. I didn't care for it much. The lunch dish consisted of lamb, chicken, cooked vegetables and the couscous noodles that were more the texture of grits. It's customary to put tomato sauce on the dish. After trying a little bit of each part, I decided I didn't care for it much, but ate a decent fraction of the meal. We also got fresh fruit cups for dessert. 

After lunch, we visited the Père Lachaise Cemetery, which was beautiful, even though the weather didn't hold up and we all got pretty wet in the rain. Phillipe took us through showing us the most important sights, like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Gerald Stein. He also told us stories about them and some other ones, like how all the girls kiss Wilde's grave with lipstick and how another stone is known for being lucky for women who want to be fertile, so they rub his gentiles in hopes of having children. They rub it enough to have to replace that part of the stone every 20 years. 

After the visit, we came back to the hotel to freshen up from the rain, then headed out to see the Notre Dame and the Latin Quarters. 

One thing worth mentioning here is that although Paris is very romantic and a beautiful city with beautiful buildings, it also has other aspects I didn't expect at all. The city is very dirty, and this may be just our location or us being cheap and riding public underground transportation, but that's pretty customary here. There's lots of trash on the ground never picked up, and graffiti in amounts you couldn't imagine. Homeless people roam the tourist attractions and metro stop areas for money and change, begging often. Some play accordions or other instruments for money. I just expected everything to be picturesque and perfect, like the romantic place I'd always heard of. Don't get me wrong, couples still make out in the streets and PDA isn't a term they use because it's normal. However, it saddens my heart to see the filth and suffering in those aspects you don't see on TV. 

When we arrived at the Notre Dame, it was closed for tours for the evening, but we went through the local bread festival and took lots of pictures. I plan to go through the Notre Dame tomorrow evening. We also saw many street vendors and found Shakespeare and Company, which was also closed, but I went back today. Shakespeare and Company has an amazing story behind it. After walking through the vendors and food choices in the Latin Quarters, several group members randomly chose to eat at a Greek restaurant. I had no clue what to do; nothing looked edible to me. There was some salmon that I really wanted to try, but after other members' previous experiences getting it raw at other restaurants, I decided against it. I ordered a chicken pita, to which the waiter came back and said they didn't have any chicken available. So, God working as usual, I changed my order back to the salmon. When it came, it was delicious. A baked potato and some lemon rice were its sides. It was grilled perfectly. Definitely my favorite meal I'd had thus far. I also tried some Greek baguette spreads as an appetizer, which were different, but okay. I liked the cucumber cream one. 

Notre Dame 

Dinner in a group is always tricky because they don't split checks or give change for big bills to help us split, so we have to figure the math and owe each other sometimes. 

After dinner, we watched some guys dancing, what looked like break dancing, to some exciting music in the streets. Then, a few of us headed back to the hotel. I didn't get much time to talk to my family because we got back around 11 p.m. and the wifi wasn't working well, but that's okay. I'm struggling with being here and the time barrier as well as communication issues. It's definitely not easy, but it's an experience and I can say I did it. 

Until tomorrow, au revoir friends. 

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