Day 83: Our First Day In Paris

Day 83: Our First Day In Paris

Word of the day: ночь [noch']: night

Day 83, the 4th of July! This was our first day and my first time ever being in Paris, the city of love. Max has already experienced the beauties of the city and knew his way around some French cuisine. So, he was able to take me to a little sandwich shop that he had gone to while in Paris a few years back. Ironically, the same lady was still running the shop.

The shop is just right across the bridge! :)

The lady running the shop is the one the arrow is pointing to. Excuse my whiteness, which seems to be extreme, but is really only due to the flash ;)

I spy Notre Dame in the distance!

Notre Dame

Statue of Charlemagne

This is the tomb of Count Claude Henri d'Harcourt. It looks like the dead person is almost falling out of the tomb. On the far right, death is standing over him with an hourglass in his hand. However, on the far left, there is an angel resting on the coffin. I thought that this was very interesting because it carries a lot of symbolism. It made me think of the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. 

After leaving Notre Dame, we saw this guy playing the accordion! So cool!

Exploring the streets of Paris together!

Behind us is the Palais Garnier, which is a world famous opera house in Paris. They mainly only use the opera house for ballet now. (Wikipedia) Below is a better picture of the actual Opera House. 

This is the Hôtel de Ville. I know that you are probably thinking that this is just a fancy hotel, but that is wrong. It is actually just a large venue that hosts various events.

We thought that this was funny mainly because on the bottom of the shoe it says, "Relax." Great advice.

A cute little garden shop that I fell in love with as we passed by!

I have a Marilyn Monroe on my hands! Why not stand over a huge vent with air blowing out of it?!

Walking to the Louvre

The Louvre Pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre Palace!

Max spotted his Russian professor, Raissa Vulfovna Solovyova, in the crowd of people and I caught the moment! She has an apartment in Paris and visits during summer break. What a small world!

We set up the camera on a timer to take a picture and document the moment, but this guy walked right in front of the camera as it took the picture despite our attempts to get his attention. So, he offered to take another picture and it turned out great! :)

We had a great conversation about attending a university in Moscow and what that would entail. It was pretty interesting and she had some great insights that I will keep in mind for the future! :) 

After leaving the Louvre, we saw this guy working on some amazing street art. I honestly could have watched all day long, but...

...then I became distracted by some insanely large bubbles. I remember making these bubble makers in one of my elementary school classes at BYU in Provo. Such a fun day! I am totally a kid at heart if you couldn't already tell.

I spy Max! 

After being mesmerized by all of the things happening around us, we decided to walk around some more and explore other areas of Paris. On our walk, we saw a Swatch store and decided to go in. It was a really neat store because it had this little arched hallway with shadow boxes displaying the different watches. I fell in love with one of the watches and Max was kind enough to buy it for me. :) I am spoiled. 

After leaving the Swatch store, we headed towards a park that we saw in the distance and sat down to give our feet a break from walking. Max took advantage of this time and studied up on his French. I, on the other hand, studied up on my new watch and admired its beauty. In the distance we also heard some screaming coming from a little amusement park. It was kind of humorous to watch the people being flung around on the ride. 

Then after leaving the park, Max had a vision for an awesome picture...

Very awesome indeed ;)

So beautiful! What a great view!

This statue was dedicated to King Albert I of Belgium (King during WWI)

This is the Petit Palais, which is an art museum. 

These guys looked intense. They had pads and protection from head to toe. They kind of looked like super heroes haha Also, the people next to them look Russian based on how they are dressed. 

Next, we visited the Arc de Triomphe!

The Arc de Triomphe, Paris! This monument is in honor of those who died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. There are names of the French victories and generals written on the Arc (Wikipedia). While we were there, we saw a bunch of boy scouts. 

After visiting the Arc de Triomphe, we walked down the Avenue des Chaps-Élysées, which is where the famous Louis Vuitton store is located and also...a Toyota store! haha 

Pretty sweet electric Toyota 

Gold dinosaurs eating $3,000+ purses...hmmm interesting! haha 

 Since we knew we obviously could not afford a Louis Vuitton, we did not even go in and venture into that dangerous store. However, looking back, it would have been fun to go in and check it out. Next time... ;) We were also sort of on a time crunch because we were meeting Augusto, Marisa's (Max's cousin) friend, for dinner. So, we headed in the direction to meet up with him. Since we were hungry and knew it was going to be a long walk, we decided to pick up a few crapes filled with chocolate to tide us over. They were delicious and over priced of course! ;)

Oh look! A wellness center! hahaha just kidding ;)  

Spanish Embassy! Max felt right at home! :)

So on our way to meet up with Augusto we got lost. We thought we knew where we were going...well actually, I had no idea, I was just following Max. So, really, Max thought he knew where we were going, but after walking for quite some time, we concluded that we were lost. Since we did not have cell phone service we tried to look for a place with free wifi. Where is McDonalds when you  really need it?! haha Eventually we gave up and waved down a taxi (our second one since arriving in Paris. We have literally walked the streets of Paris haha. It has been great though!). Turns out we were actually quite close to our destination! Of course! When we were dropped off, we found some wifi and got ahold of Augusto. After we met up, he lead the way to a little quant parisian restaurant. Max had some duck since it is a delicacy there and I played it safe with a salad.  

Max's dish of duck

My fancy salad 

(From Left) Augusto, Me, and Max

After dinner, we went for a walk together. I think that one of my favorite things about Europe in general is that you walk everywhere. When you walk more, you are able to pay better attention to everything around you, like the different sights and smells. It is just a different experience. Augusto wanted to show us a church that was really old. I cannot remember how old he said, but he made a big enough deal about it that it had to have been old. 

I also remember him saying that the door was the oldest part of the church. So we took a picture, but every picture that Augusto took was blurry haha! So here is the best one...

Afterwards, we walked back towards the Louvre. To me, everything was even prettier at night! It was fun to see all of the lights and the Louvre pyramid shining brightly in the night. 

Macaron galore! 

There was a little art gallery that we passed by as we were walking. When I looked in the window, this is what I saw...Very interesting! They must think we are gun crazy here in America. We love our second amendment!   

The Eiffel Tower shining round and round in the distance.

I liked this guy's car! 

A sneak peak of what is inside this huge museum

After walking around for a while we called it a night and went our separate ways. By the time we got home we were exhausted and ready for a bed. What a great first day in Paris.