Next we went to Musée Rodin where a lot of the scultures were outside in a garden and aswell indoors.   Rodin had even owned some Van Gogh and Renoir paintings which were all in the museum.  It looked like most if not all of the works were donated by him a year before his death in 1917.

Lastly we headed towards La Cinémathèque Française in the 12th district.   During transit we realized there were a few metro stations that were under construction and we decided to hop onto the replacement bus route.  The transit company was well prepared as 2-4 buses were always in line ready.   When we reached Bercy we saw that the Cinémathèque was closed.  Luckily it was right beside a park where we found many small surprises such as a fountain, some international sculptures, a skateboard park and a little garden with a vineyard.

We headed home and bought some baguettes for dinner.  Everyone here buys baguettes and many of them eat them as-is while they’re walking…

This is a large building used to be a church, but is now a place where France’s great are entombed. The dome has been added upon over the years and actually contains 3 domes beneath the outer dome. Hanging from the centre of the dome is a pendulum which, in 1851, was used to demonstrate the rotation of the earth (and also can tell the time). In the crypt below the main level we saw Victor Hugo‘s tomb as well as Alexandre Dumas.

Next we moved on the the Louvre. We had no intention of trying to see all of this in one day so we kind of paced ourselves. I won’t bore you with all of the tiny details of moving around in here (it’s better to let the gallery below show you what we saw). Suffice to say at some points in the museum it was like being in a church. Other times it felt more like being at a rock concert.

Across the Seine is the Musee d’Orsay.  Pictures can be found below.   You can get pretty close to the paintings where you can see the brush strokes and the amount of paint layered on.  It was a more enjoyable experience than the Louvre, smaller crowds and more intimate.

We returned home after that. Rested our feet for a small bit and then went over to the grocery store for a few things for the next few days.

No plans as of yet for tomorrrow.

When we got off at Pigalle station we walked down some streets that although the district was supposed to be more upscale was full of small “Honest Ed” discount type stores and down another section many strip joints.

We walked up many flights of stairs to the top of one of the only two big hills in Paris.  Once reaching the top we went into the Sacre-Coeur church and was in awe of the architecture.   It was tempting to take pictures but inside photo/video-taking was not allowed.  Since it was on a hill we had a great view of the city — new header picture for our blog!

We found an easier way down and headed towards the main section of Montmartre.  We made a side track looking for a patteserie for Lily but it was closed as some things are during the holiday month.  Instead we happened upon the restaurant used in Amelie that you’ll see in the photo gallery below; it was called Cafe des 2 Moulins (“The Two Windmills”).  Also in that picture you can see a man in a green uniform, one of the many city custodians who noticed us taking the photos smiled at us and came over.  He explained to us other locations in the area used for the film and we tried to understand him.  All we really made out was “droite” (right) …. “gauche” (left) … “magasin” (store).  Needless to say we didn’t see any more Amelie locations but the area was picturesque.

Cimetiere de Montmartre  was our next destination.  We picked up a map and headed in.  The cemetery was ginormous.  Our picture cannot stress how big it is and we didn’t even see half of it. The next thing Mike noticed was cats love cemeteries.  Some of the graves we saw were film directors François Truffaut and Henri-Georges Clouzot.  Some of the sites were big, some of them you could step into and pay your respects and some were well-kept and some were marked as being unsafe.  The one thing that makes French cementeries unique is that they are non-secular.

We headed back into the main section of Montmartre and got some pictures of the Moulin Rouge – it was disappointing.

Back into the Metro and down to Parc Monceau known for being un-French like, not being symmetrical, using elements from varied cultures for it’s design (Roman, Chinese, Egyptian) and being occupied by little children with their nannies.

The last major stop of the day was the LaFayette Galleries and Printemps; two massive upscale department stores containing every imaginable thing from fresh gourmet foods like fish on ice, fresh made pâté to multitudes of boutique stores within the store like Cartier, Fendi, Louis Vuitton.

And back home again where we found out Glen and Cindy had a baby boy on August 16 and they named him Holden Hammond.  Congratulations to them!

The day started out late (as usual) with the goal of getting Navigo passes and learning the Metro system.  We figured out that not all stations have tellers that can sell you tickets and cards; there are automated machines where you can buy billets and recharge your cards though.  We ended up going to two other stations before finding someone who was able to get us the card.

— Mike would like to point out he woke up before me (Lily) again.

So, getting back to the story we bought two Navigo passes and the Metro agent helped cut our pictures (that we took in the picture booths found in many of the stations) and put together our card.  We thanked him and we headed out.  Mike’s card worked right away but mine did not.  After a few tries the same agent who sold us the cards gave me a ticket/billet to go through instead.   So as our first trip we went over to see the Eiffel Tower again. No wrong turns, it was an easy find.

The Eiffel Tower looked amazing and there were long lines at each leg of the tower particulary for the full elevator ride.  Mike and I took tons of pictures and walked by the Peace court and Ecole Miliitaire.  We headed back into transit system and once again my Navigo did not work.  Mike had mentioned earlier that he had got a Navigo pass and I only had an expensive souvenir.  I had hoped not!  I tried to explain to the teller in my best spontaneous French “Bonjour.  J’achete mon carte aujourd’hu mai ne pas functionale.”  He scanned it and said it was normal but nothing was on it!  I searched in my bag for my receipt and Mike’s and the agent saw the issue.  He said we were charged “twice” for the same ID card (as indicated on the receipt) and he couldn’t do anything about it.   Looking at the receipts there was nothing different about it, exact change, exact time and no receipt ID to indicate difference.  It fact it was the same receipt printed twice.  I bought a ticket + from the machine and we headed back to the station we bought our passes.  We went back to the original agent and although he didn’t remember us we showed him the two receipts and said we definately paid twice he charged-up my card.  Woo!  I did not just have an expensive souvenir!

We swung by the Pantheon steps and ate an apple tart and had a (cafe expresso) Noisette and headed out. We stayed awake until 8pm and decided we were going to catch an evening view of Eiffel Tower.  As the sun set the tower lit up in blue with search lights at the very top.  We headed towards Jardin du Trocadero for a better sight with all the many, many tourists.

We walked to the Tower again with the spotlights underneath and started back to the Metro.  We heard about something happening at 10pm and Michael David Harvie had forgotten that Lily told him to walk slowly so we could see if there were any fireworks ocurring at the top of the hour. We just lost sight of the bottom of the Eiffel Tower when suddenly it sparkled with series of twinkling lights – it looked better than we’re describing it.   Watch for the video!

That’s all for today.  No plans for tomorrow so we’ll see what happens.

We didn’t go on one of the extra large boats. We decided on a medium sized tour from Vadettes Pont Nuef.
The English gentleman in front of us fell asleep while his wife took pictures.  We got our first real view of the Eiffel Tower.  The intricacy of the design could only be valued in person and up close; those trinket souvenirs definitely don’t do it justice.

Just before we went on our tour we took another quick trip to Notre Dame to see our beloved, beheaded Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris.

Some of the things we saw along the tour were many bridges and sites along the Seine.

Afterwards we headed back to the apartment looking for some food and stumbled upon Sormani restauration rapide (45 rue Daubenton, just off of Mouffetard) for some pizza.

We also went to a famous cooking/utensil store, E. Dehillerin . The arrangement was really confusing for us first-timers with tight aisles and there was a very friendly sales agent who was able to help. If you wanted to know a product price you would get the product code and go over to their catalog.  If you wanted to buy something you would lay it out on this table where someone would create a bill of all your items (ie, look-up in the catalog and write down the price) and then you bring your items over to another counter to purchase it.  I got a cake pan with a big rose pattern on top.

We didn’t do a whole lot of sightseeing today (which is kind of odd, considering we were walking for six and a half hours). So rather than talk about things we saw today let’s look at some general things.
Paris doesn’t smell. Parisiennes are far from rude. They are courteous drivers. They seem to love bicyclists (there are 20,000 bikes for rent throughout the city, maintained by the city). They have proper bike lanes (that is, for both directions of bike traffic). This is a clean city (aside from the occasional spot of dog poo which I cannot understand). You can’t walk more than a 100 metres without coming to another garbage bin. Streets are cleaned throughout the day, as are the bins.
The city is blanketed in wi-fi (gratuit et payer).
We’ve taken to crossing the streets like the locals and taking the cross signals as suggestions and not rules.
I guess we looked confident enough that some other tourists asked us for directions (our cover was blown when we had to pull out our guide book).
Like I said, it was a slow down day for us today (we only averaged 60 or so pictures today, compared to our usual 300 or so from the previous days).
We had fast food for dinner today (Quick Burger) then a nap and then an evening stroll along Avenue des Gobelins.

We walked through the square of Hôtel de Ville (“city hall”) watched a couple young men make money with their inline skating tricks and found Paris Plages where the city of Paris creates a beach environment in a few spots across Paris.  People were sunbathing and enjoying the siene.. unfortunately we had no sunbathing suits to join in!  We did however have a croque monsieur and a sandwich American at Le Soleil D’or.  I (Lily) have been quite surprised at how well I’m enjoying the sharper cheeses.  I guess if you have the right ingredients it can definately be more than edible – yummy in fact!

After finding a closed Village Voice (English bookstore) due to the holidays we stumbled upon another gorgeous church with a super duper fountain.  St. Sulprice was partially under construction but still amazing.   Paris seemed to always be full of wonderful things to look at around every corner – I can see the reason if they are at all snobs in other countries, they would have high standards that’s for sure.

We went through Jardin du Luxembourg again through a different entry-way and it seemed like we missed so much.  We were trying to look for a hidden statue (that wasn’t even on their maps in the park) of Lady Liberty.  We didn’t find her but we’ll try again next week.  We took lots of pictures of the flowers while thinking of how much my Mom (Mrs. Vu) would truly enjoy Paris.

Ending the day going pass Pantheon and down the busy road of Mouffetard…