Day Five in Paris

There were too many pictures that I wanted to post for today, so I only posted a few, and on Saturday I will be posting some more and some other random photos and a video too.

(Monday, March 16) What a great day! And so tiring, too. Today I chose fashion over comfort, and my feet are crying out in pain. I'm pretty sure we walked 100 miles today. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.

First, we stopped at the FNAC and I bought a cd that Sarah (the girl from Orem) told me about, of a french singer called Tété. She promised it was amazing, so I bought it even though I haven't heard any of the songs. Next we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and walked the 284 steps up to the top. I just love being able to see the entire skyline of Paris from there. And seeing all 12 roads leading out from l'étoile. Of course, I'm taking lots of pictures and having Staci take lots of pictures of me too. Then we took the metro way out to La Défense, which is on the westernmost side of town. It is the business district, and the metro station was also an RER station, a train station, a bus station, a tram station, and a taxi station. And it had a McDonald's, and all sorts of other stores. We went outside straight to the giant arche, which is a huge square (like the square is a skyscraper with offices inside of it), and I took more pictures. It is really funky, but it's a big part of the Paris skyline so I was excited to see it. Then I was sure there were some funky-cool statues in the area somewhere that were in the movie The Devil Wears Prada, so both Staci and I asked around to people to see if they knew where they were. They had no idea what we were talking about. So we walked around for a while, searching for this square of sculptures, and couldn't find it. But I did find a giant thumb sculpture, and a weird looking "thing" that kind of looked like a monster out of Beetlejuice. But we never found the thing I was looking for, so I was kind of bummed.

Next, we got back on the metro and decided to head east, straight to the other side of Paris, to go see a cool cemetery where Jim Morrison and some authors and other famous people are buried. (We were going to go to the Catacombs today too, but we found out they are closed on Mondays. It was going to be a morbid kind of day, but we didn't end up doing either the catacombs or the cemetery!) On the way to the cemetery, Staci mentioned that the George Pompidou center and the only LDS church in Paris are within a block of each other. So I spontaneously said, "Let's get off and go see them both!" So we got off the metro and went to the church. It happened to be open, so we went in and went to the bathroom. A clean church bathroom is way better than any old bathroom in Paris! I took pictures of the main hallway and the parking lot. (When you see pictures of the "parking lot", you'll laugh. Maybe 9 cars can fit in it.) It felt nice to be there though. The spirit was there.

Next, we walked across the street to the George Pompidou center. I wasn't actually interested in going inside; I just wanted to take a picture of the outside. It is a modern art museum, and the outside kind of looks like what the inside of the walls would look like - pipes and stairs and stuff with clear class walls. We started to walk away, and then I said, "You know, we didn't get to see the other side. Maybe it looks different." So we walked back and started to walk around it, and voilà! There was the funky-cool square of sculptures that I was SO SURE was in the business district! If you have seen the Devil Wears Prada, imagine the part where Andy is giving a scarf to the super model, (at least I think it is this part) or maybe it is raining or something and they are doing a photo shoot. And there are lips that shoot water out of them, and other crazy sculpture things in a pool of water. I'll have to go home and watch the movie again. Anyway, I was very excited. Except it is March, so they didn't have the water on. Too bad.

Right across from the square were four small cafés, and we chose one with "crêpes" in the name for lunch. I had the "menu," which means lunch special in French. I had a green salad (just lettuce, nothing else) with vinaigrette, a savory crêpe with ham, cheese and a sunny side up egg cooked and folded inside of it, and a buerre-sucre crêpe (butter/sugar) for dessert. The price also included a glass of cider, but I'm pretty sure it was alcoholic, so I asked for a glass of water instead. The waitress looked at me and said, "No cider? Do you want coffee at the end of your meal?" I said, "No, just water please." And she shrugged and walked away. Crazy Mormons. Anyway, it was delicious, and I ate every morsel. I would have licked the plate like I did with that yummy cheesecake a few weeks ago if I weren't in a fancy french café.

Then Staci told me that the Notre Dame cathedral was only a couple of blocks away, so we walked over to that. We had to cross the Seine River, and there is was. SO many tourists. Like, hundreds, maybe a thousand, just sitting in the square in front of the doors. I didn't feel like I needed to go inside since I had already been in it before, and since I went inside the Sacré Coeur just a couple of days ago. So I took lots of pictures on all sides, and then we went back to the metro to go pick up Elli and Xandi from school. We stopped at a magazine stand on the way so I could buy a couple of french magazines. Then we went to the Monoprix grocery store after picking up the girls to purchase a few things. Then I came home, ate a pot de crème (tastes like crème brulée without the hard, sugary top - YUM!), and put my feet up to write this blog post. And now I'm going to go listen to my French cd. For dinner we're having leftovers

- quiche lorraine, boeuf bourguignon, and crème brulée for dessert. With all this yummy food, I think I've died and gone to heaven. Have I said that yet? I may be repeating myself, but who cares? I'm enjoying every bite!

Looking down as I am walking up the stairs at the Arc de TriompheLa Tour Eiffel taken from the top of the arc

The street on the left - The Bois de Boulogne is at the end. The street on the right - The business district with la grande arche is at the end.

La tricolore

Me at the church!

La Grande Arche is an office building. That funky looking white thing in the middle helps cut down on wind.

A giant thumb! Near the arche.

Yay! I found the spot made famous in The Devil Wears Prada. Okay, maybe it's only famous to me, but I was very excited to find it. Too bad the water wasn't actually running. It looks kind of sad without the water spouting through the lips.Absolutely to die for crêpe. May I have another one? Please??Notre Dame. More cool pics of the other views of it on Saturday.