I got to spend 2 full days in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday. I explored, I met such awesome people (even I am impressed with my luck), and I walked a lot.
My first day I met up with my German friend. Well met up almost more than an hour late, thanks to my awesome not-so-french parking skills. Heres the gist: I arrived at the parking lot of the train station only to see that it is extremely packed. Like if you try to venture inside you'll probably be bumping cars. Parking lines don't mean anything in France, people will park everywhere, including the curb, and in the middle of the parking lot - like actually they make an extra row in between the designed parking on the sides. So I gave up on my dream of bumper to bumper parallel parking and decided to park on the street (along with some other wise drivers). Turns out we were all not so wise, as at the end of the day all of us had parking tickets...
Anyways so I missed the train, but fortunately was able to hunt down my friend. We visited the Saint Chapelle first, which is a church, and then we ventured into a legislature building that wasn't a touristy area at all, there were people working and security everywhere. So we left pretty quickly realizing how much we stand out in our casual clothes and most of the workers wearing robes and suites.
My friend then had to leave to pick up her kids, while I decided to go to Montmartre to visit the Sacre Coeur. Little did I know that this area of Paris is a "preferably-dont-be-alone-in", so I got harassed by a group of guys right before going up the stairs of the Sacre Coeur. Even worst, today I saw a news article saying that on Wednesday a police officer was attacked by these scammers who stand outside of Sacre Coeur! Some people can just go fuck themselves. So anyways after being groped by one of these guys, my mood wasn't necessarily in a great touristy, explory mood, but I made it all the way here so I forced myself to explore the church. I am glad I did. I met a friendly 50-year-old New Yorker travel who was very nice to me, and we talked about some other nice places in Paris and about his travels. I bet he didn't get fondled by the fucking pigs.
The next day I went back to Paris to meet another au pair. Fortunately for me he has been in France for longer than I, and he speaks french.
Our first, and impressive, stop was the Abercrombie and Fitch at the Champs-Elysees (forget the accents). First you walk through this huge golden gate, into a hedge maze. Then as you approach the store there this half naked "model" whom you can take pictures with. Then once you enter the store it is dark, except for the lights above the merchandise and everything looks gold. Don't forget the perfume they spray through the vent system.
Continuing down the road we saw a street performer....
And then climbed the Arche de Triumphe.
And then climbed up the Notre Dam. I pretty much got my exercise for the week climbing all these stairs and walking around Paris.
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