This morning was excellent. Ryan once again slept soundly and woke up refreshed. I on the other hand have never had trouble sleeping my entire life but apparently I'm so excited to be in Paris that I've developed a sudden case of insomnia. That's okay though, we headed out early excited to start the day.
We stopped by an adorable "boulangerie" (bakery) for breakfast. I picked out a yummy looking pastry but almost threw up in my mouth when I read that it was called "escargots choc pistache". Being the terrible French invalid that I am I only recognized "escargot" and of course thought there were snails in the pastry. Luckily Ryan is intelligent and explained to me that there are no snails in the pastry but that "escargot" is referring to the shape (round like a snail). Boy was that NOT snail filled pastry delicious!
We decided to start with the Notre Dame today.
It was so neat! I was especially fascinated by all the gargoyles because I of course grew up watching the Hunch Back of Notre Dame and the gargoyles in that movie kinda freaked me out. They were pretty darn accurate I'm not gonna lie- pretty freaky in person too!
Remember yesterday how I complained about the stairs to our apartment? I'd like to take it all back now because after the NEVER ENDING STAIRCASES and I mean LITERALLY never ending at Notre Dame we practically flew up our apartment stairs. The stairs at Notre Dame are also extremely narrow. Ryan and I were both fortunate enough to be blessed with enormous feet so naturally we each tripped at least six times. I guess that is bound to happen when your feet are twice the length of the stairs!
Ryan- "Rachael, smile"
Rachael- (pant, gasp, pant, deep breath) okay! (pant, pant, gasp some more)
When we got to the top however, it was completely worth it! The view of Paris is beautiful. This really nice British man offered to take our photo. I think he is a photographer. He was very specific about our positioning in the photo! :)
I detected a theme of "tiny" at Notre Dame. The stairs are miniscule but you should see the door to the bell tower! We were already feeling bad about our enormous feet so naturally we started to feel a little insecure when we got to this door!
It's okay though because the door led us to...
wait for it...
THE BELL OF NOTRE DAME!!
After Notre Dame we decided to ride bikes to the Montearnasse. You know the phrase, "It's just like riding a bike. Once you got it, you got it forever." I'm sorry to burst your bubble but whoever originally said this is a LIAR!! I used to be able to ride a bike and now I'm a hazard to myself and others. It doesn't help that the drivers here are absurd. As bikers we had the great privilege of sharing our bike lane with buses. You know, because buses are so small like bikes and everything. I was trying to be big, bad, and brave but it was about the time that I was almost hit by a taxi who swerved into our lane to pass a car and nearly took me out in the process that I refused to bike any longer. I made Ryan put his bike away too and walk with me the rest of the way.
Me on my bike before my near death experience. Yes, I'm wearing a skirt. Just be glad I'm wearing leggings because it seems to be the norm with the French woman to wear dresses on bikes. Just dresses... no leggings...
It all worked out for the best with putting our bikes away and walking because we ended up having a new experience with toilets. Since neither Ryan or I are excited to step foot in the random toilet rooms located in the middle of sidewalks we decided to step into a mall to go to the bathroom. Turns out, if you want to use a not so scary toilet you have to pay money. We were so intrigued by this concept that we just had to pay the money so we could experience the "expensive" (50 cents each) toilet rooms!There were even people sitting at a desk right inside waiting to collect our money.
We eventually made it to the Montearnasse which is a super tall 56 floor building. We went to what we thought was the very top.
We enjoyed playing with our cameras!
We thought the view of the city from the top of Notre Dame was amazing but it was even more incredible from up here!
I especially loved the fact that we were safely inside a building protected by thick glass windows. Ryan of course found out that we were not in fact at the very top and that we could climb stairs that lead outside to the roof. I'm not gonna lie, the thought of going to the roof of a 56 story building with Ryan terrified me. The two of us together are not exactly the most lucky or coordinated team. However, since I made him put away his bike so he could no longer join in the fun of swerving around buses like cars, I decided it was only fair that I go to the top with him.
Don't worry mom, there was a wall of protective glass on the roof as well!
View from the roof!
By the time we got to the bottom, we were exhausted so we decided to WALK (not ride bikes) to the Jardin du Luxembourg because it was close and sounded beautiful and peaceful! It was all that and more! There were people everywhere, lounging in the grass, sitting on random chairs and benches, playing games, and simply relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day! We decided to take a seat and join in the fun!
Also at the beautiful place resides the palace where the senate meets!
I loved the adorable children sending their home made sailboats into this pond located in front of the senate palace!
Riding my bike!
Ryan with his bike!
This festival is legit! They even set up beach toilets!
It was a perfect evening until I ran into a wall.... it hurt... really really bad! Yes, we were just riding along on our bikes searching for a place to return them when I hit the wall full force. I hit it so hard that it knocked me clear off my bike. Ryan was ahead of me so he just kept rolling right along not aware that I just had a major collision. I called out, "Ryan, I just ran into a wall!!"He slammed on his brakes and turned around and said, "You WHAT?"I said in a sad tone, "It hurt real bad!" He just stared at me in disbelief and then said, "I'm sorry" although he was still trying to figure out how in the world I managed that!
Luckily, the collision stunned me but left no serious injuries. Just a small scratch near my elbow and a sad face!
It all got better though when we discovered that as a part of the festival, beach volleyball nets were set up near our apartment! Stay tuned because tomorrow I plan on joining in the fun and playing some beach volleyball with my new French friends that I haven't met yet!
You are such a great blogger! I loved reading about your adventures in Paris...I know what you mean about lots of steps--they do that to you in every church or cathedral you go to! So happy you are getting this time to travel!
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