Paris: Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, & Champs-Élysées

On the way to CDG to figure out what happened to my baggage, I was sitting in a seat against one of the ends of the metro car. As we jostled along the tracks, the doors next to me suddenly slid open, and I jumped up from my seat. I hadn't even realized you could go from car to car. An elderly woman who looked like someone's grandma walked through grasping a bunch of little papers in her hand, set one of the papers down on the seat next to me, then proceeded to walk through the entire car, placing them next to everyone there. I picked the paper up, and stared at something handwritten in French. I could barely make out the cursive, let alone the French. All I could tell was that it said "I am 64 years old," at the beginning, and "Have a good trip," at the end. I was planning on keeping it and asking a friend to interpret it for me, but as I was about to stick it in my purse, the old lady came back through and collected them all. It's still a mystery to me what she was doing.

Several minutes later, two young men came through the same doors. I was on my phone, trying to listen to a message. Disregarding this fact, they pretty much cornered me. One sat across from me, the other right next to me, and began talking to me in French. One of them was holding a big accordion. I pointed to the phone and tried to look angry, but I was more confused. They didn't leave, and just kept looking at me, waiting, so I said, "Je ne parle pas français" (a very contradictory statement, in my opinion; saying you don't speak any French in French). They said something else, but finally got up and moved down the car. When the metro finally stopped, they clambered out, one of them saying something I didn't understand and blowing me a kiss, the other one stopping to try one more time: "Ca va?" he asked me. From somewhere in my childhood, I pulled out a "Ca va bien. Au revoir, monsieur," in a haughty, get-out-of-here already tone, surprising even myself.

Yesterday, Liz and I woke up at around 7AM to go to the Tour Eiffel. We were freezing, but we made it fifteen minutes before it opened--worth it, as there was already a decent line formed that only grew as the day went on. We went up to the "second level" since the top wasn't open. Still a lovely view!

After that, we toured Notre Dame, and forgot to take a picture looking like Quasimodo outside.

Then we walked down Champs-Élysées, shopping central. Since everything was pricey, we hopped onto a side street and, for our first meal out in Paris, had Chinese food. It was delicious and filling and apparently they don't tip in Europe. We continued our walk, satisfied. At the end of the street was the Arc de Triomphe, a huge monument with a traffic rotary around it. You could pay to go up to the top, but we're doing Paris on the cheap…looks nice enough from the ground.

More to come!