Two Americans in Paris, Day One

The last leg of our trip was spent in Paris --- 4 nights to be exact, which meant three whole days plus a half a day in ONE place. We didn't know what to do with ourselves. :)

We left Switzerland early Thursday morning and arrived at the Paris train station (one of 6 I believe) around 1:30 PM. The only way (or I should say only reasonable way) to reach our hotel was to take the Metro. While we had used public transportation plenty of times on our trip, for some reason the Paris Metro seemed daunting. Oh wait, that's because to the novice, non-French speaker it IS daunting. Even with the Rick, we had a tough time figuring it out. Finally things made sense, and once they did we realized the system is really quite simple. Good thing because we used it a lot.

It was crummy weather the afternoon we arrived, cloudy and chilly and sprinkly. We got off the Metro at "our" stop (Ecole Militaire) and rather easily found "our" street, Rue Cler. This was one of our favorite parts of Paris. It had several outdoor markets, a DELICIOUS bakery spot, and a handful of good cafes. Plus, it was only a 10 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower. We checked into our hotel, rode in the Starship Enterprise elevator (seriously, it beamed us up to our room) and then decided to go see Les Invalides, known to English speakers (and us) as Napoleon's Tomb and Army Museum.

The dome covering the building that houses the height-challenged emperor's remains is covered in gold, and quite imposing. His coffin seemed to be a purple-y color and it was massive. We also saw some of his personal effects, like a jacket, a hat, and several of the swords he actually carried in battle. Pretty cool. Then we toured just the WWI and WWII wings of the museum. Despite the fact that English explanations were limited, we both found this to be very interesting. The French, like the Dutch, fiercely resisted their Nazi occupiers. One of my favorite displays was a real taxi car --- one of 670 that were used in a single day to transport over 6,000 French troops to fight those Nazi SOB's. The museum also had a little bit on the Pacific Theater, where both of my grandfathers served.

After Invalides, we wanted to go to the gardens at the Rodin Museum to see the famous statue of The Thinker. We knew the museum would be closed, but that the gardens were supposed to be open. When Jason tried to buy tickets, they told us to get them from the machine. But the machine only accepted change, which we didn't have. This incredibly rude French woman wouldn't even acknowledge Jason, and finally another worker asked her to make change from his 10 Euro. The woman refused, and we walked home. A nice welcome to France.

For dinner, we ate at this little Chinese deli right across from our hotel. It was fast, easy and delicious. One dish we tried was chicken with caramel sauce, and Jason said it is the best Chinese food he's ever eaten. Thank goodness we're slowly discovering dishes he approves of, because I enjoy foreign cuisines! After our meal, we watched a little CNN in our room (we've been so out of the news loop) and went to bed.