Our final day in Paris began with a frustrating trip to Gare du Nord - one of the six large SNCF train stations. We had heard of these 12-25 youth passes, which can save you a lot of money on longer train rides throughout Europe. With all the traveling we anticipated, we thought it'd be a good idea to purchase the pass...plus, we needed to get our tickets to Angouleme still! So, we head off to the station, gearing ourselves up for a potentially stressful event. Yup. We were right. Haha.
First of all, the station was HUGE! Multi-leveled and no telling which way is up or down. In order to get the pass, you need a wallet-sized photo. So, we hopped in one of the photo booths that served this purpose & spent forever trying to figure out the process. Our first booth appeared to be broken, so we hopped to another one. Rach finally got it to work, but when her picture popped out we realized it was WAY too big - - more like a portrait for the grandparents or something. lol. So she lost about 5€ on that one and had to do it over again. It was a good laugh, though, and will make a nice souvenir :)
So then it was my turn...should be easy, right? Well only if your coin slot doesn't suddenly get stuck, so I lost about 2.50€ on that. On to the third photo booth. Success!
Laughing, we went found our way upstairs to the ticket line...which we stood in for about 30 mins or so. With just a couple people left in front of us, I suddenly froze internally and then turned to Rach and asked, "Do you think we need our passports??!" Big eyes. Oh wow...we really hoped not! We had left them in a safe place back at the hotel when we first arrived & didn't even think about it that morning. Well, thankfully, 30 minutes later we were walking away with our 12-25s and tickets to Angouleme. Hurray! We felt accomplished. Beatrice, our attendant, was very helpful and spoke fairly good English, so we were grateful.
Thankful to leave the station, we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe via the metro to Victor Hugo Ave. The neighborhood we found ourselves in was extremely well-to-do, lined with gorgeous shops and gated homes. At one point we concluded that people living in this area probably spend more in a day than we would the whole month! It was a fun place for window shopping though.
Once we made it down the lane, we came upon the busiest traffic circle in all of France... sporting 12 boulevards shooting out from the round-about. The Arc seems to stand with great power and confidence, as it's grounded in the center of this star-shaped traffic route. Before we could take it all in, though, we stopped at a cafe for a light lunch. While sitting there, a group of what we presumed to be veterans entered the restaurant in their military uniforms, medals and all. It was actually quite touching.
As walking across the street would be suicide, we went through the underground tunnel to reach the Arc. This icon of the French Republic was really amazing with the intricate carvings and gigantic statues on the pillars. It's possible to go to the top and see what I'm sure is a fantastic view down Champs Elysees to the Louvre, but the line was too long; we walked around for photos and just sat for a while to take it all in. The Arc itself is honors those who lost their lives in the French Revolution and Napoleanic Wars; there is also the tomb of the unknown soldier for WWI, which was quite moving with the flame burning and the bouquet of flowers.
Our next item on the agenda was going to be Mont Martre, where we thought we could spend the rest of the day and evening. Sadly, Rach's back was really hurting and we decided to split ways for the first time. OH, first, though, we took a metro back to the Notre Dame area to get tickets for the night-time boat tour. We tried to find the parking garage that BikeAbout calls home (they were offereing cheaper tickets for the boat ride) ...but after wandering and wandering, we stopped and just stared at the river. HAHA. I'm sure this is a more common sight among tourists than we think, but we were just so tired and didn't even know what we wanted. Eventually, we decided that Rach would sit by the cathedral while I went off to get the boat tickets (which was just a couple bridges over).
Once upon Point Neuf, I walk down to the river bank and tried to decipher which ride we wanted. Thankfully, a Californian couple (Jessica and Chris) walked up at the same time and we helped each other out. I had my little travel book showed them which one in particular I wanted, so we worked together to find the right station. We had to cross the bridge half-way & then walk down a hidden flight of stairs. Jessica had lived in Thailand for a while, so she had some good info about the country. Well, I finally got the tickets and walked back to Rach. She was so cute - sitting at the base of the Charlemagne statue, flower-patterned dress & lucky hat, surrounded by pigeons, journaling. Modern-day Mary Poppins scene or something :)
Rach went back to the hotel and I found my way to Montmartre. Well, I really don't want to go in to the details of getting there, but let's just say I was really grateful to finally be sitting in the gorgeous Sacre Coeur!! The hill it sits on has been a center of religious activity for centuries, and this church was built just after the loss of the Franco-Prussian War. Prayers for humanity have been going up from this church 24/7 ever since then. I wrote a prayer in the guest book for France before I walked out. The church is also extremely pristine; it's made from some kind of chalky substance that washed itself when it rains.
On the long, steep walk up to the top, I was cornered by someone making bracelets...so I now have a "Hakuna Matata" bracelet as an unexpected momentum. lol. Since I was under a time crunch to get back for the boat tour, I pretty much ran down the hill and frantically looked for the right metro line. I would NOT have made it back in time if it weren't for the kindness of Xavier and Cammie - two Parisians who were kind enough to strategize my metro route and take me to the right station. Once back in sight of Point Neuf, I literally ran in my little pink flats down the long road, dashing in and out of the other pedestrians. Rach was there, getting worried and trying to lose a guy who seemed interested in her, so she was extremely happy to see me running towards her, just 5 mins before the boat was to leave! LOL. So funny.
We were so glad to have made the boat - completely worth the ticket stress and running!!!
Well, I'm off to make broccoli braid for Sandy and Roger (hopefully they like it!) on our last night here, so I'll have to write about the rest of our evening later!
No comments:
Post a Comment