It has been a few days since my last entry.
A few amazing days.
Yesterday, to start my day I went running in the Luxembourg Gardins, just down the street from the Pantheon. It was just starting to rain, and I was just running among the last part of the morning commuters. The run felt really good, seeing as how I was in pretty good shape before traveling and then I didn't run for a week and a half. Yuck. But funny story, I was wearing dark blue shorts and a dark blue t-shirt. As I just turned into the gardens there were more runners than the first day, wearing a similar outfit. I continued on my run, and did a lap (equivalent of just under a mile) when I passed a running group. They were all wearing dark blue and thought I was one of them! They tried to flag me down as I ran past, thinking I was running astray. Little did they know I was just an American on a run. It was pretty funny once they realized I was definitely not part of their group.
I got back to the apartment and Ila and I got ready to go to Versailles. We planned to meet Claire, one of the frenchies from Chicago, at the Palace and then go back to her house. When we got to V, it was raining but the tour buses were all packed in. It was a 3 hour wait to buy tickets and then get into the palace. We opted instead to walk around the gardens, which were open but I'm sure not a lot of people knew about. It was just as I remembered it and we had a great stroll through the wide boulevards. We took some pictures to inspire Ellwyn's garden at home.
After that, we were all so cold that we grabbed sandwiches from a local Boulangerie and headed over to Claire's house. It was over 100 years old, so it counts as culture if we see it. We ate and then took a little tour of the house. We were sitting on Claire's bed, reading previous entries to the blog when Ila and I decided to take a little nap. Apparently I was really tired because I passed out for a few hours. I woke up and we had a little tea and then headed into Paris.
Claire drove us into town before she had a meeting and we drove all over Paris. We went by the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Opera house, the tunnel where Diana was killed, everywhere until the Champs E'Lysee. She dropped us off a few blocks before and went to her meeting, understanding that we would meet up later for dinner. We walked around but the boulevard is so crowded with tourists that it was a bit chaotic. We somehow met up with Claire easily for the second time that day in front of "The Drug Store." What Ila and I thought was going to be a pharmacy turned out to be a restaurant/bookstore/grocery store. Incredible!
We walked around the block and got dinner at a cute restaurant on the corner. Francois (another former Chicago frenchie) met up with us and we had a really nice meal. Then, since the lighting was still good, I said I wanted to go up into the Arc de Triomphe. People were up on the roof taking pictures and I could imagine what beautiful views they had.
By this time it was close to 11 at night and there was still some light out! We walked over but no more people could go up into the Arc. We took some pictures at the bottom and walked back to the car. Claire offered to drive us around some more and then home. So we got to see Paris by night. It was amazing.
We drove through the Louvre and then down the Seine. We made it up to Montmartre to see the gorgeous view of the city. There were plenty of drunk people on the steps of the Sacre Coeur to entertain us for a few minutes. We headed back down and she dropped us off at home around 1am. It was a really long, really beautiful day capped off by amazing sight-seeing.
Je taime, Paris!
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