Whirlwind Paris

So in the morning I actually didn't feel too bad. I had a pretty tasty breakfast of cocoa pops and croissants. Last night actually all seemed like a really bad dream now. I found that there was another walking tour starting from right outside the hostel at 10am so I decided to hop on that. It was of the old Montmartre part of town. Back in the day there was a wall up and everything outside the wall wasn't considered part of Paris. When the wall came down (I can't remember when) it was all part of Paris but the people that used to be living outside the wall didn't have to pay tax so it attracted all kinds of artsy bums. Including Pablo Picasso. We saw his first studio (the outside of it) where he shared a living/working space with 17 other people or something. We saw one of two original windmills which had a story about some farmer brothers that stood against the Russians. We saw a beheaded statue of a saint that supposedly kept preaching even though his head was off. But the highlight was the basilica on the top of the hill with its amazing views out over Paris. In my sleep deprived state I had forgotten to take the memory card out of my computer and put it back in my camera so no photos. I'm sure it is all google-able.

I then went to catch the other walking tour at 1pm. I think I made up for the lack of morning photos in the afternoon. I only included about half here I think. Guess I am becoming a real tourist. On the way to the start point I had to take this picture of scaffolding to add to my collection:

I also came across all these people lining up for something. It crossed my mind that its a good thing sometimes that I don't know anything about anything as I don't have to worry about lining up for stuff like this. Sainte Chapel or something, whatever the hell that is.

The meeting place for the walking tour was at St Michels fountain which was pretty sweet:

Winged lion things spewing water from their mouths is pretty sweet. The afternoon walking tour was better than the morning I think. Maybe just because I had woken up a bit. There was the oldest bridge in Paris:

Which had a pretty cool story. Apparently the king had to tax everything heavily to pay for the bridge. He even taxed wine which was almost blasphemous. When it was completed he threw a massive party to thank everyone for sticking by him during construction. Unfortunately everyone was having such a good time that they drank all of the wine. Fortunately he also had a few cases of champagne. Apparently mixing champagne and wine is a bit of a bad idea so everyone got hammered drunk. He thought everyone looked absolutely hilarious so he got some of the artists that were at the party to start drawing the drunken people. The artists themselves were pretty out of it too so when the king (I really should have remembered his name) got up in the morning he thought the pictures were so funny that he would have them set in stone to adorn the bridge. The result is fantastic:

Then went to a slightly crapper bridge where everyone clips their padlocks. I think this is pretty ridiculous but it is made even more ridiculous by the fact that they go through and clip all of the padlocks off once a year. Thats just dumb.

I took a photo of this building because it is the only one that was bombed in WWII. All the bomb did though was blow the glass ceiling off though. The allies though that the Germans had blown up the Eiffel tower and brought their plans forward to re-claim the city. None of the structure or adornments were actually damaged and once a new ceiling was put on it it was as good as new.

After the walking tour I decided to make my way to the Eiffel tower. On the way I found a bunch of pillars. The statue at the top of this one looks like some chick slaying a Pegasus with an arrow. Man there are some wacky statues around.

I successfully hunted the tower:

I spent a while there resting my legs and took a few more photos but I think this was the best. I was kinda expecting to be let down by it but it is surprisingly awesome. Heaps of metal and unlike anything I have ever seen before. I remember someone telling me (It was actually Jeff, Beckys dad) that there is a reason why the touristy stuff is so touristy, and thats cos its pretty awesome. That was certainly true of the tower.

I decided to take the long way back home (I don't know why, my legs were pretty knackered) to go past the big crazy roundabout. It was freaking mental. No lines, no signals, just a massive open area where you make your way from wherever you came from to wherever you want to go without hitting anyone. Apparently statistically there is a accident every 17min. But I didn't see a crash. And they say that the roundabout in Blenheim with the railway line through the middle of it is complicated!

Also on the way home I called in to a lah-di-dah place to try a macaroon, which had been recommended by Emma. I didn't really know what they were and when I found them I was pretty sceptical. They just look like a biscuit thing and cost 4 euro each. I hummed and harred about getting one and decided to try a chocolate one. I walked out of the shop and started down the road before a took a bite which was a good thing because if I had tried it on the spot I probably would have bought like fifty of them! Gooey chocolate center was amazing. Last photo is just for Hayden.

For dinner I thought I would ask TripAdviser. I went to the highest rated one that was nearby and it was amazing. I had a set menu with an entree of Crispy honey goats cheese (I think it was fried packets of goats cheese with honey drizzled on top, sounds wacky but worked well). For the main I had duck with fried potatoes and for dessert I had a home made chocolate cake. It was really good and had a gooey centre. Yum and yum and yum. An excellent end to a pretty damn good day after an awful night! Now I just hope I can wake up at 5am tomorrow to catch my bus to the airport!