Warning: Convoluted post ahead! Lots of metro line references. May get confusing...
Today I explored Paris with Zak. The key to our plans for the day was intuition and being spontaneous, aka Metro hopping and lots of wandering. I had gone out the night before so I didn't wake up until 11:50 ish so I had to grab breakfast along the way. We took the tram to Porte d'Orleans to look for a bakery or a supermarket. We walked along the Metro line 4 (unknowingly, although it's hard not to as, according to Zak, the first metros built follow the main streets so they wouldn't dig through people's basements) until we found a MONOPRIX and it's wonderful bakery. Maybe I just don't know what it's really like to have exquisite French pastries but I really love MONOPRIX's stuff. It's reliably good and affordable too! Anyway as we were searching for it, it started to rain which put Zak's coat to good use.
After we got me breakfast we hopped on the Line 4 at Alésia and stopped at Montparnasse Bienvenüe to see the big black building that so intrigues Zak. We walked around it and spotted a Farmer's market and of course, I had to see. It stretched for two blocks along this nice little divider-street lined with trees.
So we just kept walking along it and wandering until we saw a metro for line 6 and hopped on (it might have been Edgar Quinet but I'm not sure anymore) towards Nation. Turns out part of the 6 is being renovated and we would have to take a bus (which, of course, is not classy enough for Zak) so we stopped at Place d'Italie and took the 5 towards Boblgny Pablo Picasso, stopping at Gare d'Austerlitz where we walked around the train station. (Literally, around it. We made an unnecessary circle.) It's an old station! Then we went to the adjacent Jardins de Plantes which houses the Natural History Museum of Paris.
It's very large, very roomy, and quite beautiful. After we left the garden and followed some crowds, we found the Grande Mosque of Paris and continued down a small street.
This small street led us to the find of the day: Stop Jussieu of Line M-7 and RER-C is near a cute community that I really enjoyed. Firstly the crepes and snacks were reasonably priced. A sugar crepe was less than 2 euros (the price that it should be!). Secondly, it seemed tucked away enough that it had almost a small town feel, or at least a more private atmosphere despite how close it is to the Seine.
As we wandered around the area, choosing small streets that looked interesting to walk up and stairs to climb, we found a building under construction for the University of Paris. It looks like it's being redone from the top bottom.
We continued to wander and chose a small street that took us towards the Seine and the Eiffel Tower (unknowingly--we just thought we were going NW). along the way we saw Eglise Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. Didn't get a picture of the actual church because the streets were pretty narrow. We took a peek inside and it was rather fancy for a small church (relative to the Notre Dame and such.) We continued to walk around randomly by picking streets that looked interesting. Zak wanted to pursue a tower that he saw which conveniently brought us to the Seine and close to the Notre Dame (aka close to the Latin Quarter, aka near lots of Grec, aka Lunch time!) More meandering led us to a small park across the street from the Notre Dame in the courtyard of a really small church that was adjacent to Rue St Jacques--what I call Shwarma Street.
And so, we stopped for lunch--Grec Pita, obviously. Devoured our food in the park and took a little break there (at my request).
Then we set off towards the Tower across the Seine that Zak had spotted. We crossed Il de la Cité and onto Il de St. Louis. We found the tower on the Right Bank at the end of a charming cobblestone alley. It seemed like part of the old church had been fused with a new apartment complex. We walked around it and found the facade which looked pretty much brand new. Apparently we found Eglise Saint-Gervais Saint-Protais. The old part of the building was awesome, but we didn't go inside. The church is right next to Hotel de Ville which led to us to the next part of our adventure: The Grand Arch!
There's a Metro-1 by the Hotel de Ville so we took that all the way to La Defense, right underneath the Grand Arch. On the other side of the Arch (I guess the back) is a long walkway built over a cemetery (questionable?).
It seems to be some sort of look out. We saw some strange looking towers that, according to Wikipedia, are called Tower Aillaud. They are strange looking and look like futuristic public housing gone nuts! Note that some windows are circles and on some floors where it looks like there's supposed to be windows, there aren't!
Then we walked along the strip on the other side of the Grand Arch. Near the Arch, it's all very glamorous with shiny, impressive, tall buildings but the further down the strip you walk (that is, more towards the Arc de Triomphe) it gets less and less glamorous. All the same, here's a shot:
After that we had just one more goal before heading home: find the little island with the small version of the Statue of Liberty! Hopped on the 1 and transferred to the 6 at Charles de Gaulle-Étoile stopping at Bir-Hakeim (Eiffel Tower stop). We walked along the long, little island and found the Statue of Liberty at the very end. Snapped a quick photo, then we headed home, but not before stopping on a bridge for a good shot of the Eiffel Tower.
We stopped at a MONOPRIX for some fruit and Orangina before heading back to school. Took 8 to Balard so that we could sit on the Tram longer. Upon returning to Cite Universitaire, I promptly fell asleep and napped until about 10:00PM when some knocking woke me up. A big group of people were setting off to hopefully climb the Arc de Triomphe and see the sunset. Unfortunately with all our slow moving-ness, we didn't make it, but we still managed to get some lovely night shots. :)
That was relatively quick so we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower for some night shots, too. At 12:00 the big blue tower sparkled for us and we headed home.
We were hoping to get some food by the Latin Quarter but we didn't want to risk getting stranded / have to take the Night Bus so we just headed back. I had another baguette-brie-salami sandwich, some Orangina, and thus ended my wonderful day.
