Paris by foot, by pubs and by art

Local time: Wednesday 23 September 10:27am

Hi all, me and Paris have been busy getting acquainted with one another. After my last post on Monday I went on that free walking tour, which was very good and gave me a bit of history that I probably wouldn't otherwise have known. The guide just took us round all the main sights and monuments of Paris and gave us a bit of information about them. We didn't actually go inside anything so I've had to/will have to go back. Here's a picture of the Eiffel Tower I took while on the tour. At the end of the tour the guide told us about a pub crawl that the same company does and I thought that might be a good way to meet people so I went along. I did meet some great people, including an English guy who got very drunk very early and kept asking me how Frodo was, and another English guy who's added me on Facebook and might just show me around London when I'm there. At the end of the crawl instead of going to the last club I went with some Americans to a restaurant where we had crepes and rosé and ended up lying underneath the Eiffel Tower at 3am and getting some very strange looks from passers-by. (Yes, it was 3am on a Monday and there were people passing by the Eiffel Tower. It's Paris.)

I managed to drag myself out of bed at a reasonably early time to start my day at the Musee d'Orsay. This is the museum that houses a large portion of modern art by artists that people have actually heard of. You were allowed to take pictures of the art and though I took heaps I didn't want to bombard you so I've just chosen one for the dog. (It's a Van Gogh). After visiting the Musee d'Orsay I wanted to go to the Palais Garnier, the Parisien opera house, where The Phantom of the Opera is set. You can go in and look around for a fee, but when I went yesterday it was closed so I'll have to go back tomorrow. I couldn't be bothered finding my way home ont the metro and I was very tired from my late night, so I flagged down a taxi and braved the streets of Paris in a car. On the way home we went around the Etoile 'roundabout', largely considerefd the most dangerous roundabout in the world. The Arc de Triomphe sits in the middle and there are 12 streets going out from the roundabout (hence it's name Etoile, the star). There is also space on the road for about 3 lanes but there are no road markings. Basically, I feared for my life but made it there safely and for only 8.50 euros. After a nice cup of tea at home I went back out again to a tour of Montmarte, offered by the same company as the free tour and pub crawl. Montmarte, as well as being historically a studenty area and the part of Paris that many poor artists like Picasso and Van Gogh worked, is also the place where one of my favourite movies (and the highest-grossing non-English film ever) was shot - Amelie. This friut shop featured in the film, and we also visited the cafe where Amelie worked. Didn't have time to get a drink there and I don't know if i'll have time beofre I leave Paris but we'll see. After the Montmarte tour I went to Norte Dame, which is amazing inside and out, but I was there quite late and the steps were already closed so I didn't climb it (and a good thing too, I've done more step-climbing in Europe than can be healthy for a person). I then found the famous bookshop Shakespeare and Company, an English bookshop with lot of history in the literary world. To anyone who has been inside the Devonport Vintage Bookshop it's like that but better, with low ceiling, creaky stairs and ladders to reach the top shelves. I could have got lost in there for hours but had to get home for dinner so I bought only about a zillion books and left.

Today I'm visiting the Louvre, it's already 11 so I better get going or I'll be queueing all day, or should I say 'waiting to get in', one of the Americans at the pub crawl had a huge rant about how English people use the word queue, it's not American so it shouldn't be used by anyone, just say 'line' or 'wait', blah blah blah.