I don't have any pictures from Alex's third day here. Why? Because we did nothing worth really taking a picture of. I had French class that morning, and after that, I came back to the hotel to pick up Alex who I had left to wander in the area near our hotel for the morning. Luckily he didn't get lost.
He came with me to the area where my school is that afternoon. I had another class, but I figured it would be more fun for him to walk around in the area than sit in our hotel. Once again, he luckily didn't get lost. It was hard for me to concentrate in that class though, because who really cares about the economics in the EU when your boyfriend is with you in Paris?
After class I showed Alex the buildings of my school. We were both pretty tired from walking, so we sat on a bench outside for a bit. Disclaimer: the rest of this story is based around poop.
There was a woman walking an ADORABLE puppy around and around in the middle of the street. It was really fluffy and rambunctious. The woman was talking on her cellphone and walking in circles. Alex and I were pretty confused about what she was doing until her dog took a squat. The woman fumbled in her purse for a baggie (still talking on the cellphone) when a few cars came by. The first two dodged the pile, the third one didn't. The woman looked down, shrugged, put the baggie back in her purse, and brought her dog inside.
Alex and I could not stop laughing. We're very mature people.
When we got near our hotel, I announced that we were having pizza for dinner. I hadn't had pizza yet since I had been in Europe. There was a restaurant near our hotel and we stopped by to look at the menu. Alex asked if I wanted to just get the pizza to go, which I was all for, because I wanted to watch the Twins gameday on my computer.
I ordered two pizzas to go (they were pizzas for one, just so you know). The restaurant owner asked in a mixture of French, Italian, and English "Why don't you eat at my restaurant. It's a beautiful!" I lied and said that we were meeting people. He said to us "You are Yanks! I give you something while you wait for your pizza!" He pulled out a bottle of red stuff and poured it into glasses with green sugar on the rim. "These are the colors of the flag of my country. Do not forget this!" We thanked him and enjoyed the wine-ish drink until our pizzas were done.
Those pizzas were SO GOOD. I could have eaten both by myself, but left some for Alex out of common politeness.
After walking around our area a little bit more (and buying some more food at the supermarket) we decided to call it an early night. I had class early in the morning and we needed to pack in order to move to the other hotel (we saved about 40 euro by changing hotels on the last day). We watched a bit of a soccer game and went to bed.
The next day, I lugged all of my stuff to class with me, and I sent Alex to the Musee d'Orsay for the five hours I had class. It was cheap for him to get in and it had a bag check for him. He apparently had a pretty good time. The d'Orsay is full of really cool impressionist paintings. It is my favorite big-time museum in Paris.
Meanwhile, I sat through class bored as ever.
After class we met and went to our new hotel. This was up in Montmartre (the good part, not the part with the strip clubs) and was pretty decent. We dropped our stuff off and went in search of something cheap to eat. We found a grocery store and bought some cheese and some chocolate cookies, and on the way back found a boulangerie that apparently had won prizes for their baguettes. We bought two. (They were AMAZING!)
That night, we decided to go to the Champs Elysees (the main road in Paris) to go shopping, see the Arc de Triomphe, etc.
We started out at Place de la Concorde where the obelisk is:
We walked up the road (which is not a short walk), stopping in a few stores. Neither of us bought anything though. We (Alex) decided that we wanted to walk up the Arc.
I had been up the Arc the last time I was in Paris. There is no elevator. Just endless winding stairs. My mom had insisted that they need to install a half-way sitting room for people to catch their breath. Since I was recovering from my swine-flu cough, I saw what she meant this time.It was very beautiful up there though. The Arc is surrounded by a giant roundabout, and major streets go off in every direction. Here is the Champs Elysees:
Talk about how scary it would be to drive in this. And there are traffic cops standing in the middle of that! I wonder how many get hit.
There was a kid with a MAJOR mullet. That's a boy.
It got dark while we were standing up there, so we saw the day scenes and the night ones!
The gift store offered a replica Napoleon pistol for only 47 Euro! I don't know if it works or not...
I ended up buying Alex his material birthday present here, it was an eraser that was made out of stripey rubber.
Behold the staircase of death:
The eternal flame for the unknown soldier
After the Arc, we took the metro over to the Bastille neighborhood, where I knew we could get some food. We picked up some spring rolls and walked to the Seine. I took us to the place where there had been salsa dancing one night, only to find that people were swing dancing!
For those who don't know, Alex was in the swing dancing club in Jr. High/High School. He asked me to dance. (Awwwwww...) It was really fun, but I was hopeless compared to all the other people dancing, who were in Paris's swing dance club. We danced a few numbers and then sat and watched.
We went back to the hotel after a bit, knowing that the next day Alex would be leaving.
It was a very nice evening.
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