december 28 1996 - day two - paris-besancon

i got 12 hours of sleep last night! it felt great and i think i am used to the time difference. and ready to see what's out there. all five of us got to stay in the same room. i thought it was fine. dave said it was cold. i don't know. anyway, today was "see-the-entire-city-in-a-day" day. first off, we took the metro to the eiffel tower (of course.) we came up out of the sub station and we couldn't see it because it was behind a building, but we walked a little bit and came around the corner and...boom...eiffel tower.

different than i thought. not sure what that means, but it was hazy and it just didn't look real. like a painting. it was wider than i expected, but about as high. we didn't go up it. it was cold enough and windy enough on the ground. plus it cost 20f (about $4.) it just didn't appeal to me. so, we walked around the gardens for a little while before heading for the arc d'triumphe.
at the eiffel tower
we stopped along the way to warm up and get something to eat. again with the sandwich, this time on a french baguette. these things are growing on me. we also got eclaires at a small bakery. french pastry, need i say more? the arch was pretty cool. we almost got killed trying to cross the traffic circle to get to it. the most insane traffic circle ever made. 9 lanes wide. of course, once we got to the arch we saw the pedestrian tunnel on the other side. oh well.
it got colder and colder and we walked more. we walked down the champs elysees toward the place de la concord, where the guillotine used to be. at the obelisk, we split up. brian and geoff walked on to the louvre and dave and sara and i went up to see the paris opera house. it was amazing. i hope my pictures turned out. pretty dark inside. they wouldn't let us go into the catacombs underneath. i guess they have their reasons. it was a great place anyway.
the arc d' triumphe - paris
well, with the time we spent at the opera house, we ended up with about 35 minutes to spend in the oh so petite louvre. 35 minutes in the world's largest art museum! so we took to it. i really wanted to see the 'venus de milo,' but we got lost. frantically, we followed the signs to the 'mona lisa.' or the chick under glass as i've taken to calling her. it was alright, but it's impossible to appreciate anything at 4 rooms per minute. i want more time next time.

we made it back to the hostel by 6 and had to cruise to the train station to catch our train to besancon, which we promptly missed because the information guy told us to go to the wrong line. we did get the next train out, but had to pay more (because it was a tgv) and arrived in besancon at about 10. laura was there in the snow to meet us and we came here to her flat. her drain pipes are frozen so there is no shower or toilet. there is a hamburger place down the street. we will have to use that. no one said it would be easy. it's 1:30. goodnight.
the mona lisa at 4 rooms per minute

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