My 9 to 5 in Paris!

What an amazing day! It started with meeting a fellow Canadian who is working in China and offered for me to stay with her while I am there! How great! I left fairly early and took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. For those of you haven't seen it,  it is really not that nice a building from afar. It's a lot of metal and steel and there's no detail. But once you get up close you can see all the designs and it is indeed full of detail! I stood in awe at the size of it. You can't really picture it until you have stood under this amazing structure!  Before reaching it I saw a two different Merry Go Rounds, it must be a Parisian thing because I saw another one in the gardens in front of Le Louvre.
Checking my map I decided to head to the Arc de Triomphe. I figured I could do a circle and see Notre Dame on the way back.  I found my road and walked and walked until I could see the Arc up in the distance. I never imagined how big it was! It's breathtaking. And in the middle of a crazy traffic circle with 12 roads running into it and NO lines on the road! I had no idea how to get to it! A voila! A staircase leads underground to the island in the middle of mayhem.  I have heard the best view of Paris is from the top so I paid my 9€50 and walked around and around the circluar staircase....the view was magnificent! In every direction were sights to see and the roads all lead out creating pie pieces of buildings. Deciding to walk along the Champs Elysees I went back underground.
Walking along I saw my first blanket full of designer knock off purses! I stopped for a baguette sandwich and found a nice quiet bench to sit and people watch.  Did you know in Paris, birds are not afraid? A pigeon hit me in the head with it's wing while I sat there, and I witnessed a girl ducking as one headed straight for her head! Kind of like the mouse I saw in the bar last night....not scared of us mere humans. This could get scary!
As you can imagine I saw many amazing sights along the way but unfortunately I am sans map at the moment and don't know what they are called! :-)
Yesterday's tour guide told us that in the Musee De L'orangerie were the original Monet waterlillies. I love these paintings so I decided to go have a look. This building was once a greenhouse for orange trees but it was changed some time ago. In fact Monet played a role in how his own work would be displayed before he died. The only thing I can say is wow. There were 8 pieces of work, all depicting the same garden but at different times of day, etc. Most of them were 30 ft long, it was incredible to see them in person. Also in the museum were works from Picasso, Matisse, and Renoir....I am so glad I decided to go to this tiny little "musee"!
On I continued trough the gardens of Le Louvre where people were out enjoying the beautiful sun. I reached L'Isle de Paris and found my way to Notre Dame. It's free to get in so you can imagine what the line up looked like. Not so long later though I was entering a church built in the 1100's. Imagine who has entered before me, and how many people have set foot through these same doors! Did you know that Natre Dame was left to disrepair until Victor Hugo wrote the book Notre Dame.  He was actually livid that people focused more on the hunchback than in "Our lady", however it was what saved the beautiful gothic structure. Seeing it brought back all my art history courses about building styles. I was speechless.
On the way home I decided to walk for awhile and see the Latin district. It was very cool. Live musicians played on street corners and the roads were so narrow only one car could fit at a time. So after a whole day of walking and exploring I was ready to take the Metro back to the hostel. And I am very proud to tell you that I navigated it all by myself. I walked down the first set of steps I could find and figured out which line to transfer too and I made it back safely!
Tonight I am going to rest early as I am finally feeling better and don't want to push it. Tomorrow I booked a night tour of Paris so I can see all the sights lit up!
Bonne nuit mes amis! Xo