The next morning we went on a walking tour of the landmarks on Paris. We began at the Opera House which was beautiful despite the fact that we did not go inside. We learned that Paris was constructed by an architect so all the buildings follow a similar design and the streets were widened to look nicer but unofficially it was also done to control the population (with small roads, it's easy to create a home-made blockade as a barrier to keep the military out, with wide streets it's much more difficult to riot). From the opera we had a great view of the Louvre which used to be the palace of Napoleon lll. He specifically had it constructed so that he could look down the street at the opera and so that the opera would be close enough to his house. We then made our way through some cool back streets and learned how the locals live. The next stops were rue de la paix and place Vendome: the jewelry district. Here, the jewellers must advertise the prices on anything that is not considered art. I thought I might buy a watch, until I realized that a mortgage would be required. Some watches were over 25 000 euros! And those were the ones with marked prices! We then made our way through the Tillier Gardens to Place de la Concorde (where all the aristocrats were beheaded during the French Revolution) from there, we could see the Eiffel Tower. So after the tour was done we made our way to the Eiffel Tower where we sat down in the grass and had a baguette with cheese as well as a bottle of wine. We both fell asleep shortly after finishing our meal. When we woke up from our power nap we walked to the Arch de Triomph. We tried to cross the road but around the Arch is the most unorganized and terrorizing traffic circle. We made it half way across the traffic circle before a police officer started blowing her whistle and aggressively pointing at us- that's french for "get the hell out of here". We finished the day with "the world's best hot chocolate" at Angelina's. I think it is a mix of three different African cocoa beans but they keep the recipe secret. I wish they had kept the price secret... It was 25 euro for two hot chocolate and one Mont Blanc dessert!
The next morning we did another walking tour but this time it was through the Montmatre area. This area is a bohemian artist area and the former home of Picasso, Van Gough and many other famous artists. Apparently, Van Gough only sold one painting his whole life. Now his paintings are worth millions! On this tour we also got to see the statue of the patron saint of Paris- Saint Denis. Saint Denis was a Bishop before Christianity was legal so he was sentenced to be crucified. However, one of the guards that was guiding him up the hill lost his patience and cut off Saint Denis' head. As legends go, Saint Denis then picked up his head and continued walking for six more miles. Not surprisingly, he is the patron saint of headaches as well. So Montmatre, which means mountain of martyrs, is named after Saint Denis. After the tour we took the subway back down to the Notre Dam cathedral where they were preparing for a mass but we were still allowed to go inside. It was a beautiful church! We then made our way to the "best ice cream in Paris" where we got two cones of sorbet. It's so famous we had to stand in line for 30 minutes before making our order. In my opinion, it was not as good as Gelato but it was still fantastic. After our dessert we went for supper as a local steakhouse. Katherine and I had some of the best steak we have ever had in our life. It was so amazing! We then made our way to the Eiffel Tour to see it all light up at night. On our way to the tower we saw from a distance that it was sparkling. We took some great photos of the tower lit up and beautiful and enjoyed some of the ambiance before heading back to call our mothers for Mother's Day.
Today we are off to Berlin! These next 10 days should be great but also exhausting!