Paris:Day 2

Ah! Okay so Paris. Wow. This time we stayed at a hostel called Woodstock. Totally hipster and pretty snazzy. But we were only there for one day and so we had to vamoose to the next hostel. It was quaint and the pros I think were the fact we had Internet in the room. Cons: It was really far away from the metro and when you're lugging 50 lbs worth of food, computers, chargers, books, and other things, it's kind of a big deal. So anyways, after checked out and ate breakfast, we lugged our luggage to Arty Paris we made our way down towards Notre Dame. We were going to catch Culturefish's 11am tour so imagine our surprise when our tour guide was none other than the oh-so-adorable-French-American named Pierre. I also had the chance to meet his brother Joey. These two are really funny and great guides. Seriously, I know I said it yesterday, but when you go to Paris go and catch the Culturefish's tours. They are the highlight of my Part one of my Paris trip. Okay so moving on from my gushing about the tour and on to what I learned from it. We walked the island which is on marshland. Now for those of you who don't know, Marshland is almost impossible unless you drain the marsh and then put a shit ton of concrete on it so that the land does not sink. Now, in like the time of the dinosaurs, (okay it wasn't that long ago, but it was a really long time ago.) they didn't really have concrete, so I actually want to know how they keep the building from sinking.

As we were passing through, we passed this really elegant gold clock. It's quite stunning. Anyways, this is the place where Marie Antoinette was kept after her famous (but false) words "Let them eat cake."

Oh so then we moved on to the middle where we learned about how the President is kicking ass and making Paris more green. He also shuts down this lower highway in the summer and turns it into a freaking beach!

I wish America would think of awesome ways to cut down on pollution like Paris. You go, French President whose name is so French I am unable to remember it. (I suppose I could googled it.) So after learning about their pretty BAMF pres, we went and saw this building whose name escapes me, but the great thing about it, is if you look at the statues, they're not saints and priests because those dudes were the ones who oppressed anything that was not their way of thinking. Rude. So instead the statues are of philosophers, writers, scientists, and a bunch of other pretty fantastic people. Now, being a Doctor Who fan, there were a lot of angel statues so you could imagine my fear when I saw them and tried so hard not to blink. I suppose it was an off day for them as I am still here.

So this quaint little cafe is where we learned about the rules of dining. First of all on a Sunday, a meal can last up to 5 hours. Wait, being American, I don't think I have enough patience for that. Seriously, they sit around and talk about everyone and everything. Maybe it has to do with my complete intolerance of people. Whatever. Moving on.

Ah yes! Notre Dame!! So the gargoyles are totally awesome because they keep not only the bad spirits away, but also they have this really unique guttering system that keeps the rain from the church. Pretty snazzy, eh?

So this is ground zero. Which mean whenever you see distances on a map, (I might have that a little mixed up) they're from this point here. Legend has it if you spin 360° then you will return to Paris in 7 years or less. Also on Notre Dame are a line of Kings all who were beheaded.

So these spirits are all unique as no 2 of them look alike. There are like 3949384398439483984394839 and they are all different. How awesome is that? They are to keep away all the bad spirits. I dunno about you, but if I woke up to see that on the end of my bed, I might never want to sleep again.

Now these stairs are pretty awesome. So here is the story King Phillip IV ( I might have the wrong King) took prisoner all of the Knight's Templar and killed all but like 2 of them. This two were the most esteemed members and they were slowly burned alive so they could confess their sins. Well these two badass dudes, did not do that. Instead as they were dying one of them yelled out a curse. In 7? years, the rule of the King failed, he died, and his sons died leaving the King without a successor. So moral of the story? Yes, Karma is a huge bitch. Make sure you don't piss anyone off.

Ah yes. The Lock Love Bridge. This one is pretty awesome. Now, while the love may last forever, the locks do not. Because of the weight government officials have to cut down the locks so that the bridge will not collapse.

So four things before I end this very long blog post.
First, The Louvre. Holy Jesus on a cracker. This place is so freaking huge. Like, I knew that it was big, but I thought it wasn't this big. It has been under construction for the past 900 years. Kinda puts Rose Red to shame doesn't it? Anyways, this is also where The DaVinci Code takes place. Well kinda.

So we ended our marvelous tour with these sights.

After the tour we asked Pierre where to get some food. He gave us directions to a place called Eric Kayser. Now, it only sound French when you have a French person, in the words of Jared Padalecki, "Speak ze French to you." It's sounds pretty catchy. Anyways, the place sold these baguettes for only 1.50 which is amazing. Let me tell you, I walked down Paris eating a freaking baguette and no one said anything to me. Yeah, go France.

After we ate, we wondered Paris and made our way towards the Arc de Triomphe. Pretty amazing.

Then it was off to the Eiffel Tower which is breathe taking.

Finally we made our way home. Now here is the worst news in the history of news.
I lost Gandalf. I know, I am still heartbroken over it. Silly isn't it to be heartbroken over a plushie, but I loved having an ablum on Facebook called Gandalf: The Unexpected Journey. He was taken away when I got on the Metro and we bumped into by 9359458943859435894385 people. He wasn't taken or anything, he just fell out of my jacket. I didn't notice until the doors were shut and we were 1/2 home. So here's to you Gandalf. Hopefully you'll come back as Gandalf the White. I miss you.