Paris - Part II
during part of the visit it was cloudy w/some light rain, so i tried to plan on spending as little time as possible outdoors. fortunately Paris has one of the best metro systems i've ever been on, so it was pretty easy to go to the north end of the city center and see the Sacre Coeur. the basilica sits on a hill where you can see all of Paris. this is a big city - just the right size for me...
after getting lost on the little paved streets, i eventually made my way to the Louvre. the next time i visit i'm dedicating an entire day to this place. besides watching some idiot get caught taking a photo of the mona lisa, i did get to see some nice artwork.
besides laughing at the would-be-photographer that got booted filming mona, i also found the staff there entertaining. everyone i ran into would very excitedly ask me, "are you japanese?" and when i replied w/a very puzzled no, they would be deflated and regrettable help me anyways. couldn't figure out what the novelty was behind a french person chatting w/a japanese tourist (besides the obvious), but it turns out the staff at many french tourist locations have gone out of their way to learn japanese. didn't believe it at first til i saw this museum tour group. a very french looking man was screaming in japanese and a whole slew of asian people walked behind him. uber funny! so funny that i watched them for about 10 mins til it became obvious that i was spying...
upon exiting the Louvre the rain had stopped and the clouds had parted, so i took some time to walk thru the Jardins des Tuileries. and since i had the time to smell the flowers, i got some cookies and camped out for some people watching...
continued my park tour later by wandering thru the Jardin des Plantes, the National Natural History Museum, and the Menagerie.
had a really nice visit, but eventually had to return to geneva and work. wish you could have been here w/me!
during part of the visit it was cloudy w/some light rain, so i tried to plan on spending as little time as possible outdoors. fortunately Paris has one of the best metro systems i've ever been on, so it was pretty easy to go to the north end of the city center and see the Sacre Coeur. the basilica sits on a hill where you can see all of Paris. this is a big city - just the right size for me...
after getting lost on the little paved streets, i eventually made my way to the Louvre. the next time i visit i'm dedicating an entire day to this place. besides watching some idiot get caught taking a photo of the mona lisa, i did get to see some nice artwork.
besides laughing at the would-be-photographer that got booted filming mona, i also found the staff there entertaining. everyone i ran into would very excitedly ask me, "are you japanese?" and when i replied w/a very puzzled no, they would be deflated and regrettable help me anyways. couldn't figure out what the novelty was behind a french person chatting w/a japanese tourist (besides the obvious), but it turns out the staff at many french tourist locations have gone out of their way to learn japanese. didn't believe it at first til i saw this museum tour group. a very french looking man was screaming in japanese and a whole slew of asian people walked behind him. uber funny! so funny that i watched them for about 10 mins til it became obvious that i was spying...
upon exiting the Louvre the rain had stopped and the clouds had parted, so i took some time to walk thru the Jardins des Tuileries. and since i had the time to smell the flowers, i got some cookies and camped out for some people watching...
continued my park tour later by wandering thru the Jardin des Plantes, the National Natural History Museum, and the Menagerie.
had a really nice visit, but eventually had to return to geneva and work. wish you could have been here w/me!
No comments:
Post a Comment