Day 7 We walked. The End

Ok, here’s where we walked and what we saw:  We started the day at 9:30 by meeting our Paris Greeter, Louie.  Louie was born in Vietnam, and lived there for 13 years, then moved to France.  He’s probably in his sixties, but still retains much of his Vietnamese accent.  To say the least, it was a bit of a challenge to understand our Vietnamese/French tour guide.  We stayed in the 12^th arrondissement, and he shared with us so much information and history about the local markets and shops.  It was amazing to us how noisy and busy the streets were, but then he would open a door and we thought we’d be heading into a shop, but it would be a courtyard to 3 or 4 apartment buildings.  You could barely hear the noise of the city while in the courtyard.  We walked by a children’s park where an orphanage had stood years ago.  Needless to say, we are very spoiled to live where we do.  Our beautiful Corbin Park doesn’t compare to this tiny park that was sandwiched between busy streets and high apartment buildings. 

Many of the original apartment buildings were built in the mid 1800s, and the ruler at the time ordered these buildings to always have the 2^nd and 6^th floor balconies be one continuous balcony that goes the length of the building.  Odd, but when we looked at the buildings, we could identify these particular sites.  We asked how much an apartment would rent for, and for a very small studio (one room), it was 850-950 Euros per month, or at least 1 million to buy one.  Not today, thank you.

The population in Paris is 2 million in the city, and another 10 million in the suburbs.  No wonder it seems like people are everywhere all the time. 

Louie pointed out a flea market to us.  With his accent I thought he said “free market”, so I asked a question about it being a free market….how embarrassing.  Craig, Rylee and Jarret all knew he said flea market though.  Oh well, so I made one little mistake… J.

We walked past open markets where meat and cheese were being sold, and other fruit and vegetable markets.  Many shops and markets weren’t open as this is “holiday” season.  July and August is when people leave and go on vacation.

There is a walkway above the city street that used to be a railway. They’ve paved it and planted flowers. It’s a really nice place to take a walk or jog in the middle of the big city. Since Craig is Catholic, family joke for those that didn’t know, we had to visit a Catholic Church on the way. Our guide opened a double door off the street and we walked into a very large church with high ceilings and an organist playing in the background. It’s amazing that something so big and beautiful lies right in the middle of a city block.  It’s one of the things that made this walking trip special. We got to see things that we never would have seen. Louie also pointed out historical sites like the Bastille monument, which is also a tomb for the people who were killed who revolted and overthrew the jail.

We ended our walk by thanking Louie and giving him a pen that Craig made.  Craig brought several pens on this trip, and he’s been handing them out to those who have been very nice and helpful to us.  The first pen went to our Romanian waitress in London, the second pen went to a worker at the Harry Potter Studios who stopped us to ask what we thought of the studio, and we ended up visiting with him for a long time, and then Louie got the third pen.  Who will get the next one?

We rested at the hotel for a bit, and then we rode the Metro to Trocadero where we viewed the Eiffel Tower for the first time!  Oh my, I wish you could see it if you haven’t already.  It’s huge and beautiful.  We chose not to go up in it as the line was a mile long, and it would have been a 2 hour wait probably.  I of course was up for climbing the stairs to the top, but the rest of the family refused.  Truthfully, there would be no way I would do that after looking at the stairs!  It started to rain but it didn’t rain very hard, just mostly sprinkling.  It cooled down a little, but it was still warm.

We’re doing pretty well with the language barrier.  Thank goodness most Parisians speak English.  Usually they begin talking to us in French, see the blank look on our faces, then start speaking English.  We do try and order food in French, and get as far as we can.  A “merci” always seems to be appreciated.

We usually end our night by writing postcards.  The kids decided to write one to a random person in Spokane as a joke.  Can you imagine receiving one from someone you don’t know, talking about their trip, and then not knowing who the heck it’s from? If you receive one from Helga, it could be from Jarret.  We’ll chalk this up to being extremely tired.

We’re getting ready to watch the opening ceremonies tonight!  We’re really enjoying Paris, but I have to say, it’s not as clean as what we’re used to.  They have such beautiful buildings and monuments, yet I think, “could you please just pick up some of this litter and clean the streets a bit?”  

Tomorrow we’re going to take a tour bus all over the city and see the popular sites including Montmarte.  It could be a little rainy, but that’s ok, we will trudge on!

 Opening into a courtyard. They're doing a little construction there.

 Handmade wood inlaid desk for sale around 36,000 Euro. Any takers?

 Shot of building on our walk

 Outdoor market

 Along the walkway that used to be a railway

 Catholic church

 Us in front of the Bastille monument

 Where we've had more than one meal. The croissant chocolate is very tasty.

 Eiffel Tower

 Some poor soul locked up his bike. They took everything else

 Eiffel Tower through the trees

 Where Napoleon is buried

Postcar Jarret is sending.