Europe Trip: Day 5, May 25th

With my new map and plans from the night before, I was ready to head out from my new base and see the Catacombs. So I took the tram and then the metro and reached my destination in no time. The first thing I noticed was that there was little to no directions or markings for where the Catacombs were. I wandered around the area for a good 15 minutes before hearing some English and asking an American woman who was with her daughter where it was. They pointed me in the right direction and I found it; I also found out that it is closed on Mondays. Sacre bleu! :P

The only other thing I had planned for the day was a walk that my host, Thomas, had suggested. So I headed back to the metro and went over to the Belleville neighborhood. Right outside the metro station was a giant cemetery that includes some of the more famous residents of Paris. The two that I was able to find was Georges Cuvier (a famous naturalist/geologist) and Felix Faure, which a main street near my first CouchSurfing host was named.

After that I wandered around the neighborhood, which was a bit more rough around the edges. More graffiti and a more ethnic neighborhood, including the food. I had forgotten to eat anything for breakfast, so I was starving by the time I exited the cemetery. I walked for about 15 minutes before I found a Turkish restaurant, so I got a chicken sandwich and a couple Fantas--gotta respect foreigners for sticking with a good brand.

I made my way to two different parks and tried to doze off a bit at one of them, with minor success. Relaxing and trying not to overheat, it was in the 80's with high humidity; sweltering in the metro. After crossing over the canals, I stopped at a small park/playground and sat at a bench to kill some time. While I was sitting there I met an Australian girl who was also traveling alone, so we talked for about an hour. I particularly enjoyed her story of shooting down a Texan when he wanted to make out with her at the Eiffel Tower. At about 6:30pm she said she better head back to her hostel, and it was about time for me to leave in order to meet up with my CS host. Sometimes it is just nice to talk to a fellow native speaker of English and share in the absurdities and culture shock.

Thomas had designated a place for us to meet after he got done with work, which was a nice fountain called 'St. Michel' which is right across from Notre Dame. I got there about half an hour early, but I got to enjoy the performance of about a dozen college students playing instruments (drums, trombone, trumpets, etc) and singing. At about 7:25pm the cops came over and broke it up, I'm still not sure why, probably just cops being pricks. At 7:30pm Thomas met up with me and we headed over to get a drink and try and ride out the heat. We ate at a South American restaurant, ordering some fish.

Thomas was nice enough to pay for everything, saying no whenever I tried to pay for anything. We ended the night with a trip to the top of Montpernasse tower, which is I believe the highest building in Paris. It has a beautiful panoramic view of all of Paris. We were there at night and stayed long enough to see the light show that goes on for the first 5 minutes of each hour. When we were heading back to his place it started pouring rain, bright lightning, and crashing thunder. We ended up making a dash for the metro only getting partly soaked. The walk home from the metro was mostly dry, but after we got inside we heard it start pouring again.

Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, I head off for Munich at around 7:45pm. Once again it is getting close to 2am, so I better head to bed.