Paris Day 3

Today was a museum day so we wanted to get there early as the lines become massive very quickly. They usually open at 10am so we had enough time to have breakfast and get there. We planned to do the louvre first so took the metro there. It enters straight into the basement of the louvre and we were surprised it wasn't very busy. Then I remembered we had been told that the Museums all pick different days to be closed and sure enough it was Tuesdays for the louvre. We were disappointed but also knew we could come back to Paris again and see it. I thought I may as well use the bathroom since we were here but gave up when I realised it would cost me €1.50, whaaaat! Makes me so angry I want to take a squat in the bushes and see how they like charging for toilets then. A friend of ours Jeremy R suggested we go check out the Musee d'Orsay, and that was a short 11 minute walk away and was open today! It had only been open 20 minutes at that point but there was still at least 50 people waiting, and I was still busting as chose not to pee outside and get arrested for indecent exposure. There was an old couple behind us (elderly) and the women lit up her cigarette and Lew and I both groaned and rolled out eyes at the sight. The line went rather quickly but we were so surprised with the line went around the corner and this wee old lady pushed in front of us! She left her husband behind us and Lew and I accidentally but possibly purposely barricaded the line so he couldn't push in too. We really just couldn't believe it as we were all waiting for the same thing and they would have to wait only a few seconds more being behind us. The great things about these museums is that they have a cheaper rate if you are under 25 years, you just need to bring some ID with your birthday. It doesn't need to be your passport and I was just carrying my 18+ card from home which wouldn't be the end of the world if I lost. So it cost me €9 and Lew €12 since he's an olds now. Now I am so so sorry to those of you who are art enthusiasts because I'm sure you will be angry at me for not entirely appreciating what I was able to experience in this museum. I could blame it in my parents again but even in high school I mucked around in art school not showing any interest in it. Lew however is a bit more open minded when it comes to art but I wouldn't say it's a huge interest for him. The entire museum my eyes were glazed over and I just dragged my feet counting down the exhibitions till we could get outside. This museum is famous for its impressionists and has lots of other types of paintings from artists such as Van Gogh. There were some pretty ones amongst the thousands we looked at but i was starving and my attention span was getting even worse. I'm always so thankful that Lew does drag me through these sorts of things no matter how much of a fuss I make. Once we were back outside in the sunshine it was 12.30pm and we were ready for some lunch.

I had read that the best market in Paris is the Rue Cler street market which is 7 days a week. It was close on the metro and thought we could find something there for lunch. Sure it was a pretty street when we got there but the amount of food stores weren't as impressive as the market we went to on the first morning. The cafes along the street were very expensive and we were weary we still needed to eat dinner out tonight so we opted to Google search another place nearby. It was very busy and whilst it was easy for Lew to find something to eat I had no idea what was in the baguettes they had made. Plus everything else in the store - pastries, tarts, quiches are off limits to me too. We paid for lews sandwich and o went back to another place I had seen on the corner that wasn't as busy. I asked the women if she spoke English and she said a little. I figured I would try ask if there was any milk, cheese or butter in the sandwich but she waved her hands which I guessed meant I couldn't eat anything there. Instead I just bought half a plain baguette for $1 NZD and planned on buying some fruit back down the street. It cost me €8.35 ($13.50 NZD) for a punnet of strawberries, 4 bananas and one nectarine! But it was nice to have an addition to some plain bread.

We walked to the metro - I was just following Lew having no idea where about he was headed but it was an area our Airbnb host Julien had recommended for us - Canal Saint-Martin. It is in northeastern Paris in the 10th Arrondissement and is considered a quirky neighbourhood with cafes and iron bridges surrounding the area. However, by this stage the plan to walk around and get a good feel for the neighbourhood was really not ideal since our feet were throbbing. Instead we found a park which after walking through it we decided not to stay since it seemed like there were a lot of homeless people sleeping and most of the park benches were taken. Instead we opted to perch along side the river bank. We thought we only had half an hour to kill since 5.30pm isnt a bad time to have dinner but infact the place we wanted to go to - Siseng only opens at 7pm! We tossed up how we could possibly kill 2 hours of time now but we couldnt and headed back to the apartment with the intentions of going back later in the evening. It was rush hour and the train was pretty packed. There are constant reminders to watch out for pickpockets so we have to hold our bags closely to us.

The time went fast back at the apartment and we left at 7pm to do the same trip back to Canal Saint Martin taking us about 40 minutes a since the train stopped at a station for an extra 10 minutes and the announcement was only in French so we had no idea why. But no one seemed to be panicking or getting off so we took that as a good sign. Lew doesn't like it when we talk in the train station as he thinks that people can tell we are foreign ( he likes to think he looks perfectly French in his jeans and sneakers) and we are more likely to become targets. So most of the time we are deadly silent the entire way listening to the musical sound of French around us. The canal district looked a lot better at night since you couldn't see any of the graffiti quite so well. It was a good 15 minute walk (as if we haven't done enough walking already 🙄) to the restaurant from the metro and we were pleased to find the place on the canal edge. It wasn't too busy and you could tell it was a popular place to come for the locals. Yet again the menu was all in French so we set about google translating some words to make sense of it all. We had come for the bao's and if you haven't tried those before it's a must! Probably a little closer to home for you all is Chinoiserie in Sandringham, Auckland. I dream about their beef baos sometimes so add it to your list A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Ok back to the actually restaurant we are in currently 😜. Turns out the waitress was able to speak English so she translated some more of the dish we were actually ordering. We went with  a beef and a chicken bao, plus some chicken spring rolls, some sweet potatoes fries and some sort of ginger tea drink.

Next we were keen to check our Napoleons Tomb in the Dome Church that we had biked past but not been into yet. To our disappointment you had to buy a ticket for the war museum- Musee de l'Armee Invalids as well as the tomb so it was €22 ($36 NZD) total. This meant we had to walk around the entire war museum as well, how could you not when you have paid for it? Out feet were aching and we regularly had to stretch our achilles on the many stairs up to each level in the museum. But inside the Dome Church was something else, in-fact we think it put the Notre Dame to shame. As you look upwards you have an extraordinary view of a religious painting on the ceiling surrounded by gold accents, huge pillars connecting it to the floor and as you look down Napoleons tomb comes into view. It is a massive marble coffin, one of six that he is buried in, we weren't even sure if his body could decompose under all those layers? You are able to drop down a level and get a better appreciation for how large the tomb actually is. Down on this level there are also entombed bodies of important generals from the war, and many of Napoleon's family. I thought we had covered this entire museum at this point and was excited to sit on the grass in bare feet eating the strawberries we had brought earlier when Lew tells me there is MORE! We then head back into another section which is focusing more on Napoleonic War times and even includes his actual horse - taxidermied of course. Now we were able to sit in the sun and enjoy the strawberries as our treat. They taste nothing like the ones that are forced to grow fast for Christmas time back in NZ where you have to put icing sugar on them so they are sweet enough. These are like the sweet, fresh, bright red ones you pick of grandmas strawberry plants in the garden before the birds get to them first. A old man in a electric wheelchair come around and I said "Bonjour" to him. He starts off in a tangent in French and I say we speak English again although he continues on in French. We didn't know what to do and continued working out where we would go next. He eventually said goodbye and went to try and speak to the lady in the next bench who also only spoke English. Lew thought he might have just been saying a blessing for us or something. 

The highly recommend the spring rolls, we actually had to order more as Lew was still hungry so the other type were pork belly. The burgers I took a photos of but the appearance doesn't really do it justice. It tasted better than it looked. So all up it cost us €43 ($70), certainly more than we would ever spend on a meal back in NZ but we have come to terms with the fact that food in the supermarkets, street markets and the restaurants here in Paris are expensive. I do believe that we are still staying within our budget of $200 NZD pp each day, this was an overestimation of what we would probably spend so that we could stay within budget if the entire trip. We are just hopeful it is cheaper in rural France, especially since we don't have to pay to visit large famous museums. After dinner we walked back to the metro arriving home at about 9pm. We called it day since we would have to get up early to pick the car up at Orly Airport for 10am which is miles alway. We planned to take public transport but that meant two different trains and a bus. No doubt it will be stressful as it will be rush hour.