Class is Cancelled!

Yesterday, it reached 80 degrees in the City of Light/Love. It was gorgeous. It was also a Wednesday, which usually means I have class from 9-noon and then from 1:30-3:30. Not so yesterday! My 1:30 is cancelled while my professor is in the US for a few weeks, and yesterday morning, when I arrived at 8:45 for my class, there was a note on the door proclaiming class canceled.

!!!

I was already dressed and out, and it was so lovely outside... and really, how often do I have the chance to hit all of the tourist destinations on a Wednesday morning, when they won't be overrun?

I hopped the first bus to Trocadero.

This is the Theatre Chaillot building, one of the two buildings that flank the Trocadero plaza

It's the first time I've been there in daylight, at least this time around in Paris. I rather suspect I was here during the day back when we visited in high school, but I have no specific memory of it. I do have a memory of the crepe stand down at the bottom, though, so it stands to reason that we went up to the top of Trocadero then as well. 

I was at Trocadero by about 9:30am, so it was relatively empty, emphasis on the relative. Probably still close to 100 people there, but nothing compared to the crowds that pack it when it sparkles at night. 

I decided that I would take further advantage of the smaller crowds by hitting one or two touristy spots where I can use my Student ID to get in free. So, I intrepidly set off in what I assumed was the general direction of the Arc du Triomphe. 

Can you guess where this is going?

I actually didn't get spectacularly lost in any fashion, I just overestimated how far down the Seine it was, and added probably a total of half an hour of walking time. Lovely sights, though, so I'm counting it as worth it. 

Looking up the Champs-Elysee!

As you can see from that last picture, I ended up on the east side of the Champs-Elysee. I started out to the west of the Arc du Triomphe. So that was a blip. But it meant that I strolled up the Champs-Elysee in bright sunlight. There are worse mistakes. 

My student ID got me in for free, and though the stairs were quite terrifying, it's actually not that tall and scary once you are on top. 

Sacre Coeur up on Montmartre

Evil staircase of death

At this point, I was starting to realize that I had definitely not headed out that morning with the intent of sight-seeing, so I returned home via a lovely bus ride to change and empty out my bag, then I hopped back out to the area of the Seine just west of Notre Dame for about an hour.

Got some writing done, Skyped with Mom, studied for the test I had today. All in all, an excellent first Wednesday in April.