Paris Revisited: Days 3 & 4-

For day three, I went adventuring on the bus system, to see where is easily accessible from Laura's apartment. Quite a lot, as it turns out- one bus goes straight to the Eiffel Tower, then the middle of the Champs-Elysee, then winds its way up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur! All the tourist destinations on one line. I didn't get any pictures, since I was on a bus most of the day, but I saw lots of Paris, both the major sites and the residential streets. Highly enjoyable.

That night, Laura and I met up with some of her friends from Boston who are studying in Paris right now. We had dinner near the Eiffel Tower, with a very sassy French waiter.

The next day was far more action-oriented. I started my day by busing over to the Central College office and surprising my program director. It went quite well, and I was there for about half an hour.

I continued my bus journey, up to St. Michel (just about at Notre Dame), where I hopped off the bus when I finally spotted an Orange (telephone store). I got a SIM card for my phone, so that I can be in contact with the Keepers of the Keys (Laura and her husband) for the week. From there, I decided to walk for a bit, and ended up strolling the Seine to this adorable little garden on Ile de la Cite.

Garden! I took a picture of the more garden-y part, but unfortunately it prominently features a trash bag.

I wrote for a bit in the garden, which was very satisfying and reminiscent of last spring.

Moved on to the Louvre, where I could catch up with another one of the buses that runs past Laura's place, and see where it went.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of more busing and more wandering, and then finally, about 7:30, I set up at the Champs-de-Mar to await the 8 o'clock sparkling.

It is around this point that I realized that there are really only so many ways you can take a picture of the Eiffel Tower, and I've probably done all of them, but I did my best:

The sparkling never looks that impressive in pictures, sadly.

And yet, no matter how many pictures I take of it, it still thrills me every time!