Beauvais

We got back to Paris, and got blocked from taking one of the train lines because there was a suicide, but we made it to the Arc de Triomphe, which was pretty cool.  An impressive sight, but I’m glad we didn’t make a very special point to see it.  We had come to that area of tow to catch the bus to Beauvais airport to get a flight out to Dublin the next morning.

Oh, by the way, we were planning on going to Dublin via London, but the Chunnel would have cost 275 euro.  Instead, we changed our flight.

Beauvais was a 13 euro bus ride to get 90 minutes outside the city to get this Ryanair flight.  We got to this shitty little airport, and I had a feeling it would probably shut down at night (Ryanair was the only airline operating there).  We were watching a little Baywatch when a security guard came by to tell us we needed to leave.  He also mentioned in broken english that were weren’t allowed to sleep outside.  I think it was awkward for him to tell us; he seemed ashamed.

We hung out on a patch of lawn outside the airport.  Two other groups of two joined us: two young dudes from Utah, and a youngish couple from Venezuela.  The Venezuelan guy hated Paris and the French.  He especially hated how they didn’t help with the language barrier.  He was pissed, and being kicked out of the airport was a nice way to top it off.

As the conversation started getting boring and awkward, Eleanor and I set up camp.  This time we had my sleeping bag and tarp.  We bundled up in most of the available clothes, used the poncho/tarp as a ground mat, and stretched the sleeping bag over both of us.  It wasn’t too bad and I got a few hours sleep.  It got really cold during the night, and I don’t know how the Venezuelans made it through — they didn’t have any gear.

We got up at 6am when the airport opened and caught the flight.  We were on our way to Dublin to see Mom and get taken care of.  We needed some real meals, a wash, and some sleep.  A much needed vacation from the vacation we had just started.

Chartres

We took a train to Chartres, which is a quaint town about an hour outside of Paris.  We had arranged to stay with a guy named Ayo through CouchSurfing.  He met us and we dropped our bags at his place.  He was a great guy and showed us around.

Ayo is an American teaching English in Chartres.  We were talking about idioms, like how “What’s up?” is hard to understand for the French.  He told us one of the cool things to say is “La foim,” which is literally translated as “the shape” but it means the same thing, “what’s going on?”

We saw the Chartres cathedral which was amazing.  It was built in the 11th century, and stained glass windows were all original.  Apparently, they were so original that there were some holes that couldn’t be replaced because people haven’t figured out how to replicate it.  The blue used in the stain glass is so unique that it’s actually known as “Chartres blue.”

Ayo took us to a pub to meet up with some friends to watch the Euro cup finals.  We had some awkward introductions and stumbled through some French, but we ended up having a great conversation with an Australian girl living in Chartres.

We walked around some more to see the Lights of Chartres, which is a light show projected on all the old buildings in the town.  We saw an old woman fall over, and then we got home to stay the night on Ayo’s floor.

Paris

We flew to Paris on Air India.  The flight was fine, although the plane was pretty old-fashioned; we were served curry for dinner.  I was worried about getting through immigration since I didn’t have a return ticket, but the guy just stamped my passport; no questions.

We went to Notre Dame first.  It was impressive.  Possibly my favorite part was watching people outside.  Eleanor and I were judging their fashions.  We saw a lot of shitty capris, and thick bodies, and complicated jeans.

We walked over to the Bastille area, got a Nutella crepe and some filled baguettes, and then hung out at a cafe.  I got the cheapest thing on the menu — a 3 euro coffee, which is ~$5 — and Eleanor got a 5 euro choclat chaud.  The coffee I got was tiny; probably about the size of an espresso.  Oh well, it was great hanging out on the patio in Paris.  I felt like I should start smoking and write a poem.

We took in a lot by walking around.  The architecture was great, the Seine was magical, the women were beautiful.  In the Barbes area, we saw a woman with inversed knees who was walking on the ground, like a dog; it was horrible.  I had seen the same thing on a news magazine, like 20/20; I saw this in the flesh.  Oh my god.

Then we headed back towards the Eiffel tower as it was getting dark.  We bought a bottle of wine, and drank it underneath the Eiffel tower, which was glowing.  I was worried about an open container law since it was a public park, but when I looked around I saw everyone doing it; it was *the* thing to do on a Friday night.

Our weird hotel was pretty far away in Epinay sur Seine.  We headed to the Metro at about 1am.  When we got there, the guy said the train stopped running.  Merde!  We tried finding a bus but that didn’t work either.  We could have gotten a taxi for about 50 euro or more, but we decided to wait it out until 5am when the trains would start again.  We walked back to the Eiffel tower area.  The Eiffel tower’s lights had shut down.  We walked by a skinny triangular park area between apartment buildings.  It seemed pretty secluded and safe so we got in there and slept.  It got a little cold so we had to spoon each other, and use all available materials like the map.  A very homeless start to the trip.

We got the 5am train back and slept until about noon.  When we got up, we had a poor lunch of baguette and Orangina.  We did the poor thing most of the time with a few splurges mixed in.  Our bodies got pretty messed up on pure carbs (baguette), and sugar (Nutella crepes), and not much sleep.

Then we saw the Louvre.  I remember my high school zoology teacher telling the class, “The Louvre is so big that most people can’t see it all in a day.  Well, I ran through and saw it all in one day, and I even stopped to take notes.”  What the fuck?  Notes.  Retarded.  We saw a lot including the big three: Mona Lisa (what’s the big deal?), Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo.  It was great to see so much, and Eleanor was able to fill me in on some of the highlights.

Outside the Louvre | Inside the Louvre with the Mona Lisa far away in the background

went up to the Montmartre area to see the Sacre Coeur, and then we had a our first real meal.  We found a place doing a 3 course meal for 12 euro.  It was beautiful.

Then we headed back to our hotel to make sure we wouldn’t miss the train this time.  We were exhausted, but we stayed up on our tiny less-than-twin mattresses to watch a Baywatch on Eleanor’s laptop.  A taste of home