later that week, a big sale throughout france, so we did some shopping in vichy. we found pretty nice ties for only one euro each, so from that day to the end of our stay i think we had ties on. way too classy for our family dinners and local pubs.
thursday was our last night in town, and it was pretty disasterous. it climaxed with lots of people blowing us off and two friends and i wandering around the streets when i got a text message that michael jackson had died. way too many american icons have died since i've been in europe (it wasn't long after that i heard about billy mays. sad day). after seeing most everyone off, vasiliy and i left vichy friday evening for clermont. we met up with alex and elise and had a nice night out. alex has lots of favorite bars in clermont, and naturally some kebabs were consumed. the next morning, we got up at an ungodly hour and got on a train for paris.
in paris, vasiliy and i parted ways and i attempted to make my way to the hostel where hunter, cindy and her friend kristin were waiting. as usual, i am absoultely terrible at navigating european cities, so i got so lost that i had to take a taxi to get to the hostel. kristin had mapped out the path of this big gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender pride parade that was going through paris that day, so we took the metro over to one of the corners they were supposed to pass. we had sandwiches at a smaller version of monoprix and waited. finally, the gay parade came on in full force. it was certainly an experience.
after that, we started our obligatory tourist trip through paris we started with notre dame, which is not nearly as impressive as it's made out to be. my favorite part of that was this crazed looking birdman that was sitting in a gated-off area in front of the cathedral. he was surrounded by something like 50 pidgeons but was cradling one of them and trying to feed it. the rest of them kept dive boming him, so he eventually got upset and threw his pet pidgeon and shooed the rest away. quite a spectacle.
birdman trying to protect his pidgeon
then we metroed/walked over to the eiffel tower. this one lived up to its hype. we all crashed in a park under it for a brief siesta, then hunter and i took the elevator up to the top (kristin had already been up, and i guess cindy wasn't in the mood). that was our first amazing view of paris.
afterward, we picked up the classic bread, meat, cheese and wine combo for a picnic under the tower. one of my favorite parts of the trip thus far. we got to watch some guy named kyle's dad lose his cool on the phone too. favorite quotes = 'those clubs are dangerous!' 'who all's going? i don't care who all's going, you tell them i said that!' and 'dammit kyle!!' kind of had to be there.
kyle's dad on the phone
next, we metroed over to the champs élysées and the arc de triomphe. it was getting dark so i didn't get very good pictures of the arc. that thing is huge. we walked down the champs, and when we got to sephora the girls decided that they had to stop and try to get a free makeover or something. hunter and i continued on and got way lost on the way (we didn't have a map, let alone the address of the hostel). we ended up getting a delicious crepe and a cheap bottle of wine and sat on a stoop in front of the metro station waiting for the girls to come back. that was one of my favorite times in paris.
the next morning we got up and went over to the louvre. it was a really great museum, but way too big and fairly overwhelming. we did an audio tour and naturally hit up the 'masterpieces' -- venus de milo, victory of samothrace and the mona lisa. the venus was cool, but hunter and i spent way more time in the rooms of greco-roman sculptures. it bothers me how much emphasis they put on the famous paintings even though they're not the best. aside from the sculptures, some of my favorite paintings were in the red rooms of huge paintings like liberty leading the people.
we did some more walking and saw this fountain that cindy loved. it was four women representing the four parts of the world, a division that i'd never heard before -- the americas, europe, africa and asia -- all holding up the globe. we napped briefly in the park in front of that statue. as we were crossing one street after leaving, the biggest amassing of rollerbladers i'd ever seen went flying by. it took literally five minutes for them all to pass by. i have no idea if they were blading for some cause or just for fun.
then we went to the pantheon. lots of impressive bodies are buried there -- voltaire, rousseau, zola, victor hugo, marie curie, and lots of the big names of all the french revolutions. the crypt was really cold and felt great after sweating all day, but it was also pretty heavy to be down there underground surrounded by all that's left of all these people that you've read. as usual, a big obnoxious tourist group came in as we were finishing up and ruined the whole vibe. tourist groups were one of my least favorite things about this trip. after the crypt, we went up on top of the pantheon for another really great view of paris.
voltaire's tomb
we walked to another park whose purpose i have forgotten and i believe napped again. there were so many naps in parks on this trip that they've blurred together. then we went to the sacré coeur basilica, which is on a big hill overlooking the city. we chilled in front of the church for a while, observing the terrible fashion sense that most young people had. i'm not sure if it's because they were tourists or what, but it did not reflect well on the french style. some little kid was running around the park area on the hill blowing a whistle at strangers, which was pretty awful.
eventually we left and went over to the pseudo red light district in paris to see the moulin rouge. mostly we stood on this median in front of the moulin rouge while the girls sang songs from the movie.
after that, we went back and crashed to prepare ourselves for what i think was the earliest morning of the trip. my one disappointment in paris was that we didn't get to see the catacombs. we got in line, but apparently the employees thought that we were too far back in line to make it in before closing. i think that happened on the second day, after i had a lunch of one half of a corn-fed chicken at some little street shop. this proves that i should have written all this down earlier. the parts that i don't have photos of are already getting hazy in my memory, just because i did so much in the last two weeks. anyhow, first post down. something like seven to go. i already put up lots of humorous pictures, but i've got one more. this man was one of the saddest people i've ever seen, all because he had to sit next to a sweaty hunter on the metro:
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