Paris vs Super Nintendo - Part 2

Sacre Coeur, eh. Well that was stop 1 on this fine 35 degree day in central Paris. A night of guzzling foie gras and dancing to frenchy euro trash music had left us with an appetite for croissants and churches. The churches began with the big one on the hill, and it was quite spectacular. The french priest inside told a homily in French that left me quite astounded and deeply moved, but I didn't really understand much of it except that he said Jesus occasionally, my french being largely learned off simpsons episodes and old episodes of allo allo. We climbed the few hundred steps to the top of the dome after paying the man for the privilege and felt enlivened by the view across Paris to the Eiffel Tower.

After wandering through Montmartre arguing like french artists over whether Monet or Manet was better than Corot, we headed into the depths of suburbia and the Arc of Triumph. I won't put a picture of it here, because you've all seen it, large arc shaped thing swarming with tourists. Instead here are some slightly more interesting pictures of some of the vans that are littered around Paris covered in graffiti. They are some of the most interesting street art I've seen for a while and it says something about the French mentality that this kind of art is allowed, and potentially even encouraged. I dunno what it says, but its gotta say something right.

Sure, we could've hung around looking at vans but a stroll down the Champs Elysees was on the cards. Actually the whole street isn't for me, its just a huge tourist jam. Yeah the old guy breakdancing was kind of fun (Dance Papy Dance read his t-shirt) and the displays of futuristic cars were exciting but I mean it just didn't feel like Paris. A stop at a patisserie / boulangerie was in order for some espressos and ridiculously good pastries and then onwards. Via the Hotel De Invalides which is a hotel reserved exclusively for invalids who like gold domes we headed towards le tour eiffel.

Sure its just a tower, and yeah they were going to rip it down after the expo that they built it for, but in the end they decided to hang onto it. The climb up the steps was exhausting as we had already trudged hundreds of miles through the snow to get there. Plus the Michael Jackson tribute concert out the front was in full swing and out the other direction a collection of french dwarves was protesting for peace to the gypsies (my interpretation of their french) but dammit the view was worth it.

We were completely stuffed at this point and it was approaching the end of our 46 mile walk so we walked the remaining hour and a half back to the hotel via the local french take away (whole chickens, lamb shanks, gourmet sausages and fresh made potato balls) and a french cafe for a wine and somme dinner. Get it, hey.