Paris: Part Two (from Marco Polo's and back again)

We left the Hotel Tamaris and our bags and went in search of food. It was closer to nine by this point and we weren't exactly sated by some candy bars and the copious amounts of water consumed on the bus ride over from London. We wandered along the Cours de Vincennes for a bit, stopping to look at menus every so often until we came to an acceptable and primarily deserted café called Marco Polo's. We took a table and, as came to be quite normal, the majority of us all had the same thing, in this case a "Petit Dejeuner Anglaise," or an English breakfast. It seemed silly to travel all the way from Oxford to have an English breakfast in Paris, but it was delicious. A croissant, a buttered baguette, two eggs, a piece of ham, orange juice, hot chocolate and some tomatoes later, we left Marco Polo's completely satisfied. In true Parisian fashion, this meal simply left a feeling of complete, perfect fullness and satisfaction, rather than the traditional American style of leaving a place so full you can't walk straight and feeling mildly ill.

Thus satisfied, we hopped on the Metro and headed for the Champs Elysees for the Bastille Day parade. We came out and followed the massive amounts of people since we didn't really know where we were going. We somehow ended up at Le Madeleine and set up camp next to it with relatively few crowds. We had hardly stopped walking when a huge rushing noise was heard and six fighter planes soared by overhead with red, white and blue colored exhaust making a French flag. It was amazing and the planes were followed by other configurations. Soon after the air force was done showing off, the parade arrived at Le Madeleine. It was a military parade. Prior to this, I'd never been to a military parade and didn't really grasp the differences between a military parade and a normal, American parade. I was expecting marching bands, bagpipes, perhaps some floats and people waving cheerily from cars. Military parades do not have any of this, except the army marching band. As we stood there, completely awed, unit after unit marched by in complete unison, some singing, others parading silently by. After the units came the military vehicles, each larger than the one before it. Even as we marveled at a passing tank and exclaimed how no other tank could possibly be bigger than that one, the next tank would come and sure enough be bigger. It was awesome in the most traditional sense of the word. I can't imagine what an American military parade would be like, this French one was quite intimidating and fearsome.

Eventually the parade of deadly weapons ceased and, after sticking around for a bit, we decided to head to the Tuileries for lunch. We went to the Champs Elysees and went through the tail-end of the Tuileries. We were really more thirsty than anything so we got some water and kept walking. We weren't really going anywhere in particular, we had the eventual goal of getting the Hotel des Invalides and Napoleon's Tomb since both are free on Bastille Day, but we were just heading in that general direction. It was at this moment of hydration that we saw the Arc de Triomphe. There it was at the end of the Champs Elysees looking just close enough that it would be sheer folly to go have a look. Courtney, miraculously, had never heard of it which allowed me to launch into a brief lecture about it. (It's the largest triumphal arch in the world.It was built by Napoleon.that sort of thing.)

It was much farther than we had thought but it was worth going. We didn't take our lives into our hands and try to cross to see under it, but we took lots of pictures from across the street. After seeing the largest triumphal arch in the world, we headed more purposefully towards the Hotel des Invalides. We came upon the Seine near the Pont de L'Alma and went up to the edge of the wall to look at the river. We got more than we bargained for there. I don't know how a 320-meter-high monument can sneak up on you so easily, but the Eiffel Tower does it. You'll just be wandering around, reveling in the fact that you're in Paris and then there it is, peeking out from behind a building or something. I have an increasing fondness for the Eiffel Tower. It's hard not to be awed by it and it's just so quintessentially Parisian that it brings a smile to the face whenever it sneaks up on you. It intrinsically reminds you that you are in Paris and how incredible is that?

Needless to say, we took lots of pictures before going across the Pont de L'Alma. We walked along towards the Hotel des Invalides and finally came across it. Unsurprisingly, there was some kind of military event on the lawn in front and there were people parachuting down with French flag parachutes. We went into the Hotel des Invalides and had some lunch in the cafeteria. This was my first experience with a French hot dog. I'll admit I was a bit leery of them, since they are (unlike in the US) doused in cheese, but I was willing to try. Delicious! Very satisfying even though lunch was sort of awkwardly quiet since we were all fading fast. Courtney would every so often ask a question which I would answer and then we would fall back into quiet. We'd basically been going since Thursday afternoon with very little sleep and it was catching up to us. So we decided to check out the armor in the Hotel des Invalides, see Napoleon's Tomb and then "see how we felt." This was Mike's code for "go back to the hotel."

Yuan was indefatigable, however, and didn't understand why we weren't taking more time to have a leisurely look at all the armor. Courtney and I collapsed onto a bench-like piece of marble and waited for the boys to finish looking around. Mike eventually appeared and plunked down next to me, equally beat and Yuan came up last. We left the armor and dutifully walked over to Napoleon's Tomb. Even since I found out that Napoleon was taller than me, I've been a bitter better regarding the little man but his tomb was quite swanky. We vacillated between thinking how cool it would be to be buried in such a place and just thinking it ridiculous to be buried in such opulence. They had his coat and hat and Mike realized he is the same height as Napoleon. So we were both a little bitter about the whole thing. Not that this stopped us from taking loads of pictures again. Once you accept your role as tourist and revel in it, things get a lot more fun. Don't try to blend in, just be a tourist and love it, that's all I can recommend.

After a quick stop at the gift shop (have I ever been able to resist a good gift shop?), we all agreed it was time to actually check in at the Hotel Tamaris and get our room. It hadn't been ready at eight in the morning so we thought it was best if we checked in then rather than at midnight after the Bastille Day fireworks. So back onto the Metro and back to the Hotel. We were given room seven on the ground level. We all stumbled in with our various bags. "Where are the other two beds?" Yuan immediately asked, completely baffled. It took him about five minutes to get that a quad means four people can fit and that he would be sharing a bed with Mike.

Courtney immediately flopped onto our bed and informed me that she was a loud snorer and that she tends to flail and thrash in her sleep. Upon telling me this, she rolled over and was, in fact, snoring loudly quite shortly. Since she had basically flopped in the middle of the bed, this left me with very little space to flop myself. So I helped Mike try and buy tickets to the Louvre, first on the internet and then on the phone, both to the point of complete frustration. Finally Mike handed the phone over to Yuan to let him get annoyed with it and went over to their bed. I perched on the end and flipped through the guidebook while Yuan tried to get an outside line. Finally, completely unperturbed, Yuan gave up and I started clearing a space on the bed. "You want to flop?" Mike asked with his face half in the pillow. "Oh yes," I replied, basically walking around half-asleep at this point. He helped clear stuff away and I fell down next to him. Yuan kept talking but I was already in that hazy place somewhere in between consciousness and dead sleep. Mike inquired if I normally slept with my glasses on and that was basically the last thing I remember. I slipped my glasses off, put them on the nightstand and then sleep just engulfed me. Mike rolled over at some point which woke me up a little but he just whispered "Sorry" and we both fell back asleep.

When I actually woke up, it was almost eight. I was wonderfully groggy and happy as I was nudged awake and up out of bed. On the way from the Metro to our Hotel, we had stopped at a grocery store for provisions for the night's fireworks display. Grocery stores, I've found, all smell exactly the same. It doesn't matter where you are, there is this pervasive smell that is just the same in every grocery store. We walked in and it immediately hit us; it was very reassuring. We bought brie, crackers, wine, grapes, water, chocolate and some biscuits to eat during the fireworks. With these provisions safely tucked into Yuan's backpack, we set out for our actual dinner prior to going to the Eiffel Tower to see the fireworks.

We ended up back at Marco Polo's at what we quickly termed "our" table (same one from that morning). Seated next to us was a wonderfully amiable, elderly French couple. Inevitably, Yuan struck up a conversation with them despite his poor French and their nonexistent English. Yuan just has a way of talking to people that was in evidence throughout the trip. He would stop people and ask for directions when we knew where we were going or if we just waffling about something, he was stop and ask a Parisian. So it was not at all surprising that he should start talking to these people. Happily, they turned out to be the most wonderful people. Yuan brokenly explained to them that he speaks poor French and said that I speak better French than his but that I'm nervous. The old man turned to me with a mischievous grin. "Direz 'Bonjour,'" he ordered me. "Bonjour!" I returned with a smile. They both laughed and he told me it sounded perfect and I shouldn't be afraid to try. He just gave me the gift of confidence so simply and it felt great. From there on out, I was the one speaking French for the group and translating anything for them. I loved every moment.