Wednesday. Christmas Day! Merry Christmas everyone :) it doesn't feel like christmas to me really. what does christmas feel like anyways?? so i got up, get my running clothes on and head out for the eiffel tower. its about 6km from my apartment, running along the Siene river. it was actually a perfect way to see alot of the major sights around here. lots of people are out. i wasnt really expecting the streets to be full at 10AM on christmas morning. its sunny but the cold is biting. i have my long running pants, a tshirt and two long sleeve shirts, and gloves. i feel fine until i get to the eiffel tower and have to stop moving to wait in line. even at 10AM there are a zillion people (it opens at 0930). then i get REALLY cold. i think for sure my leg is going to cramp up. i decide to take the stairs. the line for the elevator is unbelievably long. it kind of snakes around the bottom area. it looks like at least a 2 hour wait. i waited about 20 mins to take the stairs, plus it was a lot cheaper. the stairs only go up two levels, not all the way to the top unfortunately. but that's ok becuase i'm so freaking cold. another drawback to running is that i didn't have my camera with me, so i couldnt take any pictures. oh well!
the eiffel tower is so amazing. an engineering marvel. i spent some time reading an exhibit on how it was constructed. i'm especially interested in the marriage between engineering and aesthetic design. the most obvious structure in the paris skyline. what would paris be without the eiffel tower? every great city has its monuments. NYC has the statue of liberty. SF has the golden gate bridge. D.C. has the washington monument, the whitehouse, etc. i wonder what vetnura's "monument" is.. . and decide it must be the pier. not that the VTA pier compares to the illustrious red beacon through the mist that is the golden gate bridge. but to ventura, maybe it is.
So after the Eiffel tower I went back to the room, showered, changed. I headed down to L'Hotel de Ville to do a little ice skating. took the metro over and it pops out right there. there's tons of people skating, mostly young people. techno music of course. the line to rent skates if forever long. i eat a nice sandwich on a baguette as i wait. gosh its cold. i havent been on skates in so long. the ice is horrible. no zamboni in sight! but the techno is thumping and its getting to be dusk. the scenery is beautiful and i can see my breath in the air. good times. after skating for awhile, i got pretty bored. the skating area was pretty small and i was getting a bit dizzy going around in circles :) 
I headed down to near the Champs Elysees. There is a fantastic Christmas market and although I never buy any of that crap I still like to look. Well actually I did by some overpriced candy. I’m a sucker for gummy coke bottles. The trees that line the street are decorated with pale blue lights and the street is very busy overall. why people are driving down the champs elysees it is a mystery to me. traffic is at a standstill all over paris. take the damn metro! it will take 100 times longer by car and you wont have any place to park it anywys. At the end of the street is a ferris wheel so I start heading over that way. I got in line for the ferris wheel behind these two girls from texas. The longer I’m here the more anti-american I become. Why is that?? The one girl looks cold and miserable. she's wearing a fleece jacket and that's it. poor thing. She talks about her horse back at home. Blah blah blah. They’re leaving back to the US tomorrow. Good! The ferris wheel ride is fantastic! I see the whole city from up there. Just lights as far as you can see. The Eiffel tower is lit up blue tonight with a big roving spotlight on the top. I think it changes color each night. It looks beautiful.
After the ferris wheel ride, I head over to the Opera area. I feel like catching a movie. I almost never go to the movies, but I like going on Christmas day. On my way over, I see the most beautiful dress in the window. The store is closed so I can’t go in. the store is a bit too nice for me to go into anyways I think! One of those places you have to get dressed up to go shopping. The dress is very dark navy blue. Its sleeveless with a high neck, almost like a turtle neck. Its pleated and cinched at the waist. Knee length. I can’t tell what its made out of but some sort of stiffer material. Its gorgeous I wish I could afford it. the price tag? 1,050 euro for the dress and 450 euro for the shoes. Way out of my price range. Bummer. Well I took a photo maybe I could find another similar to it in the future.
I finally found a movie theatre, and there is a showing of “burn after reading” in about an hour. I buy a ticket and head across the street to a massive starbucks for a hot chocolate. I call my mom and brother to wish them a merry Christmas. I my bother is stuck in some train station in buffalo. And I’m in paris. Ha!! The movie was hysterical and random and unexpected. i would rent it, but I wouldn’t recommend seeing it on the big screen. Not worth the 10 euro. After the movie its almost midnight so I head back to the metro to head home.
On Friday, I got up and went over to the Catacombs, which is an underground maze of dead people basically. On my way, I stopped at a café and had an amazing ham and cheese omelette. Overall, everything in paris is really expensive. I sat in the café across from a couple in their late 40’s and their young son. The son was wearing a beautiful Burberry coat. I know paris is famous for fashion but I guess until now I haven’t really been noticing (well except for the dress in th window of course!!). I will make more of an effort now. The waiter is cute and obliges my marginal French. He wants to know what I’m doing later. I laugh.
Its freezing out today. As I waited in line for the catacombs, I was ridiculously cold. They only let 200 people inside at one time, so you just have to wait until people leave. I finally get in, and I get the reduced rate (people between 18 and 26 get reduced rates on many things here in paris). I took a very windy staircase down down down down. Underneath the subway and pipelines. I walk along this very narrow tunnel with a low ceiling. Its really dark. I’m feeling really claustrophic. I try to concentrate and control my breathing but I feel like I’m on the verge of a panic attack. I start feeling sick. After a few very long minutes I’m able to get myself under control. The catacombs were built after a mass grave in another location in paris was breeding disease and was blamed for an outbreak of some sort of epidemic. The bodies were exhumed and transported under the cloak of night to the catacombs. Since it was a mass grave, the bodies were not intact, so the bones were not kept together with one body. All the bones were transported and placed in the catacombs in basically another series of mass graves except these were deep underground and would reduce the risk of disease etc. It’s really creepy and stale down there. All carved out of limestone and gypsum. Human bones and skulls line the walls. I’m glad I went but I don’t think I would go back.
After the catacombs, I headed across town to see a designer Christmas tree display. All of the trees are supposed to be decorated beautifully. After about an hour, I just couldn’t find it! so I gave up and headed back to the metro station and headed to La Defense. Underneath la defense is a huge shopping center. The metro goes right into the shopping center. I can’t take much more of the metro. I’m sick of being underground today. I’m not feeling well. I think it’s the motion sickness coupled with the stale air, the throngs of people, and the dirty subway passages. La defense is a stunning architectural feat. A building that is a hollow cube with dramatic steps leading up to a white canvas cover. Check out the picture below.
After La Defense, I head to the Louvre museum. Between 6 and 9:30 on Fridays, its free for people under 26! Yay! So I got there right at 6, ditched my coat, and hoped I would stop feeling sick. There were so many people there initially, but by 8PM, the crowd had really thinned out. I only saw one portion of the museum. To see the whole thing would take several days. After 3 hours I was drained anyways. I spent most of my time in the wing about greek and roman history and impressionist paintings. The paintings in the impressionist wing were so detailed and large! Some took up entire walls! I can imagine a painter would work for years to complete one piece of work.
I saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa (of course). The greek and roman artifacts and sculptures were fanstastic. I’ve always had a fascination with greek mythology. Ever since grade school. The stories are so logical and magincal. Zeus on Mount Olympus and Hades in the Underworld. I’m always amazed at how we dismiss the stories of greek and roman mythology as just that…stories. Mythology… keyword being “myth”. Yet the virgin mary and resurrection, parting of the red sea, and noah's ark are not far fetched at all. What?? They are just stories too. Every great civilization has a corresponding great religion. The next great civilization after ours will have a different religion with new stories.
After the Louvre, I met up with RJ’s friend Ben. I wanted to check out this really cool bar that had been recommended to me, but when we got there, it was closed!! Its Friday night!! I was so bummed. So we headed back over to the opera district area that I had been the night before. We had a couple of Stellas. He grew up in CA and knows RJ from the soccer world. Super cool and easy to talk to. But he’s difficult to get in contact with and seems a bit unreliable. Just like RJ!!! Anyways, I had a great time chatting with him and we made plans to go biking along the Siene on Sunday and walk around his area in Montmartre. we didnt end up meeting, but I’m glad I met him. I have a feeling I’ll be seeing him back in California soon enough.
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