My friend Katie (who is here for the weekend) and I got up and had breakfast and were out the door early (well, by 9am) to take the metro back over to the Pere Lachaise cemetery. It was a wonderful and cool fall morning -- overcast, which only made the cemetery visit that much better. We spent about an hour wandering through the aisles of tombs and gravestones, visited the crematorium (where there were actually multiple funerals that were going on), and saw Jim Morrison's tomb! It was nice that it wasn't too crowded -- and there were even black crows all over the place as well as an actual black cat. Hard to get more perfect than that.
From there, we took the metro back to the area around where I live, and we walked to a little cafe (that I've actually been to before) -- that has really good sandwiches and such. I got a panini with chicken, tomatoes, pesto and cheese which was delicious, and Katie got one with tomatoes and mozzarella which looked equally devine.
Katie's desired Parisian attraction for the day was to visit les Egouts (sewers) of Paris (which is an actual museum), so off we went to the Pont d'Alma which is where the ticket booth and descent into the lovely smelling sewers! It really was interesting and probably something that I never would have picked to do by myself which was good! It kind of continued our eerie-themed weekend (which again, we plan to continue tomorrow...).
We decided not to go up the Eiffel Tower -- kind of expensive, and honestly, it's cooler to see the Eiffel Tower rather than be in it and not be able to see it (or so we said to justify our decision). So I suggested that we walk to the Champs-Elysees, which is really where all the tourists go....The streets were packed with every type of person you've ever seen -- perhaps the most ridiculous, was the LINE outside of the Abercrombie and Fitch store that also had this elaborate gate with two male models (clothed) on either side. Really, Paris. Come on. We cruised into Laduree just to take a peek -- it was also a mob scene, so we chose to leave emptyhanded. And we continued on to the arch at the end of the street! Pretty incredible!
After our Champs-Elysees jaunt, we took the metro to the Louvre with the intention of just looking at the outside and taking some photos. So we wandered through the little gardens, and took pictures of the pyramid and outside of the Louvre which is pretty amazing, and we also wandered around the "mall" that's underneath. Wild -- Apple store, McDo (aka McDonald's), Starbucks, among others -- but for some reason, the American stores always stick out.
We were pretty exhausted after our busy morning and afternoon, so we came back to the apartment and took a little nap, and then I went to swimming while Katie continued to nap and hang out here.
When I got back, we took the metro to the Mabillon stop -- right on St. Germain des Pres -- where there are a bunch of little side streets with wonderful restaurants that are fairly reasonably priced. After perusing menus and prices for a bit, we settled on a little hole-in-the-wall Italian place that barely had room to seat us (which I take as a good sign). We both got the entree-plat-dessert deal which was DEFINITELY the right way to go. Each of us started off with a small salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and then proscuitto, some thinly sliced cured duck, and a piece of marinated mozzarella. In. Cred. I. Ble. (You may choose to pronounce that any way you wish). I ordered the spaghetti carbonara for my next course which is one of my faves. I'm always interested to see how restaurants prepare this dish -- I cook mine with no cream, but just egg, bacon, garlic, and parmesan cheese. The one tonight did have cream -- and bacon of course, which did make it a bit heavier, but it was still delicious. There was just enough sauce to coat the pasta without drowning it. THEN, (drumroll please), I ordered the Tiramisu for dessert. Oh. My. Goodness. There was a thin cake layer at the bottom with just a hint of the espresso flavor (which isn't my fave flavor anyways -- so it was perfect), then a thick layer of cream/mousse which was light and fluffy, and then it was topped with powdered chocolate and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Definitely homemade. Home run.
That was about it for today! I'm about to fall asleep, so I will leave it at that. Here are some classically touristy pictures from today though:
A bientot!
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