Paris - Sunday, April 1

This is Grant typing.

Bobbi was tired after her long trip here (nearly 6000 miles), so she slept in until 10. The weather was beautiful today...not a cloud in the sky and about 60 degrees. We decided to go to the Luxembourg gardens. On the way we stopped by a Patisserie. Dad got an apple fritter, Bobbi Jo got a quiche lorraine and I had a croque monsieur (monte christo sandwich). We took our breakfast to the Luxembourg gardens and found a nice spot to enjoy our breakfast.

After breakfast we walked around the gardens a bit. Since today was Sunday, there were quite a few native Parisians out jogging and enjoying the park as well. The flowers were in full boom...lots of pretty pink and red tulips.




After the gardens we walked to the Pantheon and scoped out the vistas from outside. It cost 4 Euros to go inside and the inside didn't seem all that interesting, so we decided to skip the inside.

Next, I was able to convince Bobbi and Dad to go to "Les Egouts", which is a museum and tour of the Paris sewer system. It definitely sounded interesting to me. I love underground stuff, and especially anything related to sewers. I was worried that it would be toned down or wouldn't be the "real thing". The guidebooks said that they purified the air, but the smell was still a bit "funky." I was pleasantly surprised, as there was nothing toned down about it. As far as the smell goes, it was a tad bit more than funky as I saw no air purification going on in the sewer whatsoever. We paid the entrance fee of 4 Euros per person, and then descended about 20 stairs down into the dark damp sewer. It was definitely musty at first, but as we proceeded we turned a corner and heard the sound of rushing water. I figured it was a storm drain or a stream. I was wrong, it was one of the main sewer lines in Paris, carrying thousands of gallons of raw sewage per hour, and there was nothing between it and us except a 4 foot high chain link fence to keep you from falling in. You could see unimaginable things floating by literally feet away from us. I saw Q-tips, toilet paper, turds and among other things, feminine hygiene products. It was awesome.








After I got over my initial amazement with the smell and the sight of hundreds of gallons of sewage flowing by me every minute, I started paying attention to the exhibits. Interestingly enough, the exhibits were in an adjacent open sewer main. You walked 3 feet above the flowing sewage on metal grates, where they had displays (in French and English) about the innovations of the Paris sewer system...which came out of necessity. We spent a good 2 hours down in the sewer museum and tour. I don't think Bobbi breathed through her nose the entire time. Another thing about the environment in the sewer....it was extremely humid and fairly warm (about 75 degrees). I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer when it is over 90 degrees outside.






After the sewer tour, we took the metro to the Pere-Lachaise cemetery. We walked around for a good 2 hours scoping out all the graves and hunting down Jim Morrison's grave. The cemetery was interesting, as all the tombs are above ground and there is no order to the way the tombs are placed. It is a huge cemetery and there are endless mazes of walkways.




We were pretty pooped after that, so we headed back to our hotel on Rue Monge. We rested for an hour or so and then headed out to dinner!

We went to dinner at Le Philosophe, a cute little bistro across the Seine from where we are staying. It was in a section of town where the streets are really narrow and all made of cobblestones. It was also an area popular with the gay crowd in Paris, as we passed numerous bars with only men, and there were lots of guys holding hands...dad loved it!

As usual in Paris, dinner took over 2 hours, so we just headed back to the hotel!

It was definitely a long day for us and we must have walked 10 miles today!