On day two, a few of us decided to take a quick tour before our speech training sessions in the afternoon. This is also the first time when we will be taking the metro, but before that, we had to over come "Champs Smeared Doogy Poos."
Buying 2-Day pass at the station
However, we decided to check out the Arc and Champs Elysee first.
The Arc stood overwhelming, not just with its size, but with the details that it wears.
We didn't spend too long at the Arc and continued by walking down Champs Elysee. It was Sunday morning, cloudy, so most of the stores were closed. I guess I like it this way. Fewer people on the street means more time for me to look at what's there.
One thing I noticed, and appreciate, is that even those shops that are closed for various reasons( renovations or waiting for new renters) are well decorated.
Like this one that is under construction. It seems that nothing will stop the French from being "beautiful". A little creativity turns a job site into a point of interest.
French Plumb... no, Fireman working on some underground thingy.
So we decided to go to the opera house and found the nearest metro station... nothing special, just want to mention it.
You know, many other cities, like Singapore, have TV's or entertainment systems onboard their public transports. In Paris, they've got live entertainers.
Here's an amazing sight. As we got out of the metro and finding our way to the opera house, we came across this bunch of asian-look folks who seemed to be waiting for something. Then all of the sudden, the gate to a store that they were standing by started to roll its gate up.... and all these people(Chinese) scrambled to enter the store by squeezing through the still-opening gate!
Apparently, it was some sort of outlet or duty free store.
We walked and walked. The map we had didn't have enough details to guide us to the exact spot, so I didn't even know if we saw the opera house(apparently not). However, we did snap a few shots along the way.
We headed back to the hotel before noon to prepare for our speech training sessions(except Joao who got so excited by the fact the the Louvre was close to where we were, simply said "good bye" and took off, and later late for his training session because he got lost in the metro!)
The afternoon was spent at the hotel perfecting our speeches, but our hearts were restless. Joao and I made a decision to visit the Effiel Tower after dinner.
AFTER DINNER???? Dinner starts at 8pm, and usually don't get done until 10.30 or later! The metro shuts down at mid night! OMG OMG What should we do????
WALK
Yes, the two of us, plus my metal tripod as our bodyguard, went to the tower by metro and planned to walk back to the hotel because the map told us that we can do it.
So on a Sunday night, 2 dudes, fresh to Paris, were wondering on the Parisian streets. What interesting things can happen? Nothing really happened, but we did see a few things.
-Homeless guy sleeping in the middle of the road
-African Immigrants chasing tourists around with blinking things in their hands.
-Soldiers with cool looking machine guns
-A car crashing into another.
Nonetheless, night shots of the Effiel tower can't be missed.
Also, just as we got out of the metro at mid night, the tower sparkled...
More videos to capture the tower better:
Looking up at the tower from its bottom reminds me of the scene in the movie "Independence Day" where they were trying to attack the alien's spaceship big gun on its bottom. Somehow this aged metal structure spells future.
The ending to the adventurous day is quite boring, except the fact that I decided to bring a pair of new shoes hoping to break-in, but it ended up almost breaking my feet...
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