Day 18

Yesterday was a really good day! We started the day off early and saw the statue of where the Bastille used to stand. We kept walking and went to this old square that used produce all the furniture in Paris, but it's all pretty rundown now. But apparently thats where most of the peasants came from who stormed the Bastille during the revolution.  

We stopped for lunch at the market of d'Alligre and a few friends and I went to this couscous place that was incredible! You got to choose from a variety of skewered meats and then it came with a mountain of couscous and a liter of the most delicious vegetable sauce that had the largest chunks of veggies. All for 7 euro. We didn't know there would be so much food so we only ate about half our lunch and took the rest home for left overs. I cant believe I forgot to take a picture of it, but I stole this one from my friend Pam

We also walked along a raised pedestrian path that was completely empty. It was nice for a change, we didn't get the snooty looks coming from people scowling at the large number of people walking together. These are the 2 building I liked the most. This first one looked like it got chopped in half.

 And this one is just unique in its own obvious way.

 The next stop was the Gare de Lyon which is just an old giant train station, but it's really pretty

Then we finished our walk and had a free afternoon/evening. So my friend Pam and I ate our left over cous cous on the Champ de Mars then decided we wanted to get dessert and go shopping in the neighborhood by the opera house. But pretty much by the time we got there the stores were closing... and it was still light out so we wanted to make good use of our trip over there. We walked to the Tuileries and sat by the fountain for a while then notices the Arc de Triomphe in the distance and thought it too looked close enough to walk to. Little did we know we ended up walking all the way down the Champs Elysees and the sun was already setting. Which by the way was the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen without getting to see the sun. The sky was almost a neon pink and purple. This picture just doesn't quite do it justice though.

I don't know if you can really see, but that poor mini cooper was stopped in the round about for few minutes. I think the driver was too scared to exit. I know I would have been! I don't think I could ever get used to driving on a road where there aren't any dotted lines to guide me.

The Champs Elysees is so pretty at night time. And the shops are open much later there so we got to see how beautifully decorated they are all. For instance, this is the original Louis Vuitton and it looks like its glowing gold!

The more I get to walk around Paris without the class the more I LOVE it. But it also makes me appreciate being in nature and living a low key lifestyle where I don't feel like I am going to catch contagion every time I ride the metro or walk past a band of gypsies.