Sunday 3rd April: Louvre, Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower,...

[ 226 photos this day: https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110403?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjit_68gbmgEw#  ]

This day I woke up a bit late. I went to bed the previous night at about 6pm and woke up this morning at about 9:20am. Really long sleep. I think this is because the previous two days had less than 5 hours sleep in sum. I had the breakfast again. They have bread and a croissant and cereal. I caught the metro to the Louvre today because it's free entry for everyone first Sunday of every month. (free for euro citizens under 25 at all times I think).

I got to the Louvre and I thought the line was a little bit longer than it was yesterday. I walked toward the end of it and found that it went all the way to the end of the big open space enclosed by some of the Louvre buildings... then I found out that it went through an arch allowing access through to another very large open space and went all the way around this open space as well. I guess other people had the same idea as me about the free entry. A guy was holding up a sign at the end of the line saying that it would take 2 hours. I thought that was more than I was willing to take. Plus, if there are that many in the line, then inside must be equivalently crowded which wouldn't be much fun.

Massive line. Here is a a small part of the first half. All these people need to go through a metal detector.

A part of the second half.

I decided not to visit the Louvre today. I would just go tomorrow and pay the 10 euros. I decided to go to the cathedral of Notre Dame instead.

This guy is blowing bubbles on a bridge.

Cathedral of Notre Dame.

This french guy (in the white jumper with black pants) is running around with a mask on making silly gestures. These tourists loved it. It was raining at this point so I was waiting under a shop front, keeping dry. The french guy later came up to me and started saying things. I said a few times that I don't understand French, and even if he couldn't understand the english in that sentence, it should be obvious that I'm not speaking French! But he didn't seem to understand. He kept talking to me. I think he might have been crazy.

I then wandered through some streets and came to the library building. It is that building with all the pipes and things on the outside. It's quite famous and I like interesting architecture. I wanted to see this building but had forgotten that I did. So I was really happy to have stumbled upon it.

Cloning service.

I went inside this but it didn't seem like there was very much I could see. I'd have had to pay and I had no idea what was inside. There is probably something good in here, but at the time I didn't really feel like it. I was happy to just see the outside. I wandered around a bit more through some lovely gardens and things.

A garden being destroyed or rejuvinated.

This is a big underground mall that seems to be dedicated to cinema. They were playing soundtracks from movies and they had some specialist cinemas. One soundtrack they played was really great. I think it might have been from Edward Scissor Hands.

I then walked up the Champs Elysees to see the arch de triumph. The Champs Elysees had some nice trees at the beginning and then turned into a shopping area toward the end. Shopping areas sometimes bother me because there seems to be one speed of walking: slowly. So I had to spend the time weaving through them all.

I think this is a ridiculous scene, particularly working out what all these people are doing and why.

To get to the arch you have to walk through this tunnel underneath the road, then take stairs up. They were charging money to let people go up I think, but if you go up the stairs which say "no entry" then you don't have to pay.

After that I walked down an avenue toward the Eiffel Tower. I decided to go up it today.

Mass produced buildings. Awesome.

A big convoy of police vans drove by.

The stopped on the other side of the road, where I was headed. They had come to harass some African protesters.

The police people are making a really intimidating impression. They are marching around in lines, wearing big body armor. There were a lot of police people. A second large group are waiting up the street a bit to the left. This group in the photo approached the protesters a few times, who responded by jumping up and dancing a bit, but then were eventually scared away. I'm not sure what they were protesting or why the police arrived.

After that I went into a museum. It was free! It was a little bit like the Victoria and Albert museum except I couldn't read the descriptions.

In this museum there are lots of people who display things to visitors. They have microscopes and books to demonstrate stuff. It was really great. Although I can't speak French. But it would be great for anyone who could.

I went out of the museum and had a look at the Eiffel Tower. I'm at this raised point where everyone takes their classic eiffel tower shot. As a result, I thought that the landscaping around the tower was really formal, so I was surprised yesterday to find the really nice park underneath, where I then slept.

These people are everywhere trying to sell crappy tourist gimmicks.

I wanted to climb up the tower on foot, but that option was closed today. So I took the lift up.

This was a little unnerving actually. I hope the 19th century technology is up to the task!

There are three main levels for the tower. The first lift stops at the second, then you take a second lift to get to the top. I had a look around on the second level for a while. It seemed quite high already. I think second level must be roughly 150 metres. Then I took the next lift to the top and took a bunch of pictures.

Looking up from second level to the top.

The second lift was slightly more scary again.

At the top. You can buy a plastic cup of wine for 10 euros.

It was getting cold. I went back down to second level. Then I walked down to first level with the stairs! I really enjoyed seeing all the metalwork up close. It seemed like some kind of 19th century depiction of an utopian future where everyone lives in the sky.

At every hour, the tower sparkles with these white lights. I was trying to work out if the lights come on randomly, or if they're lots of lines of lights at non-random sequences but mixed together so much that it appears random...

I was feeling fairly energetic still, in contrast to yesterday which I felt was a waste. So I decided to try wandering back toward my hostel rather than catching a train.

After a while I got tired and had to catch a train.

The metro map.

Where I'm going next...

I got back to the hostel and bought a pizza from a dodgy place across the street.