Halloween

We're not near the Mediterranean anymore! Paris is chilly at the end of October. We prepped for this and brought jackets and warmer clothing.

The plan for today was simple, get on a Red Bus and see as much of the city as possible. We only have two days, and tomorrow will be The Louvre.

Breakfast was not included with the room. We went down the street and found a bakery. A few croissants later, and we were fueled. If you think you've eaten a croissant and wasn't in Paris, I'm afraid you've only eaten a pale imitation. You eat one here and you think, "Oh, yeah, this is why you live in Paris." We stocked up on a few other baked goodies, and started hoofing it to Notre Dame. On the way, we found a small grocer were we bought fruit and a little ham, and browsed in a cheese shop.

Here's the schoolboy humor for this trip. If you need to break wind in Paris, do it in front of a cheese shop and no one will notice!

The Cathedral didn't look like it was open. And it appeared to have an admission price. But then I saw My Lovely Wife walk out. She grabbed me and we went in via the exit. Turned out it was open for business. I'm not really sure what those people outside were queued up for. Maybe they were waiting to go see Quasimodo.

This is a big building on the outside, But it's not that big inside. It's dark, quiet, and has great stained glass. But it's cramped.

The Red Bus was parked on the corner. We climbed aboard and bought tickets. You have to buy a two-day ticket even if you only have one day. That's a bit of a rip-off, but you'll see how we got around that tomorrow.

We climbed to the upper deck which has no roof and jacked in the ear buds we were given and selected English. This provides commentary as the bus makes it around Paris.

The bus is a good idea for people who have never been here. If you don't know what you might want to see, this will give you some ideas. You can get on and off all you want.

What was weird was seeing places I had seen in news footage. Namely where I had seen Nazi soldiers matching into Paris during World War II, or where Hitler had stood and looked over his war prize. It's a really strange feeling.

There's a lot of beggars and con artists here. One con preys on your greed. The artist walks near you and reaches down to the ground. Your eye follows his arm, and he rises up to reveal at huge gold-colored ring, and offers it to you as if you had dropped it. When this was done to me, I didn't buy it because I had seen the ground below his hand and hadn't seen the ring there. My hands were in my pockets trying to stay warm, and I touched my thumb to my wedding band to ensure it was still on my finger. I just told the man it wasn't mine. The ring is probably just pot metal and as the con artist gives it to you, he probably asks for a reward. I'm not sure about that last part since the two times it was played on me I didn't bite.

We found some toilets, but they were closing for lunch. Huh? From 12 to 1 PM the toilets we found were closed, and the woman attendant wouldn't let My Lovely Wife in. We found other toilets below the Eiffel Tower, which I dubbed the Eiffel Toilets.

After our grand ride around Paris, which took all day with the stops we made, we walked back the way we came, and picked up more food at the grocer. There was no refrigerator in the hotel room. But it was very cold outside so I tied the bag of food to the rails outside our window and allowed nature to keep the food fresh.

Unfortunately, the Hotel Castex isn't as nice as our Italian hotels. The major disappointment was the ventilation system, which didn't appear to have a thermostat. I think I would try another hotel if we ever return.

After a full day of being in the cold weather, I was feeling a cold coming on in my chest. It was Halloween and I really wanted to go on a night crawl in Paris, but I decided not to. I needed this cold to get all the way home before it blew up. I'll have to leave the night crawl of Paris for another trip.