Our second day in Paris we got up and had breakfast in the hostel, which included coffee, orange juice, croissants, and cereal. We sat by a window looking out on the street, at a little table like in a French cafe. After breakfast we headed to do the free walking tour of Paris like I did when I visited last time. I had hoped we might get Arnaud as a tour guide again, but he wasn't at Saint Michele plaza, so we went with a guy named Sam instead. Mom later found out Sam has family in Yankton, South Dakota, where she lived after college. Small world.
Sam was a good tour guide, told us a few different stories than what I learned last time, and it was fun to see so many beautiful parts of Paris again. It got very warm in the middle of the day, but Sam did his best to stop frequently in places with bits of shade. At the end of the tour we went with Sam and some of the other tourists to a French restaurant with meal deals for people who did the tour. Perhaps the best part about the restaurant was the waiter who single-handedly served everyone who showed up. He had the perfect stereotypical French accent and seemed to really enjoy being a waiter. One of the items on the menu was duck, and as he served people he would say "I have a duck, for you, maybe?" and when he was right he would say something like "Wonderful" or "Perfect." He was really adorable.
Before we left the restaurant we got tickets for the Montmartre tour and Mom chatted with Sam a bit. We asked for his recommendations for museums on Sunday because, as it would be the first Sunday of the month, all the museums were free. We decided on the Louvre and he recommended the Museum of Hunting and Nature (Le Maison de la chasse et de la nature). He then directed us back to our hostel via a bus so that we could see some more of the city. We caught the bus and headed back, taking the metro as well (because it's impossible to get anywhere in Paris without changing buses or trains or something) and rested for a while.
Later that evening we went out to visit Shakespeare and Co, my favorite bookstore. Mom wasn't a big fan of the tight spaces (which makes everything a little crowded even when there's only a few people there), but she waited patiently in the upstairs reading room while I looked around and decided what to buy. Finally the store was closing (at 11 pm) and I settled on Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. Mom picked out a postcard and we headed out into the Parisian night.
It was Saturday and things were pretty crazy. I tried to navigate the metro to get us to the Eiffel Tower, because Mom wanted to see the light show. We ended up having a lot of train problems and got tired and hungry and gave up and went home. There was a particular hitch getting off the train at one point where we had to go up an escalator, but police were checking tickets at the top so there was a backup. Now, as you probably know, escalators keep moving whether the people in front of you move or not. There was a brief moment of very scary backup as we kept pushing the people in front of us and the people behind us started pushing us. But finally we got home and fell into bed after a long day touring gay Paris. (pair-eee)
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