Musee d’Orsay and Eiffel Tower Picnic
Saturday morning was a little tough after our Friday night tapas tour turned pub crawl. We decided to take advantage of the hostel 5€ breakfast which included a coffee and two pastries. The croissant was good and I got a slice of bread that was sweet and yummy. I was happy with the convenience and value (more on that tomorrow).
We took an Uber to the museum since we were tired after a 35,000 step day. This one was much more organized but we walked through with less energy. However we did perk up when I snagged us some kids museum exploration books and we did a little scavenger hunt for statues or “name things in the painting that start with s”. Really added some color to a dragging morning.
Next stop, Eiffel Tower picnic! But first, a lovely walk down Rue Cler where we marveled at the fresh fruits and vegetables (we bought little bananas, strawberries, pomegranate juice, and two green figs), tasted cheeses (bought two, one smoky, one salty), selected a bottle of wine (12€ chenin Blanc), stopped into a meat shop (got two different sausages…one he called “sausage for women” because it’s less fatty), and finally a baguette!
The food was delicious, the weather was not too chilly, and watching people take stupid pictures was entertaining.
Took a quick nap after eating which was much needed. Besides tiredness, Rebecca is suffering from some terrible blisters so we walked a tiny bit less. Decided on a cab over to Montmarte to walk the district where Impressionism began. About 10 minutes in the cab driver said he had to fix something and pulled over to supposedly fill his flat tire. He said he would stop the meter at 10.50€. It took him about 5 mins and when he came back in, the meter was at 14.20 and he said something like “one and a half”. I know these cabbies are scammers so I checked the math and it was 3.7€ discrepancy. I didn’t say anything yet but I told Rebecca we will make sure we agree on the price before handing him money.
Sure enough, when we stopped to get out the meter was at 30€ and he said 28.5 please. And I said “no, when you stopped you were out for 3.7, it should be 26” he argued back that the meter was stopped at 12.5 instead of 10.5, he got very loud and I yelled back at him “no it should be 26” and then he yelled “fine I don’t want to talk about it anymore!” and Rebecca paid him and he gave us back the correct change. Imagine how many people this guy scams every day and then bullies them into giving him the money. Rebecca said I was scary lol
We followed Rick Steve’s walking tour through Montmartre. It took us to the highest point in Paris, through two churches, next to the “love wall” (it says I love you in 100 languages) and past the houses of Van Gogh and Picasso. The tour ended at Moulin Rouge and down a street of sex shops (one of which looked like it was being raided as we went by).
We were quite far from where we were staying at this point so we decided to have a quick crepe for dinner before ubering back. I had looked up a Creperie that had great reviews but we got a bit confused by the names because they were basically the same but this place was sub par on all levels. After sitting for about 8 minutes, we were perusing the menu still and the lady came over and stood there forcing us to order. She just stood there while we haphazardly made two crepe selections. Truly, I don’t think it would have mattered. The crepes were both “meh” in their own ways. The savory one was too cheesy and the sweet one was too sweet. Overall a disappointing meal.
We ended the night by ubering back to the hostel and working on a micro puzzle that Rebecca bought and planning how to get to Versailles the next day. It was a frustrating puzzle but we did it! Truly we should have gone to sleep.
