This is the second Europe trip post. It covers the events of July 10th and July 11th of the year 2008.

-- July 10th 2008 --

Our train arrived in Paris early the morning of July 10th. We did manage to get some sleep on the train. We disembarked from the train, purchased a "carnet" of Metro tickets, and navigated our way to the Etienne-Marcel stop.

Once there we met Laurent, our "landlord" for the duration of our stay in Paris. He set us up with an apartment in the 2nd arrondissement in the Châtelet-Les Halles district. For my future reference it was at 4 Rue Tiquetonne, on the top floor (4th?), on the western side of the stairwell.

We quickly began exploring our area. We almost immediately found Rue Montorgueil which is one of those unreasonably quaint market streets (rues commerçantes) that litter Paris. It would become our local source of fresh produce, café crème, and affordable bottled water for our entire stay.

After our trip we decided to wander blindly until we found a place to treat ourselves to an overpriced breakfast. We found just such a place in le Zimmer. It may have been the best breakfast we had in Paris. The server was genuinely helpful and taught us the best things to order for breakfast in Paris. We sat out on the enclosed patio overlooking the Palmier Fountain in the middle of the Place du Châtelet. While eating fresh Viennoiseries and sipping coffee rich with warm cream I thought it was a fantastic way to start our first day in France.

After feeding ourselves and wandering around a bit to get our bearings we started the site-seeing proper. First we explored The church of Saint-Eustache which is a giant Gothic construction located very near our apartment.

From there we took a long walk over to the Musée des Arts et Métiers. It is amongst my favorite museums from our trip. It is fascinating to see how scientific instruments have improved over the centuries. I particularly liked the older instruments which were made not only to be functional, but also beautiful.

Later that evening we strolled through The Pompidou Center which contains the French National Museum of Modern Art.

-- July 11th 2008 --

After a quick breakfast in the apartment we headed directly for the Louvre. It is such a huge museum that we ended up spending several half-days there on our trip. I think that is an excellent way to see it since after about four hours your legs get tired and you begin to lose that sense of wonder that comes from finding a different priceless treasure around each corner.

After the Louvre we crossed the Tuileries Garden and had lunch before making our way to the Arc de Triomphe from which fantastic views of Paris are to be had. I always associated the arch with victory parades, but I never knew that it also doubles as their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well as a kind of general war memorial for more or less any French soldier killed since the Napoleonic Wars.

In the evening we took the Merto up to Montmarte to look for a place to eat. We never found Le Refuge des Fondues which was our original goal. However we did discover a nice place to eat where we had the good fortune to be seated next to Chris and Kate, a British couple who are extremely widely traveled. We had a fantastic time with them and ended up drinking far too much wine. The evening concluded with a walk down to the Moulin Rouge where we took drunken pictures before hopping a cab back to our apartment.