3. Pretty Much I Slept Today and Made Up for It With Awesome!

4:32pm

Right, so it was last night just yesterday, and I went to sleep around 2am. That's pretty much the usual. I thought I'd set my alarm for 10am, figuring 8 hours of sleep was good, and even better for my back (seems long sleep aren't all that great for my back). So, 10am popped up and I said, out loud, "Noooope!" and set it for 11am. Still reasonable...

I got up at 3pm, you guys. I forgot that the same thing happened last year, I slept 14 hours my first night in London. I guess it's time change mixed with long day of travel, mixed with finally having time to relax from all other life things. 

Anyhow, I feel weird, kind of loopy, I'm guessing it's the sleep and adjusting to having free time. It's weird. I love it, but it's weird!

Finally I left the place I'm staying around 4pm, feeling... day wastey. I'll get over that. I'm starting to get over it as I sit at a little restaurant right near the Arc de Triomphe. It's called Casa Luca, and I just had a very, very good caesar salad, fresh baguette and what appeared to be hand-churned butter. 

The parmesan cheese was in large sheets, and there was sooooo much chicken underneath. This'll tie me over until dinner later tonight, probably very later given that it's now 5:22pm.

(Good lord, what is the deal with selfie sticks? They're everywhere! Could we be a little less full of ourselves, humanity?)

I'm thinking of heading over to a Arc de Triomphe and doing the climb to the top, but we shall see how late it's open tonight. If I remember correctly, the climb took it out of me last year, and I was in better shape then, the good news is that I have my new runners on (one of the things I changed about this year... shoes that wouldn't wreck me!), so hopefully that will help.

8:57pm

I'm sitting at a restaurant called La Caveau. I walked across the entire city-ish to get here. It's the one restaurant that I remember being amazing from last year (though all were good), and I've ordered the same thing I had last time, the frogs legs, lamb with these delicious cheesy scalloped potatoes (called something much more French than that, I'm sure), and will be getting the caramelized pineapple with citrus fruits on top. Whaaaaaaat?

Anyhow, here's what went on before I hauled myself all the way from Champs-Élysées to an island past Notre Dame.

I made it over to the Arc (which I'm pretty sure it loves being called), but opted not to go up, because there were just a ton of people. Maybe on Monday or Tuesday when people are at work. I did, however, take some pretty great pictures of the outside. What looks like this? How do they put so much detail on something?

I tried out my new camera's 30x optical zoom, and I have to say that it's rather impressive!

This guy!!!

From there I walked, and walked, and walked down Champs-Élysées, went to a couple of stores, and bought only some treats for tonight when I get back to the place I'm staying. I found myself very snacky last night with no treats! Never again I say! Never again!

Look at how weird some of these little chip flavours are? Ox? We'll see how those taste at some point.

Then I walked again, all I could think about was the frog legs and lamb that are soon to be making their way to my table, and I ended up at Notre Dame, at night, with all the most beautiful lights ever! Again, how does this exist? Also, I downloaded the Hunchback of Notre Dame and watched it on the plane. So good, so sad, so lovely, so Disney. Though honestly, it got a little violent and pervy there in a few parts, much more violent and pervy than I remember it being as a kid! I guess when we're kids we don't clue into that stuff, but, man alive, there was some stuff that I think would scare me now if I were a kid (that makes no sense, but you know what I mean).

Oooooh man my food is here!

And then dessert came, and I almost literally cheered out loud! I wasn't what I thought it would look like, but man was it good!

Then something happened which is the real reason that I go on these trips. I'd been exchanging some little laughs with this couple sitting near the front of the restaurant, as we all watched the cat that lived at the restaurant galavant amongst the guests and outside.

We ended up chatting, they invited me over to their table as the restaurant cleared out, and they were simply lovely. I think we talked for over an hour, exchanging stories, talking about our individual experiences in Paris and other places we'd travelled. 

Their names are Marcy and Barry, and Barry told me this hilarious story (among many other wonderful stories) about him fishing in norther-ish Quebec with a group of friends, all in their own little boat. It started pouring rain, and everyone abandoned the fishing afternoon and went back to the cabin. He stayed out there, made a makeshift clothes-line, took his gear off to dry it, and then went back to fishing. Totally naked! He said there's nothing more freeing than being in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles away from another person, and fishing in the buff... sooooo funny!  I'll have to take his word for it though! Anyhow, we all exchanged information, and will hopefully stay in touch.

That's the point, folks. Human communication and connection, for an hour or for a half-second. That's the whole point of all of this. And my this, I don't mean by trip, I mean life.

Alright, it's 2:29am, I'm barely tired, and I'm just finishing that tiny bag of Strong Cheese & Onion chips. I love how nondefined the cheese is. It's just strong. Whatever, they were delicious!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to go to the top of Notre Dame, because I was sad to miss it last time I was here, and because it supposed to rain for three days after tomorrow, soooo, should get the out-in-the-open stuff done tomorrow. 

Night everyone! I'll be back with what I hope are more fun stories to tell tomorrow!