morning in paris

Today I woke up relatively early to catch the free Walking Tour that starts at St. Michel's. Arriving there, I found myself in a plaza where lots of people were loitering around. There were people in red who apparently are the tour organizers. Those who wanted to join the free tour were asked to get numbers and to choose whether the tour they're joining is English-speaking or not. Of course, I had to choose the English one. Later, we were "herded" in a group and were asked by our tour guide, Ono, to introduce ourselves to the person beside us. Although I love to travel, I don't usually converse with people I don't know. I think my mom's teaching of not talking to strangers when I was young had been carried through my adult life. Anyways, the introduction wasn't that painful as the people beside me were a group of nice, English girls. There were also Asians in the group but they kept to themselves. After Ono has given his group rules, we were off to discover Paris -- for free! :)

Ono taking us along the banks of the River Seine

Ono took us to Ile de la Cite, which now I understand, is an island in a city, bounded by two rivers. I also learned that the reason Hugo wrote Hunchbank of Notre Dame was to be able to save it from destruction. I love the story of the faces on Pont Neuf where a king has asked an artist to sculpt the faces of his drunken friends. Another thing I like about Pont Neuf is the "love seat" design along the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I realized only later that I wasn't able to take many pictures of the places we've been to *sigh*

 Ile de la Cite and the River Seine

Anyways, it was also in Paris that I got an explanation as to why there were padlocks on the rails of the bridges. Apparently, these are the symbol of undying love for lovers. They would lock them and throw away the keys into the river. But when we look closer, there are locks with number combinations. I guess when lovers break up, they can erase their partner's name on it, change the combination and have the same promise with someone else. LOL.

We were also shown a building after crossing Pont Neuf that still exhibits bullet holes from a war. That was pretty interesting.

  Maybe you want one of your own?

The tour ended for me at Starbucks near the Louvre. I gave Ono a 5Euro tip (I know, it's too much but I'm wary of giving a coin tip so I gave him that to cover his lunch), said goodbye, walked, crossed the street and entered the museum at one of it's "secret" entrance. Secret, meaning, another entrance aside from the one at the inverted pyramid. My friend, M, when she went to visit here was given a student discount. As I was also "young-looking," I was hoping to get the same discount. Unfortunately, I was charged an adult fee. Oh well.

Louvre blog -- to follow :)

posted 25 June 2012