Day 11

Today is May 1st, which is May Day. Most of the shops are closed, and the unions march in the streets! There's lots of political demonstrations and marches around the city, all culminating at the Bastille. We decided to stick together today and just wander around, and see where the day takes us. We had breakfast in an empty cafe, and then headed out. There was a big demonstration happening at the Place de la Republique near our hotel. The statue was covered in banners, and something was on fire down the street. I wanted to check it out, but Erin was cautious. After a block we realized it was safe when we saw children and their parents walking around. The unions had started their march from the Republique and were headed toward the Bastille. Everyone was singing and chanting and it all seemed pretty merry. We marched along side them for quite a while.

A little video of the festivities:

Along the way we stopped into an indoor market where there were individual booths selling cheese, meat, fruits and veggies, preserves, sweets, and lots of flowers! On May Day everyone sells Lilly of the Valley! Kids on street corners and in shop doorways. It's supposed to be good luck. We then stopped for churros and a slushy fruit drink near the metro, and took the train to Montmartre, which ended up being insanely close. We came up from the metro, and there were the marchers coming around the corner!

French clowns are much less scary:

Here's a little video I took of the clowns:


These guys had to keep stopping and swapping out. It must get hot in there!

We left the procession and started up the hill:

Evidently this is some famous corner that was in the movie Amelie:

All the tourists were taking pictures of the Amelie corner, so I took a picture of Susan taking a picture:

All the food looks beautiful:

We stopped in at a pub/restaurant for lunch, and sat on the patio. The old men inside were already getting drunk and celebrating the holiday. I had a coffee and snails. Evidently when I went off to the toilet, Erin and Susan were hassled by a couple of peddlers trying to steal the tip money off from the table. They were gone by the time I returned though.

French bathroom graffiti:


Montmartre graffiti:

We left the restaurant and started walking down the hill when we stumbled upon the Montmartre cemetery. We wandered around. It was beautiful!

Alphonse Baudin: French revolutionary

I like how plants have begun to grow on top of the grave stones:

I love this picture of Erin:


Strange pile of stones as grave marker:

It's pretty weird how the road above is right on top of the tombs:

After the cemetery, we headed over to the Bastille to see if there was any festivities, but by the time we got there it seemed that it was all over.

French punks and French blues man at the Bastille:

We then headed over to the Eiffel Tower.

Sign near the tower. Clean up for the tourists:

Below the tower it's like a carnival atmosphere, Parisians trying to make money off of all the tourists. Erin and Susan got ice cream cones and I got a crepe with chocolate and we strolled along the seine back to the metro.

The only picture of me in Paris...as you can see I'm having a terrible time:

We decided to have dinner on the Champs-Elysees. Surprisingly it was really commercial and reminded us of an American mall type atmosphere. Most of the stores seemed to be chains that could be found in the states. We had the name of a brasserie that was supposed to be great, but we walked and walked and couldn't find it. By now my feet were really killing me, and I just wanted to sit down. We ended up just stopping at the next nice restaurant we saw. We ate out on the patio, and as it was my only real dinner in Paris, I decided to really eat well and live it up. I had a steak with fries, snails, and a big glass of wine.

The Arc de Triomphe at the end of the Champs-Elysees:

We got back early and packed our bags.