Yesterday was Sunday, so that made it church day, just like every Sunday in the Sheldon household. Okay, it had been a long time since I went to church on a Sunday, but this week I went to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. I was sort of mixed on this beforehand, not being a church-going person myself, but I really enjoyed it. The bad part about visiting a church on Sunday morning is that services are being held so you have to be extra quiet and you don’t have complete access. The good part about it is that it’s free.
I have to admit that I was a little awestruck as I was walking up the metro steps to Notre Dame that these were the same steps that Jesus walked when he went to speak to the players before their game against La Sorbonne and told them to win one for the Gipper. (I think that is Touchdown Jesus to the left.) Or something like that. Anyway, Notre Dame was awe-inspiring for completely non-made-up reasons as well and I took lots of pictures.
After Notre Dame, I went to Sacre Couer because, well, too much God on a Sunday can never be a bad thing, right? No pictures were allowed inside, although that didn’t stop many, so my only pictures are from outside. Sacre Couer is near the top of Montmartre and I had heard how great the views were from there. If you like views of smog, there probably were none better. Again, Sunday, God, pictures, so I can’t complain.
After this, I decided to go on some wild goose chases. I guess that wasn’t technically the plan, but on some friendly advice, I went to the catacombs. They were closed due to vandalism. Then, on some friendly advice, I went to Harry’s New York Bar. Entirely different part of town. It was closed due to not being open. Oh, well. So much for the friendly advice.
Last night was for football and the reason for the timing of my trip. Olympique Lyon, who has won six of the last seven French football championships, came to play Paris St.-Germain at Parc des Princes. I am not going to go into a lot of detail here because (a) few of you care and (b) I’m doing more complete rundowns of all of the stadiums that I am visiting on my soccer blog www.worldclubrankings.com. Anyway, let it suffice for me to say the following. Soccer fans can be scary when they are yelling in English. When they start yelling at you and you have no idea what they are saying all you do is shout in agreement and hope you survive.
Oh, and I know I wasn't going to talk about food, but at the football game, I bought a hot dog. Not just a hot dog. A hot dog with a mini-baguette as a hot dog roll. I have to admit the hot dog was good. Not the best I've ever had, but a solid tube steak. The roll, however, was the bestest hot dog bun ever created. The entire cost of the trip was worth having a hot dog on that bun alone.
Today was mostly a cleanup day, trying to hit places that I had heard about, mostly little things. I went to the Pantheon and Jardin du Luxembourg, where I had lunch. (Yes, ham and cheese.) Then I went to the Bastille. Rather, I went to where the Bastille used to be and now, among others, a McDonald’s stands. Storm the Golden Arches!!!! I went back to Harry’s New York Bar and it was open, so I drank. Then I went to a McDonald’s (my first since London) to get the famous Royal with Cheese (see Pulp Fiction) and have a beer with my Royal with Cheese. (Actually, it was a Royal with Bacon.) D’oh!!! I wasn’t going to talk about food.
Okay, that’s enough. Gotta go to bed soon so I can catch the early train to Switzerland. Still don’t know what I’m going to do there, but I’ll decide once I’m there. The train ride is four-and-a-half hours, so I’ll probably write some more on the way.
Cheers!!
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