Paris + 1

We woke from our grocery store feast with some leftovers still in tact. We had a quick breakfast, planned out our day and headed out to see what Paris had to offer. We to took the tram into the center of Paris in hopes to see numerous sites. While trying to find the French Catacombs, large military vehicles zipped past us. Large groups of these officials made their way down the confusing streets of Paris waving as they went. We really didn't think anything of it, other than maybe France was being invaded. We arrived at the catacombs and read yet another disappointing sign hanging on the door. The catacombs were closed for the day in recognition of a holiday. We put two and two together and figured out it was Bastille day, which is celebrated similarly to our 4th of July. Many of the sites and restaurants were closed for the day, so we had a limited selection. We made our way to the Eiffel Tower and found a large group of people waiting in the park for an event of some sort. When we got closer to the Tower, we determined it was a concert, featuring the some famous French rocker, probably the equivalent to Bruce Springsteen judging from the fans and t-shirts. We took a few quick shots and continued down the road to the Arch de Triumpe. The roadway to the Arch de Triumpe is famous for shops and people watching. The road was blocked off for the most part due to a parade for later in the day. We walked for a while down this street weaving in between hundreds of people to our destination. We made it to Arch where we had to take a tunnel underneath the famed circle street around, you know the one Clark Griswold gets suck on in European Vacation. Upon exiting we were met by numerous tourists trying to take cleaver pictures in front of the giant monument. After getting a few photos ourselves we made our way back to the hotel on the metro. By this time we were starving and hadn't had any time to research good restaurants, so we asked the front desk. The front desk worker informed us of a little jewel down the street that he frequents. We headed down the street and found the restaurant deserted except for one server/bartender/cook. We made sure they were open and took a seat in the back. We quickly found out that her didn't speak a bit of English, as we asked him for some menus. He moved us up front to were the chalkboard menus were. We tried our best to decipher what we could, but the server knew we were having some difficulties. He quickly stepped in to aid us by using hand gestures and running to the back to show us what some of the dishes were. He was super helpful as he helped us pick out our food. We talked for a bit and before we knew it our food was on its way out. We unknowingly ordered steaks which came with three sides. It was all really good and after the meal the kind man gave us a complimentary glass of wine. We had a really good time and wished we could come back the next night but we had a new hotel booked on the other side of the city. We headed back to the hotel looking for something to do and read that the Paris movie scene was pretty good, with lots of interesting theaters, so we decided to check it out. We really wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie but didn't know if anything would be available due to it being opening night. We looked up a few cinemas who were showing English versions of it and headed out on the metro. We climbed the stairs out of the metro only to find a line wrapping around the building of the first cinema. Heading down the street, all of the other cinemas were the same deal. Even though Harry Potter was sold out everywhere, we still were looking for something to do, so we decided to see Public Enemies. It was a pretty nifty flick, and a pretty nifty day.