LAST Day in Paris

Guess what? You will never believe how cheap it is to eat at McD's for breakfast. Egg macmuffin, yogurt and berries, real espresso or cap, three, count 'em 3, special croissants and even freshly squeezed orange juice - all for only 4 euros. We ate there twice. Need to, eating out is outrageous here. All other times we groceried it and bought cereal, milk, fruit etc to stay healthy. Twice we ate at French restaurants and I had to save G from eating steak tartar. He sees the word steak and he goes nuts. Of course, we have been to quite a lot street-side cafes to sip wine and beer. It's the thing to do and somebody has to help the French economy.
We've been here for 6 days and have nearly covered the entire city center core area and three of the four compass points on the outside of the city as well. We've left off three city neighbourhoods to do on our two day return in two weeks. Some of the things we've done are: the chateau Versailles, the Louvre, Picasso's museum, both the Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur, the huge shopping centre called La Fayette, the Opera House, the Vosges, the Bastille, the Arc de Triomphe, the Grand Arch, the Centre Pompanou, the Hotel De Ville, oh jeez, I can't keep going.
We actually ended up visiting the two churches at a time when a service was going on so we went to church - even communion, we listened to the sisters of Sacre Coeur carry the service through singing. What an awesome feeling to be in that church when a time-honoured tradition was being carried out. Our favourite areas are the Montmartre and Pigalle - a bit off the wall, I will agree - and our own area of Poissoniere was also very interesting.
We subbed in the metro throughout our whole stay. We did pay 28 euros each for a 5-day pass but we ended up using it way more than that after all was done. We walked approx 8 to 10 kms a day. I mean, we really did walk our butts all over Paris. We have seen riots, rights for health care gatherings, people being sniffed for drugs by huge shephard dogs, teenagers hauled over by the cops for bag checks and, yes, a multitude of vagrants and panhandlers. So sadly, we were watchers of one old man as he got himself up off the hot vent area from the exhaust of the subway, where he had spent the night. He toddled over to the puddle in the curb to take his shoes off and wash his feet. Later that day, we saw him drinking from a bottle of wine and eating garbage.
There are so many people in this city and still not enough housing to deal with them. The immigrant problem is more apparent now than 20 years ago but Europe knew back then that it was going to happen. They just haven't bothered to deal with it. Our hotel room was cleaned by a lady from Africa and she was so delighted when we would leave her french notes with money every day. It is such a statement when one can say that it is cheaper to live in a one-room dirty hotel than to live in an apartment.
We have been going straight out for so long that it was just today that we decided that we couldn't take any more waiting in lines to see something else. It happened after we had just left our pretend good hotel to move to our hotel that is chosen by our bus tour beginning point. This hotel is a 3 star but after the one we just left, which takes top marks for the dirtiest and sleeziest place that we've ever stayed in, this one feels like a 10 star. We even have a tub - not to mention a toilet. And, after you take a bath or shower, you ARE clean. Again, I did say it was cheap didn't I.
Well, we head out tomorrow for Caen and Normandy and to the beaches of Normandy. It's going to be cold - do you guys in Winnipeg hear me - cold, at least, oh I don't know, maybe 12. We really have had beautiful weather this past week - about 23 each day. I am feeling sorry for you guys though with the horrible winter that you have experienced. Hope it's over soon. We see that you are expecting 9 this coming week. See, we do try to keep abreast of all of your lives.
We've been told that we may not have good email connections in the next week, so if you don't hear from me, you must remember that I'll be in the wine Bordeaux region and sipping probably a bit too much.
Cheers,
Love J and G
XO