Day 57 - Paris

Gabrielle and Laticia got us up at 8:30ish and we had croissants, coffee, and toast for breakie adn then we took off for the Paris Opera House up north of the Seine River. We decided to walk up there and enjoy Paris so we headed north and under the Eiffel Tower; it was cool because you couldn´t even see the top of it because clouds were so low (it was drizzling out). Then we crossed the Seine adn walked through a food market with all kinds of fresh seafood, breads, cheese, and poultry (they had full partridge type birds for sale, wings, feet, heads and all; weird).

By the time we actually made it up to the opera house it was almost 12:30 and Laticia jumped on the Metro home from there because she had to do some homework. So the 3 of us guys skipped out on the opera house and went to a strip joint instead.

Kidding...we went to the opera house...have the pics to prove it. It was a pretty cool place all done up in marble with gold chandeliers everywhere. There was a very impressive stairwell with all kinds of statues around and awesome big balconies looking down over the stairwell and then a huge hallway in the upstairs part that looked fit for royalty (i´m a royalty expert now after several royal palaces by the way...). We also got to go into one of the boxes and see the opera hall itself which was alot smaller than i would´ve thought, but very elegant and fancy none-the-less.

After looking around for about an hour, Gabrielle left us to go do some work himself and me and Rob stopped at a placed called the American Dream for lunch which was expensive and ended up being terrible.

From there we took the Metro south and got off at the station nearest to Les Invalides, home to Napolean´s tomb. We went into Les Invalides and did a tour of the cathedral with Napolean´s tomb (over 5m or 15 feet high by 4m or 12 feet wide) and then did a tour of the French World War II museum also located in Les Invalides.

It was pretty interesting to compare the French, Belgian, Canadian, and German views of WW2 after having been in museums in all 4 places. It was particularly interesting to see how the French concentrated more on the French rebels than the fact that their government basically rolled over to Hitler and fled Paris although they had one of the largest armies in the world at the time. It was pretty crazy to see the pictures of Hitler in Paris, particularly the one in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We got back to Gabrielle and Laticia´s by 5:30 and we clead up and then left their place at 7 for a creperie around the corner from their place. I had crepes with sausage and eggs then crepes with strawberries for dessert and then headed for the Metro. Gabrielle and Laticia treated us to the dinner...very nice (Thank you again!).

The metro to the Stade de France took about 35 minutes and we hurried to get in the stadium for the start of the game; me and Rob bought ´Aller France!´ scarves along the way with the French rooster on it. We got in just in time to see the teams come out on the field.

The stadium was HUGE. It was amazing. Its the stadium that Paris built for the ´98 World Cup and it sits almost 90 thousand people. We were in the upper deck but were still surprisingly close to the field. It was pretty awesome being there, cheering ´Allez les Blues!´ (Go Blue!) with all the other French fans.

I do have to give it to the Germans though. The two or three sections of fans that they had consistently made more noies than the French and seemed much crazier. I wanted to go over and sit with them...haha. We even recognized a bunch of the songs from Oktoberfest and at Christian´s in Stuttgart!

The game itself wasn´t all that exciting of a game. Both teams were very cautious and you tell that they aren´t used to playing with each other just yet after being with their club teams all season. Plus, they weren´t wearing skates on ice, with sticks and a puck..... The game finished in a 0-0 tie which sucked. Woulda been good to have seen at least one goal.

The most exciting thing that did happen was a huge brawl in the first level stands right underneath us, behind the French net. It looked like a big group of German fans left their section (all young kids ; teenagers and early 20s) and all of a sudden a whole section was just going at it, fists and feet flying for a solid 5 minutes; it was nuts. The security couldn´t calm them down for a long long time and then eventually kicked out the whole lot of them.

After the game we went back to Gabrielle and Laticia´s place and crashed out. Great, great time at the game and a full, full day of stuff.