Paris: Epicenter of Culture?

Paris is amazing. I don't use that word lightly considering a, m and z are all moved on a French keyboard. The 73-78F, sunny weather with a light breeze doesn't hurt either.

A series of tubes.

Saturday, the second raid into Parisian controlled territory. I took the metro from the quaint east suburb area into central Paris looking for the ridiculously large Louvre. 'Taking' the metro is more like sitting in paint shaker that is mixing up a batch of 70's inspired groovy paint, a good adventure in itself. I hopped off the train as near to the Louvre as I could get and ambled through the streets of Paris and ended at a sign that definitely did not say 'Louvre' but rather 'Pompidou'. Change of plans. Scratch that, cancel the plans altogether. Into the Pompidou! Just follow my feet. Art for art's sake... There's a big shroom in the Pompidou. And a very awesome fire suppression system... Buckets, hoses, extinguishers, mammothly large fire doors... but no sprinklers, too much art of course.

I wandered off to Notre Dame de Paris next, enjoyed the weather with a juicy orange and a croissant before heading inside. The pigeons are so tame you can almost punt them. The sparrows will eat bread out of your hand. The inside of Notre Dame is pretty cool, too. The stained glass windows are AMAZING! The top of the Notre Dame towers are 400 steps up, but the view is amazing! Gargoyles, flying buttresses, wire cable so you don't jump... and one really, really big bell. The bells even have names.