Ate Lunch Next to Sacre Coeur

After I checked in to my hostel (which was really decent. If you ever need a hostel in Paris you should check it out Caulincourt Square Hostel. They were really well priced and it included a free breakfast if you woke up early enough and free internet) I walked around looking for a park to eat in which was surprisingly hard to find. For some reason, I had the idea that there were little parks hidden everywhere in Paris and that it would be really easy to just happen upon one, not so much the case. Anyway, I had packed some food for the plane but didn't end up eating it because there was a vegetarian option for the hot dinner so I ate that for lunch because I didn't want to waste it (that was a rather convoluted sentence whoops). So I walked around trying to find somewhere to sit down and just take everything in while I ate. I was pretty sure a waiter would get mad at me if I tried to eat my own food at a cafe table on the sidewalk so I didn't want to do that and I was making my way down the hill from my hostel. On that note, for some god awful reason I had it in my head that Paris would be flat (I guess Davis has spoiled me a bit in that regard), not the case at all, quite the opposite in fact. Walking around those three days was a damn fine workout. I got myself a bit lost, because that is the best way to be in a new city! and looked right when I came up to some intersection and saw an unbelievably tall stairway. I'd say the rise in elevation was at least 50 yards (funny side note: when I picture distances in my head I usually compare it to a football field and how many eight to five steps it would take and convert that into yards, lawl) and through a gap in some buildings I could see the Sacre Coeur. So I went up that way, and ate lunch at this park that is right by it. A misty rain had started by the time I got there.

The Sacre Coeur is literally at the top of this huge hill and from the front facade of the church looking out over the city, on a good day I'm sure you could see for miles. That day wasn't a good day so I could see maybe a 100 yards or so. I went back and explored the hill for a while. There is a square two blocks away from the church that is filled with touristy stuff, artists selling paintings, musicians, restaurants, gift shops, caricature/portraiture artists and the like. And the architecture there ... omg it made me drool, absolutely gorgeous. There were a few museums that I'd passed but I didn't go into them, meh. I prefer exploring stuff on my own and just seeing it in its natural habitat to having it presented to me altogether.

Well I think that is the conclusion of Day 1 in Paris. Kind of uneventful towards the end. I think I fell asleep around 6pm because I was just so tired from not sleeping on the plane and then slept until 10am the next morning or so.