Paris - A Smoker's Paradise

Paris was my favourite city on the trip. I inhaled about a carton of cigarettes a day through second hand smoke and yes, some of the shopkeepers were rude but I stayed there a full week and never ran out of things to do.

This is Sacre Coeur in the Montmartre section of Paris. It is at the very top of the city. I once tried to pronounce it in French for a friend who replied "did you just throw-up in my ear?" I'll admit my French is horrible.


The Arc de Triomphe stands in a traffic circle that must have been designed by the Marquis de Sade. I believe 11 "lanes" of traffic all merge into it but it's impossible to tell because there are no lines.


The most thankless job in Paris, directing traffic at the Arc de Triomphe.


A car trying to change lanes at the Arc de Triomphe. He'd been circling for three weeks.


It's a crying shame but graffiti artists seem to get everywhere. I bunch of them have carved their names into the inside of the Arc. I bet if the police ever catch that Bonaparte kid he's going to have some explaining to do.


The view from atop the Arc.


Wikipedia says that 6,719,200 people visited the Eiffel Tower in 2006. I think 6,719,198 of them were ahead of me in line. I'd hate to be that poor bastard behind me.


The view from atop the Eiffel Tower.


I think this is the entrance to a public washroom. Paris's motto is "go big or go home . . . American's just go home."


Below is the bell at Notre Dame. I didn't know this before I visited Notre Dame but the first bell ringer actually had no arms. He was unable to pulls the ropes but would take a run at the bell and hit it with his head. Unfortunately this wasn't very effective and the Monsignor would tell him that the bells had to be louder. Each day he would take a harder run at the bell until one time he hit them so hard he was knocked unconscious and fell out of the bell tower. The police arrived and asked who he was. The Monsignor replied "I don't know his name, but his face rings a bell." My apologies, that was a long journey for a pretty bad destination.



Notre Dame


The entrance to the Pantheon, a veritable who's who of dead French guys. I spent a lot of time in the crypt hiding behind pillars and yelling "boo" at the people who passed by. Eventually I was escorted out.


The inside of the Pantheon.


The tombs of Marie & Pierre Curie. Thanks to radioactivity I was able to microwave a burrito right on top of the lid.

I don't know what this is but it sat outside my hotel room the entire trip and scared the crap out of me.


The entrance to Musée de l'érotisme. No that's not a statue of me but it does bear a striking similarity.


A piece at the museum. We never see this type of garden gnome in Toronto.


This is somebody's tombstone. I'm guessing Ricardo was a cat person.


The Eiffel Tower one last time.