1. my presence is a service to France

Since I had actually fulfilled every single thing I wanted to do on Monday, I was hard-pressed to figure out what to do on Tuesday.

So I decided to make up some Unwritten Goals as I went along.  Around the time that I bought that cake Monday night, I also bought two bananas.

As I left the hostel (around 11 again), I saw this bridge.  I decided it was a UG (unwritten goal) to walk across a bridge, and eat my banana at the highest point because once again #unstoppable #dontstopmenowimhavingsuchagoodtime #queen

Since crossing this bridge put me in a different direction, I decided to walk to the park that my map said would be that way.  I will inform you that this park is ENTIRELY UPHILL from where I was.  Every part of it.  The streets leading there, the park itself, ugh it was horrid.  I am not a mountain goat.  My gladiator calves are not loose enough to do inclines like that forever.  It was pretty though.  I also bought a chocolatine and ate it in the park.

I went to the next closest metro stop (after I had a sit down for as long as I wanted #UG) and it had this crazy escalator.  The top was normal, and then it was like you were on a rollercoaster.  Note that this picture was taken after I had already gotten over being scared to death by the height and decided to get my phone out and take a pic.  It was that long.

I took the metro to Republique because I didn't have anything else to do.  There's a statue there.  I took a picture.  I don't know what the statue represents but I had a sit-down for a while there.

I eventually stopped sitting on the statue and wandered down the street.  I stopped in one store to try to buy some 50% off jeggings (or treggings as they called them) but they just didn't fit right and looked weird on my body, so I did not buy them.  I did really want to buy this really snuggly scarf, but it was hot out and I didn't want to carry it if I couldn't wrap it around my neck.  I know I'm going to regret this.

Then I bought another banana-nutella crepe because I cannot resist these crepe-men.  I was pretty satisfied by myself.

Then I really just wandered down the street some more.  I ended up at this World Bookstore, that--joke's on you, only had books in/about Russia.  I don't know any Russian and it was not useful, but I spent actually quite a lot of time in there.

This street eventually took me out at the Bastille.  I was actually heading here on purpose as part of an #UG, because in French III I did a project on Bastille day.  But it was super anti-climactic and I was not actually pleased, because it was like within a roundabout.

I wandered the street a little bit more, but I was getting hungry and tired of walking around, so I took the metro back to the hostel.  There wasn't anywhere else I really wanted to go (I know, I'm a bad planner/ traveler), so I bought myself a pizza and sat in my bed and ate it.  Here's a picture of me feeling pretty pleased with myself as well as a before/after of the pizza.

If you wanted to recap this, on Tuesday I ate: banana, chocolatine, banana-nutella crepe, and an entire pizza.  I say #UGaccomplished.

I really didn't have anything else I wanted to do until it got dark out (and I could go see the Eiffel Tower) so I decided to go to another movie.  The only movie on that early was Hotel Transylvania 2, so you better believe I went to it.  And to top it off, the movie ended up being the French version, because they run both versions of children's movies, so really I got a "french experience" that I couldn't have in Bordeaux because the UGC Cine Cite only runs in the original language.

I walked along the Quai and took these pics.  The second one is a man slack-lining and the third is a bunch of old men playing petanque (accent aigu first e) #UG

After the movie, which was just as good in French as I bet it would have been in English (since I honestly quite like the first one even though I only saw it that one time with Jace--props to you man for having good movies around), it was dark out, so I trucked my butt down to Trocadero which is where Amy said I would have the best luck watching the lights.

I got there with about 20 minutes until the next set of lights so I took some pics and got up closer before I tried to search out a place to sit and wait.

(obligatory selfie)

I did also have an #UG to buy a replacement gold Eiffel tower for Madison from one of those men that patrol the whole area.  I did well, I think, considering how frightened I was when I bought the first set like 4 years ago.

I tried to sit at a cafe with a view of the tower and order something to drink to wait, but the man said that seat was only for diners and I had just eaten an entire pizza, so I had to leave.

From there I tried to find a grocery store to buy something to drink to wait since I was going to have to wait for the next set of lights since this guy kicked me out of his cafe right about when they should have started and I could see nothing from anywhere else.  Poorly done, team.

I had to go really far to find a store, but I ended up in this epically huge Monoprix, which is way bigger than the one we have in Bordeaux (though it doesn't have any clothes).  I helped out an English woman and her daughter who were confused about what the sign at the register was saying about minimum payments for paying with a card.  She was very nice.

From there I decided to find the best spot to sit down alone and listen to Thomas Rhett while I waited for the lights.  By going up a driveway that said "Services Only" (which I decided was okay because 1. my presence is a service to France and 2. there was a sidewalk leading to the same place) I discovered this big building with a staircase that seemed like it would do well.

I was a little worried I was going to plummet to my death from my perch, but I didn't.

And finally, here's me chilling with my musica and my giant coat hood waiting for the lights.  I took a like 2 second video, but honestly it's not that great quality.

Then I took the metro back to the hostel and went to sleep.