on paris: the stairs

 Stairs. I had a few in my house growing up, flights I remember dragging half-full backpacks up in high school–games where my sisters and I would wrap ourselves in blankets then tumble blindly until we got tired or started bleeding.

I didn't know stairs until we reached our hotel in Montmartre and hauled a year's worth of clothes and personal hygiene products we were quickly using from métro to hotel to métro to hostel.

Elevator, smell you later. Escalator, escargot pits. Stairs. Pas de problème.

In the morning, we left our fourth floor room with 150 pounds of luggage and rolled, dragged, lifted our way to a métro stop that would take us within walking distance of our hostel, where we're spending the next five nights and I can honestly say is not a bad place at all.

On arrival, we had to place our bags in storage until 4 (there are many odd yet logical rules here) when we could check in. Our day had begun, after taking our bags 13 stairs down and placing them on metal racks beneath orange and brown plastic pipes that, presumably from the smell, were important for the 100+ guests' calls of nature.

Our first use of the indispensable Paris Museum Pass that, for a flat fee based on number of days used, get you into 60 monuments and museums for "free" was the Conciergerie–palace & prison. After seeing a wall with a depressing amount of names denoting executions, we left to Sainte Chappelle. This church, which looks like what awesome fireworks would look like if they could be frozen & signify more than how much Uncle Rusty makes, had the best stained glass I've seen.

Feeling holy, we continued on to Notre Dame & ended our site-seeing in the Luxembourg Garden, where there will from today forward be the game "Where is Joe's Head?" Walking through Île St-Louis & back to our hostel, where our bags were untouched (I always worry), we had finished our day. In the morning, I would put my arms back on.

So what do you think? Are you ready? Let's play Where is Joe's Head!
Also check out our additions to the ::itinerary:: page.  The connection at our hotel is incredibly lathargic. Pictures will have to wait a bit.