Ness and I met up with James at the hostel, purely by happy fate, and we took him off with us on an adventure. From the hostel we advanced north, north, north, walking first to a church and casting around inside observing and taking photos.
The stained glass windows, the sculpture, all of it was really amazing to be inside of and look at!
From the Catholic Church we spotted the Pantheon, and wanting to visit we headed to it — but ultimately we decided not to go in since we would later be visiting as a class! We took photos around outside and then we planned on taking the bus and metro but were waylaid by a bus delayed by the mob nearby. Despite having seen the effects of a Parisian protest first hand this was still surprising, and we decided to continue to the Parc du Champ de Marcs (and the Market our GPS had said was within the same park) on foot.
We came across a lot of small shops and were several times nearly lured in by the smells — but ultimately there was only one we regretted not getting anything from and plan to try to find again.
En route to the Parc du Champ de Marcs I realized we were passing by the Army Museum of the Invalids, and Napoleon’s burial place. Ness and James agreed to go along inside so we all went forth and had a lovely time, using our Paris passes for the first time!
We spent so much time there that security was closing up and really only why we left when we did! There was still more to see when we left, but we continued towards the Parc du Champ de Marcs. Once we arrived we had a go around looking at the greenery, and lack of it, and the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Soon after connecting to the Eiffel Tower WiFi we discovered that our GPS had deceived us and we were a good 35 minutes away from the Carreau Market we’d meant to visit next! Unfortunately it closed right at the time we would’ve made it over there, so at this point we all hopped on the Metro, and headed home to the hostel.
We had a bit of an adventure on the metro; I realized after the first stop we passed we had actually been headed in the opposite direction. Luckily it wasn’t too late and we were able to happily course correct, and even hop onto a less full train, for a lovely seated ride back.