Day 4

Park du Marceau, Paris 10:13 AM 6/24/10

We are taking a rest at this park for a bit. It's very peaceful and I can already tell that today is going to be a warm day. Last night after we left the Eiffel Tower around 11pm, we walked all over the place trying to find a place to sleep. We couldn't find a hostel or hotel for under 100 euros a night. We walked around and I was too nervous to sleep in the bushes where Troy wanted to (I imagined us being arrested for trespassing and deported) so we kept walking. We made our way back toward the Eiffel Tower. There were so many people still out all over the place and the grassy area below the Eiffel Tower was packed with people partying. We set out towels down again and laid down. There were police all over the place, but they weren't doing anything or kicking anyone out, so we fell asleep for a bit. At 1AM, the Eiffel Tower lit up again, this time without the main lights on, just the sparkly ones and it was so beautiful. Then it went out and the people that were near us started getting rowdy so we packed up and moved. We found a bench on the other side and slept for an hour, then we moved to another and slept until 2:30AM. We kept moving and napping, avoiding partyers and police (not that either gave us a second glance) until around 3:30AM where we found a grass area and set up our mats and sleeping bags and finally got more than an hour of consecutive sleep.

We woke up at 7:30AM with joggers and walkers passing by. We packed up and said goodbye to the Eiffel Tower. We walked toward the Seine River and looked at all the trash people had left behind from the night before. It was insane. I can't imagine having to clean that up every night. Troy and I agreed that it must have been some occasion or special night. Next we walked to the Arc du Triomph and even though it was not open for another hour, we had our breakfast of apples and crepes (that we had bought from the market the night before) under that humongous arc. Now we are on our way to the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Couer, but we saw this park and had to stop in.