day trois, the adventure continues!

LE MARAIS:

A little history about our 'hood: We're staying in the 3rd district in off of Rue Turbigo and Saint-Martin in zee coeur de Paris (the heart of Paris). It's called the Marais, which literally means "The Marsh" or "swamp." I guess it was all marsh land when first built upon - and that actually caused problems down the way, when the local cemetery (where Les Halles now stands) started gettin' nasty. Disease spread because of the damp graveyard. This is one of the reasons - as well as overcrowding - that the famous "catacombes" were built.

After the bodies were moved "Les Halles" became the main center of meat, vegetable and fruit market for all of paris (YUM!!). Then in the 60's the marketplace was forced to move (too much traffic to be in the middle of the city, with food shipments and deliveries) and it soon became a huge underground mall. You can tell you've made it there when you see a massive crowd of people and the pretty concrete and glass bubble structures poking out of the grass.

We hit the Musee d'Orsay again today, because we just didn't get to see enough of it yesterday. Then we did the touristy thang and hopped on the double decker bus for a tour.

I have already learned that the train is our friend. The metro is awesome, clean, cheap, fast, and easy to navigate. Most entrances still have the art noveau flourishes designed by Hector Guimard.

Also, I have to say, people have been so nice to us, despite our rampant butchering of their language. Most people speak perfect english, which is nice - but doesn't help if you are actually trying to learn french.

We've been watching our french dvd at night - hah! We'll see how much we learn.