New Years Eve

With Kara and her family in Italy, I'm on my own for New Years this year. So I decided to start the day by going to an area of Paris I'd not yet explored: The Marais

I started out at the Bastille, which is where the French Revolution kickstarted. There's not anything left of the original building anymore, just a monument to it, but it was still pretty cool.  Walking along Rue de St Antoine (whom I was named after) there's the Paris apartment that Jim Morrison passed away at, and then Place des Vosges which is a really pretty square that Henry IV built. A few blocks away was the Carnavalet Museum which I didn't get to explore too much since it closed early for New Years, but explores the history of Paris.

I then walked by the mayor's office (Hôtel de ville) and then Pont Neuf (New Bridge, interestingly named since it's the oldest bridge in Paris) before stopping for dinner at a cafe around Odeon. I surprised myself by understanding when the old lady next to me wanted to borrow my salt and pepper, and the food was pretty darn good (except dessert, which was basically this yogurt dish, which is not what I was expecting). 

I went back out later to St Michel to check out the crowds and get a pepperoni crepe (hadn't ever seen that around before). It was quite a bit more crowded than a normal night, but apprently most of the crowds are along the Champs-Élysées. I didn't want to have to deal with the crazy metro stops to get there. But I enjoyed the walking around and watched some French TV at midnight to see how they cover New Years with their variety shows. 

Amazingly there are no fireworks for New Years in Paris, otherwise I would have gone to do that. It surprisingly is legal to shoot them off inside the city which some people do, but I have no idea where they buy the fireworks since I haven't seen any stands. 

Another surprising thing is that the metro is free on New Years Eve from 5pm onwards, and runs all night (to most stops). It's a nice way to combat drunk driving, so kudos to Paris for that.