Day 1 in Paris

I'm not sure if I have even sat down since I arrived in Paris!  No need to adjust to the time zone you just don't stop moving, right?  My plane landed on time (amazing given all the delays in the US) at CDG in Paris, both of my checked bags made it, and I found Anthony and Rock easily.  A quick taxi ride later and we were at Anthony's apartment in Paris' China town.  We stopped briefly to drop off my bags, went to the cafe across the street for a cup of coffee and croissant and then headed to the metro station to get me a pass for my 6 days here (which paid for itself the same day).  The metro system in Paris is amazing!  Take notes, America... Rock has been in Paris with Anthony since the 16th, and they graciously avoided many of the touristy things so that all three of us could see them together.  Maybe they just avoided them so that they didnt have to see them twice, but I like the first scenario better.  With a combination of riding the metro and a ton of walking, we saw Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur, Arc de Triomph, Camps Elysées and the Eiffel Tower (from a distance).  I think the coolest thing was the 360degree view of Paris from the Arc of Triumph.  The picture came out really well too!  I love my new camera :).
The Sacré Coeur is a HUGE catholic basilica that also has a great vantage point over the city of Paris.  One thing that surprised me a little bit was the amount of black market street vendors.  They are at every tourist destination (which didn't surprise me) but the weirdest thing is that they all have the exact same merchandise and it's all worthless junk!  The street performers are quite unique, though.  Lots of solo acts singing mostly American songs and they are all pretty good, too.  In addition to the vendors and performers, there are lots of scam artists.  Some people try to grab you and strap a bracelet to your wrist as quickly as possible and tell you that you owe them money for it.  Others pretent to be deaf and get personal information from you.  Luckily for me, Anthony has been here for over six months, speaks french so well that Parisians don't know he's American, and he can spot the scams from a mile away.  The Camps Elysées is a really cool avenue in Paris with every single designer clothing and accessory story you can imagine.  We walked the length of it and just took in the scene, going into a few places here and there along the way.  We walked past the Louvre, but, with the holidays in full swing here, we decided to leave it for another day in which we would have more time and less of a crowd to battle and line to wait in.  Notre Dame was impressive!  It's located at a fork in the river, so it has rivers on two sides.  The architecture and vast size of the church is astonishing.
After a full day of sight seeing, we went back to Anthony's to change and regroup before going to the jewish area of Paris for falafel, which I had never had before.  We ate it in a pita type wrap with lots of veggies (not my fav) and a sauce that was a little over powering, but the falafel itself was very good.  I thought it was a meat.  We then went to the bastille and I was a little disappointed to find that there was just a monument type thing where I was expecting to see the place of the meeting of the French national assembly during the Jaques Necker and French Revolution era.  We proceeded to a little pub that Anthony frequents called the Hideout and met up with a couple of his French friends, Joa and Carolyn, and two Mexican international students but I only remember Ilse, whom I had an interesting political discussion with and I also got to practice speaking spanish.  After the pub we got crepes and then went back to Anthony's to sleep.