More Paris!!!

Today was my major sightseeing day! I got up early for my walking tour of Paris (self-guided.) :-) I got up early and headed to the Arc de Triomphe to see it during the day. I arrived too early to go up to the top of it, but I enjoyed walking right underneath it and seeing it up close. Then I walked down the Champs Elysees, which is known for it's shops (mostly expensive ones) and cute cafes. I went into a shop called Zara, which Sophie recommended, and bought a really cute pink sweater! So now I can say I bought something on the Avenue des Champs Elysees in PARIS!!! :-) Then I walked to the Concorde and took some pictures and also saw the fountain where Andie (Anne Hathaway) tosses her phone at the end of the movie. :-) I met a ton of Americans while I was walking in the touristy spots. Of course we all took pictures for each other. Then I walked along the Seine river back to the Eiffel Tower and the Musee de la Marine to meet Sophie's sister, Helene, for lunch.

We sent to a really cute cafe and chatted about what to do and see in Paris. Helene is the curator for the museum and gets to look at the Eiffel Tower from her office window every day! How cool!

After lunch Helene got me on the right bus and I headed to the Louvre (of course I was going to go there, Justin!) It was really cool just entering in through the pyramid. Then I saw the Mona Lisa (along with a million Japanese Tourists snapping pictures), the Venus de Milo, the Raft of the Medusa, some naked guy by Michelangelo, Rembrandt's self portraits, and some of the other things highlighted on the map of the Louvre I picked up. I only took pictures of the things listed on the map so I can remember the names later.

I had a bit of an embarassing moment in the Louvre. I was looking for the bathroom and my map showed where the bathrooms were located, so I went to the part of the museum that I thought corresponded with my map and there were two doors across from each other that had French words on them. I don't speak French, so I thought maybe it said "bathroom." So I started pulling on one door and it didn't open, so I pulled on the other door and as I was pulling, I hear this yelling from the other side of the big hall. I turn and the museum worker is heading towards me and everyone is staring at me. "Can I help you?" the guy yells. So I am forced to call back, loudly enough so everyone can hear in the entire room, "I'm looking for the bathroom!" In front of an entire hall of Louvre visitors. I was definitely done with the museum after my embarassing bathroom visit.

I walked to the Opera House, which is absolutely gorgeous! They have all these statues of famous composers and musicians decorating the outside of the building as well as many other beautiful things.

Then I went to the Moulin Rouge!!! Tickets for shows there sell for over 100 dollars a person so needless to say I didn't go there. But it was cool just to see it. I wanted to wait until it got dark so I could see the neon lights better, but it was in a pretty shady part of town and I was all alone, so I left while it was still pretty light.

I visited the Eiffel Tower at night and was not dissappointed! After it gets dark, every hour on the hour the tower sparkles with lights. It is really fun too see and really beautiful. And after about 5 minutes it stops sparkling, but glows in the most beautiful shades of blue. None of my pictures do it justice. I could have stared at it all night it was so beautiful. All my absolutely favorite shades of blue.

The next day I went to Le Marais, a trendy district of Paris, and it was great! So cute! I really enjoyed it there. I saw Victor Hugo's mansion, which is on the corner of a really nice park. (He wrote Les Miserables by the way.) I also saw the Bastille, which is the site where a prison used to be before it was raided and destroyed. It's most famous "guest" was the man in the iron mask. Then I went to a museum about the history of Paris. It was free, which was great, but in France they never really label anything in English, only French, so I had no idea what anything was. It was still cool though. I did see a model of what the Bastille looked like before it was destroyed, as well as a bust of Marat, a leader in the French Revolution who I recently read about in a book. Anyway, I'm sure I'm boring you if you don't like museums. I basically walked around a ton and saw a bunch of other cool buildings, parks, and churches. Oh, and statues. You can let me know if you want the details about that stuff, or else I'll bore everyone. I really enjoyed walking around Paris. I probably walked like 8 miles every day. :-) It was great! I had no problems with the map, the subway, the bus (well relatively no problems with the bus), or any kind of communication while there. It was great! Yay Paris!