OK, before I explain that, let me be normal. Did you know this hotel has very good breakfast? I mean, there are a lot of hotels that have breakfast in the morning that is just fine, but breakfast here is good in particular. Also, the children in this place are getting out of hand. That probably sounds a lot like an anti-child "Get-off-my-lawn" statement, but I promise it isn't. Well behaved kids, or even kids that are just acting like normal kids are fine. The children here are BADLY behaved and no one does anything about it! Steve got water thrown on him in the lobby, and there are a lot of kids just screaming and running around unsupervised. I'm glad we didn't have to hang around the hotel much today!
As much as I enjoyed Spain, I'm think I'm enjoying Paris just a bit more. Mainly it's because every minute of every day hasn't been planned out for us. We do have things planned for is, but it's all very only-if-you-want-to-go-or-not and I appreciate that. Today we had a tour bus and a tour guide for a bit, which was nice. There are lots of things to do in the city, but walking everywhere takes so much time and it's a pain to try to find everything on your own. The only problem I had today was that as we were being taken around the city in the bus, I got TERRIBLY car sick. It was bad. I didn't actually puke, thank goodness, but I had to close my eyes and keep my head down almost the entire ride so I didn't actually see many of the things that we were being shown. I'm such a weenie dog. Oy.
By the time that we made our first stop, I was feeling a bit better. We stopped at, well, I don't know what it is called, but a big touristy area between two museums where you could see the Eiffel Tower and take some pictures!
That seems to be a very gloomy photo of a beautiful monument, but we got back on the bus and drove around to the other side of it and this was the view:
Weird.
The tour bus took us into the heart of the city so that we could see Notre Dame. It was very crowded, and we didn't go in, but it was amazing to see it up close!
After we left, Anthony, Steve and I went to a restaurant to kill some time. I had the weirdest experience in the bathroom. (No, not like that!) I went down to use the facilities and put my coin in (blast those pay to use toilets!) opened the door, and immediately hit someone on the other side. Of course, my first reaction was to say "SORRY!" and I let the door close. Damnit! That was the only coin I had! The door opened and a lady was in there and she said "Oh, it's alright!" and I noticed that it wasn't just a single bathroom, but a small bathroom with two stalls. OK, then. She let me in and I went to do the thing, and I thought she'd left, but when I opened the door to the stall, the lady was standing there with her top off! WTF?! She said "Oh, I'm sorry! I haven't put my shirt back on yet." and I just hid in the stall again until I was sure she was gone. I literally have no idea what was going on, and I don't want to know, but I hope that doesn't happen again.
We got back on our bus about an hour later and (dun dun DUUUUUUN) we were taken to the Louvre! EEEEEEEEEEEE! I have always wanted to go to the Louvre. As someone who studied a LOT of art in college, I can't explain how much I had been looking forward to actually being in front of all of the cool stuff I'd only seen in books! Our tour guide, Oxan, split us up into two groups and we were on our way. Now, I was thrilled to be inside the Louvre, and I knew that there would be a lot of people in there, but I was not prepared at all at the sheer number of people that we saw inside that day. I mean, I don't think my hometown has that many people in it. Holy smokes. We were shunted from side to side, and had to dodge huge tour groups. I know that part of the issue was because our tour leader was taking us to see the most famous exhibits there: The Venus de Milo (Aphrodite de Milo, we were told is the correct title), Winged Victory, and the Mona Lisa! *heavy breathing*
I couldn't get a good picture of the Mona Lisa because people are rude and that one room was packed from one side to the other with people who didn't have any manners.
Y'all, I about peed my pants. I genuinely don't think you understand how overwhelmed I was to be in the presence of these things. Actually, I was overwhelmed to be in the presence of a lot of what I saw, but I have read and studied and learned about all of this stuff and I never once thought I'd actually get to see any of it in person. I only wish I could have gotten nearer to them, but that was impossible. My favorite by far was Winged Victory, because seriously, that thing is made of marble. MARBLE! Look at how it flows and folds, and you can see details of the body underneath. Can you imagine the skill it took to carve something so fluid and with so much movement?! You can almost feel the wind that blows the tunic around the figure. Something about standing right there and looking at such an amazing, ancient creation made fighting the crowds completely worth it. I'd give anything if I could go back sometime when it wasn't so crowded and get my fill of looking, but who knows if that will ever happen. This was truly a mind blowing experience for me.
I had a very bizarre issue being in the Louvre, though. I couldn't put my damn phone/camera down. I was in, arguably, one of the best museums in the world and I kept taking pictures of what I was looking at instead of actually looking at the pictures. I had to keep making myself put my phone away and then I'd pull it out and take another picture of what I was looking at. Why was I doing that?! I can find pictures of the things in there online, I don't need to take pictures, but I did. I finally decided to just leave my phone in my purse and actually experience what I was seeing, which made the rest of our visit enjoyable. I did take out my phone and take a few more pictures, but only if I had my absolute fill of looking at the thing first.
A legit Da Vinci - John the Baptist!
Ancient Grumpy Cat
Really Old Coke Advertisement
THAT GIRL!
We left the main gallery and went to the ancient Egyptian section (that's what I recommended and the people with me either didn't care what else they saw, or likes ancient Egypt as much as I do) and after we walked along a bit more, we left the Louvre and walked out into the city.
By now we were properly hungry and trying to find a place to eat, but we had no idea where we were. At any other time that we'd walked around, we'd be within 20 feet of a cafe, but not here. There was hardly anything around that wasn't a fancy restaurant, and so the longer we walked, the more people whined about being hungry, and after a few "I don't want to eat theres" everyone else made the decision that we'd go an eat at Five Guys. I mean... Look, I'm not a snob, and probably the closest thing that I have to a guilty pleasure is a Five Guys burger and fries, but...we were in freaking Paris. On the Champs Elysees no less. I'd have rather found a cafe or something like that, but no, we ate at a Five Guys. Oy. Well, at least everyone stopped complaining. I also thought it was kind of funny that on the famous "Most Beautiful Avenue In the World" and in between Tiffany's and Co. Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and things like that, there is a Five Guys. Ah well, silver lining is that they had proper American style bacon, so who am I to complain?
We continued our walk to the Place de la Concorde (which is apparently where a bunch of people got guillotined during the French Revolution) to take some pictures.
From there we decided to head back to the hotel and rest a bit. We were hot and tired, and we'd been on quite an adventure so far that day. We figured that we'd get back together later on in the evening and try to decide what else to do.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen. We fell asleep! It was only supposed to be a nap, but the nap raged out of control. I've woken up for a bit, but I'm going to go back to sleep here soon. Eh, we still have another whole day in Paris, so I'm not going to complain. Bonsoir from our boudoir!
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