March 24th: We arrived in Paris just fine, though the airport was a bit away from the city itself so we had to take a bus into Paris proper. It was evening and it was fantastic to see the city lit up from afar. My first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower was truly breathtaking and it was a nice welcome into the city. It took us a while to find our hostel because we were tired, it was dark and our hostel was on the other end of Paris. Someone helpfully pointed the way to us (He actually had to run down the street to find someone who spoke English for us) and he gave us a nice little Obama chant. Ha ha. It's a good change to have a president people from other countries actually seem to like! As soon as we checked into our hostel we ate some food and conked out.
March 25th: The first thing we did that morning (and every morning after) was stroll down the street our hostel was on and buy fresh pastries. I wish I could start every day like that, but maybe it's good that I can't - I'd be the size of a house by now! The first sight that we went to see in Paris was the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was one of the things I had really wanted to see. It was so strange to see it standing so tall in the square and all the stone statues embedded into the walls of it looking down.
The interior was pretty, but a bit too crowded for me. However, I did get to go up into the cathedral itself (so. many. stairs.) and look out over the city from the walkway that connects the two towers. I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful than the Eiffel Tower off in the distance and the Seine glittering below and winding away into the city. It made me really want to read Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is currently sitting on my bookshelf at home.
As soon as we left Notre Dame, the sky dumped buckets of rain on us. We retreated into the metro, got lost, but eventually stopped at the Eiffel tower. I'd seen it from afar, but it was completely different to stand beneath it. I think when you see iconic symbols like the Eiffel tower your entire life, when you finally see it in person it's very, very surreal.
After the Eiffel (we didn't go up the tower because the line was ridiculously long), we headed back to the hotel and had the best omelets I've ever tasted in my entire life for dinner.
March 26th: We went to the Louvre on this day and walking through it made me wish I knew more about art. I'm afraid the best I can do when looking at a painting is decide whether I like it or not... and I usually only like a work of art if I feel like it tells an interesting story. But anyway, we did get to see the Mona Lisa (though I wish we could have gotten closer!) and the Venus de Milo.
My previous statement about seeing icons in person still stands: surreal, surreal, surreal. I think, though, seeing these things up close you realize that even though a picture can capture their image, it's still completely different when you're standing right there beside it.
March 27th: The previous two days we sort of knew we wanted to do this or that one thing, but this day we went to as many places as we possibly could. The first was to the catacombs under Paris, which was incredibly creepy and seemed to go on forever (and we only saw a part of it). The first half was mostly just passageway and Michelle and I listened to the theme of Phantom of the Opera on her iPod while we walked it. (Yeah, we're *that* nerdy.)
After all the mostly empty passages, we turned a corner and bam, human skeletons just piled from floor to ceiling on all sides and we walked through hallways of that for some time. To have thousands upon thousands of dead Parisians staring at you as you walk past was unsettling to say the least. Once we came back up into the sunlight, we went to the Musee d'Orsay, which used to be a train station but has since been converted into a fab art museum. We got in for free too! (Gotta love those museum workers who couldn't care less if you're an EU member or not.) Lots of Monet and Van Gogh, but my favorites were the Renoirs. They looked happier and brighter to me. After the museum, we ate crepes just outside and then took the metro to the Paris Opera House where the Phantom lives. (Nerds, nerds, nerds.)
We even got a peak inside the front hall. Our last stop was the Moulin Rouge. (We were just having a movies-set-in-Paris day, I guess!) We saw it in the evening, which was best because we were able to see it all lit up.
For dinner we wandered the streets desperately, but everything was closed. (We were in the St. Denis area of Paris, which is tucked out of the way so things close early.) Just when we began to give up all hope we spotted a cute little restaurant. The waiter was adorable and did his best to speak English, which was very nice of him. We had an omelete (again!) and tiramisu. :)
March 28th: We woke up to general craziness. We were supposed to check out of our hotel this day and had planned to sleep in a little, but unbeknown to us, the clocks had all moved forward an hour. Luckily we managed to check out on time in the end and since we had time to kill we went to Saint Denis Basilica Cathedral, which was easily within walking distance. We went down inside the crypt wherein where they buried French royalty. I think the most exciting bit was seeing Marie Antoinette's grave. Craziness! Afterwards, we loaded up on pastries and fruits and went to Gare de Leon (the train station) to reserve the rest of our train tickets for our remaining time on the continent. We stopped at the Arc d'triomphe via metro and it made me wish I lived somewhere where I could just be driving my car to work and drive past huge, historical monuments.
After that, we headed back to the train station and hopped on our night train to Venice. It was sad to say good-bye to Paris, but Michelle and I (and Leo!) were super excited to be heading towards Venice.
