In which I See Paris

I would say Paris was overall a great success. Our hostel was expensive, but we had our own bathroom, and no crazy roommates, plus there was free wifi.

We started our day nice and early Tuesday morning by hopping on the metro and going straight to the Arc de Triomphe, walking all the way around it to get to what we thought was the Champs Elysees, ending up on the wrong side and walking around it again to get to the Champs Elysees! Since it was only about 10 am, the streets weren't packed with tourists yet, and the weather was sunny with a light breeze, which made walking very nice. We walked all the way to Place de la Concorde, where King Louis XVI was put on the guillotine, the revolution was fought, and the german army set up camp in WWII, among other things. Not that big a deal.

We made our way past Place de la Concorde, and had to stop in at a pastry shop attached to a nice hotel where we swore to return to and stay at some point in the future. Further on down the road we ran into the Louvre. Because we were only in Paris for two days, we opted out of going inside, but took some pictures and hung out around the area, which is quite large, for a good amount of time. Once we started looking for a metro, we realized how big the Louvre is- it spans an entire block! We walked all the way from one end to another to get to the metro we needed, and finally, it took us to the Jardin du Luxembourg, a large public park that surrounds the Paris Senate. My favorite part of it is the statues of past queens and famous women of France, which line the center of the park.

On our way to get sandwiches, we ran across the illusive Pantheon, which we had tried to get to the previous day to no avail. I was pretty happy, since the Pantheon was my favorite part of Paris the last time I was there. We sucked it up and paid 5 euros, and spent an hour or so looking at the giant paintings on the walls, memorials to martyrs of the revolution, and the crypt below which houses famous philosophers and writers such as Victor Hugo, Jean Jacques Rousso, and John Paul Sartre.

After a siesta back at the hostel, we went over to the Eiffel Tower to meet my friends from BADA who were in paris as well; Jimmy, Lila, and Martin! We went to a grocery store nearby and cheese, baguettes, smoked salmon, some cheap rose, and chocolate mousse. Once we sat down to eat, it started raining, so we took shelter in a memorial that overlooked the tower, which was actually my favorite part of the day.

Took the metro over to where our friend Louisa was celebrating her birthday, got bullied into buying really expensive orangina and water by the waiter, but had a good time seeing my friends again. Soon after, Julie and I called it a night and went back to the hostel for our final night in Paris!