J’adore Paris: Days 2 and 3

I have finished all my final papers, so I can continue my Paris post! Hooray.
Day 1 (con’t)
Here’s a super short vid I made of the Eiffel Tower from the first day in Paris.

Day 2
We started out day 2 by hiking up Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur, a well-known cathedral. 
It was pretty cool looking on the outside and inside. Unfortunately, it started pouring while we were up there. Lamespice. There was a great view from the city from the top of the hill, where on a clear day you can see every landmark of Paris (except the Eiffel Tower).

It wasn’t the clearest of days, but it was still a cool view.
Went back down the hill and saw Moulin Rouge on the way. Sarah forgot her umbrella and rocked the poncho.

She didn’t realize she was standing on a vent until her poncho smothered her.
Love the lady in the background.
Also love when Sarah couldn’t get it off.
 
Next stop was to see Notre Dame. If you’re wondering if I’m posing as a hunchback in front of Notre Dame, the answer is absolutely.
This cathedral was wayyy cool. The outside looked awesome (and they had a Christmas tree up!) and the inside was huuuuuuge.
There’s no way you can capture how big this place is in a picture. Way cool.
After Notre Dame, we had some time to kill so we went down to pose for pics by the River Seine.
Ummz, can we talk about the angle that Emily is leaning right now??

130 degrees! Dayum girl.

Next, the four of us took an excursion to the palace Versailles.

I’ve been to a few palaces in England, but none were as ornate as this one. Crazy gold gilding, tapestries everywhere, huge paintings on the ceilings, etc. The Hall of Mirrors alone was pretty impressive.

The only bad part was that they didn’t have many rooms actually open to tour. The ones they did have were awesome enough though.
We got back to Paris and were determined to eat at a French restaurant. We found an awesome one by Notre Dame, called Le Chat Qui Peche.
  Ps. I have no idea what that means.
They had a special for I think 12 Euros where you got an appetizer, main dish, and dessert. Awesome! I had (French) onion soup for my appetizer and it was amazeballs.

Om nom nom!

Also ordered steak. The place was so cute! We definitely had a great time eating there. Except for the fact that we all ordered a drink because it seems in Europe they never give you anything for free…and after we ordered our drinks they came with complimentary water. Gosh darn it. Especially sucked for Emily, since she had ordered bottled water. Whoops!

Spent the night walking around a big Christmas market, which looked nicer than it actually was. There were tons of different shops, but like I’ve encountered in other cities the stuff they sell is just … crap. Oh well! The lights were pretty.

Day 3
Our last day in Paris was spent in a visit to The Louvre.  Since it’s free to everyone on the first Sunday of the month, we had to wait about 50 min in line to actually get in. 

The tour guide took us straight to the main attraction, Mona Lisa.

What you can’t see in the above picture are the throngs of people trying to get a picture of it.
This painting is protected by first a barrier holding the viewers back, then by a second wooden barrier, then covered in glass. Srsly!?? #1, You can’t even get close enough to appreciate the work of art, and #2, Even from far away…it doesn’t look that great!
We next looked for another famous piece of art housed in The Louvre, Venus de Milo.
This was preeeetty cool, since this sculpture is uuber famous.
There is no way that the 2 hours we had in The Louvre were enough to actually see the place, I think we saw about 15 out of 100+ rooms. Ridiculous. Wish we could have had time to stay longer, but had to head home!
Soo, story time about bus ride home. After eating lunch, Emily and I wanted a snack to take back on the bus with us. We looked in a convenience store, and saw these liquid fruit packets next to yogurt.  They kinda looked like the squeezable yogurt, so we got them. When I checked out, the lady gave me a weird look, but I disregarded it. I bought it and unscrewed the lid, commenting that the top was awfully child proof. Took a sip….and it was most definitely positively absolutely baby food.
Dude, where’s the baby on the packaging?!? How was I supposed to know this packet (entirely in French) was baby food? I looked at the packaging again, and in tiny tiny small print on the back was:

Tenir le bouchon revissable hors d la portee des enfants de moins de 36 mois.

Which means, this is suitable for children up to 36 months. Gahh! It was the most liquidy, sicknast applesauce I’ve ever eaten in my life.
I ate the whole thing.
All in all, I absolutely loved Paris! Most definitely my favorite city I’ve travelled to so far. May also be my favorite trip…It’s tied with Scotland, which was a totally different kind of trip so it’s hard to compare. I definitely want to go back sometime!
So, I actually only have 5 days (woww) left in London, which is absolutely nuts to think about. These past 2.5 months have been so surreal and I don’t want to think about leaving this place I’ve grown so attached to and have had so many awesome memories in. However, on the same note I cannot wait to get home and see my family, Brent, and friends.  Look for a post in the coming week recapping my time here in London town.