SEMANA SANTA - Paris (Part Two)

Day 2

After the spectabulous day before, I was really looking forward to heading out for another day in Paris. Our first stop for the day was the Louvre. We heard it was gigantic and the lines are super ridiculous, so we wanted to get there early so we would have plenty of time to look around and beat the lines. Not only did we not have to wait in crazy lines, but we also got in free. Because we are European students (at least for this semester) we didn't have to pay. Sweet deal : ) There was no possible way to see everything in one day (unless you literally spend the WHOLE day there), so we decided to see the most well-known, can't come to the Louvre and not see them things. One of the first things we saw the Mona Lisa, where I had to fight my way through because some tall people have no respect for the vertically challenged. Then, on to the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and a few of Michelangelo's masterpieces.

This is me trying  to get a picture of the Mona Lisa

 

Great shot...after fighting my way through the mob

Venus de Milo

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Michelangelo's "Rebel Slave"

Can I have your autograph?

Remember me talking about the gorgeous redhead with us? Well she happened to be a spitting image of Botticelli (and a ton of other Renaissance artists) affection and she looked like a lot of the women in the paintings. At one point she's taking a picture next to a painting and a guy goes OMG it's you!!! Can I have your autograph?!? I thought that was super cute : ) Other random thing. Some guy (with a thick country accent) yells out Tell er we're gonna meet er at the Mona. I thought it was super funny like, do you come here all the time? Is the Mona Lisa your regular everyday meeting place? Random, but funny.

After about 3 hours inside, we go outside and sit next to the giant glass pyramid to have lunch. As we're sitting one of our friends runs up all atwitter thanking God she found us. There were six of us, but we had split up into 2 groups. She went to the bathroom, came back and the other two with her were gone. They had her bag, cell phone, and ID so couldn't get into the Louvre and she couldn't call them to find out where they were. She had just been standing outside wandering for the last few hours. Poor thing. We got called the other two to bring her bag and she finally got to go inside. Then, as we're eating, some guy comes up to us and goes So what's the big deal? What's exactly in the Louvre? Is it worth it? We're like seriously dude? It's the Louvre. How are you in Paris, standing in front of the Louvre, asking if it's worth going inside? Silly man.

View from top floor window

After the Louvre, we headed for the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees. We took an obscene amount of pictures at the Arc de Triomphe then took a stroll down Champs Elysees. It's supposed to be like the ritzy version of Rodeo Drive, but it just seemed like a pretty street to me. Nothing super spectacular. 

 

Champs Elysees

So we decide to head to the Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart) cathedral, which we kept hearing was way more interesting than Notre Dame. Randomness: I'm pretty sure I saw Rick Steves as we were walking towards the Sacré-Cœur. Anyway, Sacré-Cœur is on a giant hill and you can take the stairs or take a trolley-like thing. Of course my friends, being fans of sexy calf muscles, decide we should take the stairs. Ugh. But once we got to the top it was well worth it. The view was amazing and the cathedral itself was gorgeous. We happened to meet the other half of our group, who were chilling eating baguettes and drinking wine in the grass. We went inside (where some guy had to keep yelling no photos! because some people just can't respect rules, even in a church) and just sat and admired where we were. After about 10 minutes we go back outside to get a good seat to watch the sunset over Paris. That's when the real fun began. A dance party broke out in front of the Sacré-Cœur! It was just one of those amazing things (that probably happens in Paris all the time) that you just can't plan. They didn't just dance, but they were acrobats as well. It was FANTABULOUS! I enjoyed it so much, I shall dedicate an entirely separate post to it : )

This guy made it up 7 stairs and was already tired.

Sacré-Cœur

AMAZING street performers

Sacré-Cœur at sunset

Preview of dance party

 After the amazing dance party in front of the Sacré-Cœur, we head back down the hill for dinner. We find this cute restaurant and order food sort of late (we're officially on the Spanish  eating schedule by now). I order a salmon quiche that was super delicioso (I can't even think of more adjectives in English so I'm switching to Spanish). After dinner we head back to the hotel. We decide to watch some French TV just because and we turn on this channel that's playing old silent films. The movie had the original words displayed in English, with French subtitles, but it was dubbed in German. We didn't figure the German part out for a while, so we're trying to repeat what we hear thinking they go along with the words at the bottom. Talk about super confused. By that time, we realize we just need to go to sleep and that exactly what we did.