I left off when we got to our hotel, Hotel Elysees, we could see the Eiffel Tower down the street. We went inside and unpacked all fell asleep right away. I shared a bed with Kate; our room was really nice. Friday morning we woke up around 8:30 am and showered, and left to explore the city for the day. On the way to find a money exchange place, we stopped and got breakfast at a cute little bakery. I got pain al chocolat, which was so delicious. We continued down Avenue Kebler until we got to Palais de Challiot, which is right across the river from the Eiffel Tower. We stopped there for about 45 minutes and took a ton of pictures! The lighting was really weird because the sun wasn't quite up yet and it was really foggy out. After that we walked down Avenue de President Wilson in our quest to find a money exchange.
We were told that there was one on Champs-Elysees and so that was the direction we went in. We walked down some random street that had extremely nice stores, including Prada, Jimmy Choo, Dolce and Gabana, Coach, Ralph Lauren, and even a Harry Winston. I never of Harry Winston before and they explained to me that this store is what they meant in 'Legally Blonde' when they referred to the ring. While we were walking to Champs-Elysees I decided that I really liked Paris so far and that it really reminded me of Washington DC. It wasn't as crowded as London, which is always a plus. We stopped at a Barclays to get money and then walked up the street toward Arc de Triomphe. There were so many stores and lots of yummy-looking food. We stopped in Sephora for a while and then I saw the Disney store. I told everyone about my last Disney encounter during junior year of high school when I waited in line to see Minnie Mouse in Epcot and then when I was the next person in line, she went inside. I cried. Caitlin had no idea what to do. True story.
We walked to the Arc de Triomphe and took a billion more pictures, including one where we attempted to look like we were holding up the Arc. Of course that didn't work out, especially because it's in the middle of a round a bout and there were a lot of cars driving around. Paris seemed to have more cars than any other city I've been in so far. We walked through an underground tunnel and came up underneath the Arc itself. The Arc is a monument to soldiers who fought in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars and there is an eternal flame for the tomb of the unknown soldier underneath it.
After we were done exploring the Arc, we took the metro to Versailles. It took about a half hour or so and when we got to Versailles we stopped and had crepes for lunch. I had a delicious chocolate and banana crepe - these European countries really love chocolate. After lunch we went to the Palace and hobbled up the cobblestones, which were weirdly shaped and covered in ice. The gates of the Palace were in gold trim, as was the roof and a lot of the doors. It was majestic looking, but a little tacky. We went inside and walked through a lot of rooms looking at paintings, room set ups and at the gardens out the window. All of the rooms were different colors and the staircases were large and winding. There was a Japanese pop art exhibit on the first floor, which looked totally out of place, but we took random pictures of it anyway. I liked this Palace a lot it was prettier than Buckingham Palace, but Buckingham Palace is cooler because the Queen actually lives there.
We got to the Hall of Mirrors, which is basically the whole reason that we went to the Palace, threw our coats on the floor and took tons of crazy pictures.
After we were done with that it was about 3pm so we had to leave and go to the Lourve. I was starving so I stopped at McDonalds (of course) and got a crispy ranch snack wrap. I was so excited that they had snack wraps, I accidentally said 'hola' to the girl taking my order.
We got back to Paris and walked past the ferris wheel and obelisk and through Jarden des Tuileries to the Lourve. All of the ponds were frozen and there was frost on all of the hedges. Sammie's friend Sashi had met up with us and we all took pictures in front of the triangle thing above the Lourve before going inside. I was happy we went there because you see that triangle thing all over the place in movies. The Lourve was so gigantic, you could definitely spend hours there. None of us are really museum people, so we headed straight for the Mona Lisa. The painting wasn't as big as I expected it to be but it was so cool that we got to see it in person - her eyes actually do follow you around the room. After the Mona Lisa we explored a little more, saw an Egyptian gallery and a Middle Easter gallery before leaving.
We took a cab to Moulin Rouge, which is actually still in operation. I guess that area is the red light district, but it was still really cool because everything was lit up and there were a lot of restaurants. We were absolutely freezing at that point and very hungry, so we walked down the street and got dinner at a corner restaurant. They served us delicious bread and we shared a bottle of house white wine. We all got an entree and dessert, I had lasagna and creme bruele. The creme bruele was so sweet that I couldn't finish it. It was such a good dinner, I love French food.
After that Sammie, Kate, Erin and I were going to go to Sacre Coeure but after a sketchy run in with some guys in the metro, and then remembering what happened in Madrid, we decided we should just go home. It was 10:30pm and probably not the best idea for four American girls to be going somewhere we didn't know alone at night. Poor Erin gets the worst of these trips, she's gotten assaulted in some way or another in Italy, Madrid and Paris.
You have to take a cab from a taxi station in Paris, they don't just stop anywhere on the street, so we had to go find a taxi station. Our taxi driver was really nice and stopped at Pont d'Iena for us so that we could get out and take pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night. When we got back to our hotel we stood outside and watched the Eiffel Tower light show. We went inside and basically all immediately fell asleep. It was a good day, but very tiring.
Now I have to go do some errands and write an article.
M
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