Day Two: Paris!!!

Today was the day I had so much looked forward to; Exploring Paris!!
The only problem we encountered once we glanced at our city maps, was how much there was to do in Paris and how little time we had. We decided to start at the Louvre. And just like a stereotypical tourist, we wanted to see the Mona Lisa.

First purchase of the day; ticket to the Louvre. Free. Thankyou international student card!
We ventured in with Angela and Julia, two lovely Australian girls we had met on the contiki bus the previous day. The Louvre is just enormous. The detailing on the walls, the ceilings, the bannisters, the frames enclosing artwork were just unbelievable. We saw a ridiculous amount of Greek inspired statues and classic paintings along the way. But the room that was bursting at the seams with tourists was the one holding the Mona Lisa.

It looked so small. But it was still so mesmerizing. We had to push and shove through the crowds to steal a photo beside this famous painting. And that we did.

The Dome from within the Louvre looked just spectacular, especially with the glorious sun shining through the glass. We stole a few cheeky poses outside of the Dome for memory's sake.

At this point we were becoming rather famished and decided to head off in the direction of the Notre Dame in the hope of finding that 'something French' along the way. A boulangerie on the street stole our eye and we bought pain au chocolats! So delicious!

Content, we continued walking to the Notre Dame enjoying the sun and attempting to absorb the beauty of the Parisian streets and atmosphere. We arrived at one of the most incredibly designed buildings I had ever seen; the Notre Dame! It was better than I had envisioned and from several angles it still successfully managed to look amazing!

The story of Esmeralda and Quasimodo came to mind, and Lauren and I decided to engage the romance a little bit ourselves...

We came across an example of just how Paris got its name; the City of Love, when we walked along the love-locked bridge. Hundreds of locks clung to this bridge and it looked just spectacular. Messages were scrawled across locks of all different kinds symbolizing all sorts of relationships from all different nations and cultures.

Walking along the waterfront we came across countless little markets with paintings, souvenirs and cute little knick knacks. Seeing all these things really made me feel as if we really were in Paris, where in all the films you see the street markets look just like these ones:

Julia had this brilliant idea that we should hire bikes and cycle from where we were to Montmatre to see the Moulin Rouge and the Sacre Couer. I wasn't too keen at first as the streets looked pretty frightening but all 6 of us hired a bike and took our chances.

Cycling through the streets of Paris was a whole new experience! We discovered by chance little restaurants hidden from the city center and cute little boutiques and souvenir shops. It was alot of fun but after awhile our calves were beginning to surrender and we were all getting a touch tired. It wasn't exactly the shortest or the flattest ride either! And well, we did on the odd occasion get very lost! But when we saw the Moulin Rouge in the distance, the pain was gone. The Moulin Rouge, although not situated in the classiest area, still stood out in its redness and still provided a fantastic kodak moment.

After grabbing a waffle cone full of delicious yet ridiculously overpriced gelato, we then set off again up the hill to the Sacre Couer. Before long we were there. We climbed the stair to the top with the optimism of making the most of the exercise we were getting...really wasn't too bad..

We got to the top where we gazed in awe at both the beautiful Sacre Couer, and the view of Paris. It appeared to be a 'hot spot' as there were crowds gathered. The street artists and musicians could not drag the attention away from the beautiful view behind them.

We made our way back down and jumped back on our bikes headed in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe. Amber and Jay ventured off in a different direction and the four of us decided that time was pressing, and to instead head to the Eiffel Tower. However our directions got us right by the Arc de Triomphe which was an absolute nightmare as it was borderline peak hour traffic and the deadly roundabout was fast approaching. We somehow managed to steer clear of our certain deaths and head the direction we had desired with the help of some pidgeon french with a few passers-by. Good ol' "Parlez vous anglais?" worked a treat.

We stopped off at a "supermarche" for a few picnicky things. Baguettes, cheese and wine. Standard.
We sped off to the Eiffel Tower and Lauren, armed with her baguette, had a rather hilarious incident. As she was turning into a street a moped knocked her baguette that was chiling in her basket and snapped it in half! She was pretty upset. Poor baguette.

We dropped off our bikes and walked to the grass infront of the Eiffel Tower and just collapsed. We laid out beautiful little picnic - without the picnic blanket because we weren't that organised - and coated our baguettes with the most incredibly creamy camembert... and then realised we had no bottle opener for our wine bottles. Blast. Biggest fail. We got the wine sorted with the help of a stranger at a nearby convenience store, and revelled in our gorgeous setting.

930pm was edging closer. We were scheduled to meet the rest of the group then to make our way up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Naturally we had to grab a crepe before doing so, we were in Paris after all. So we did right nearby. Angela had her unopened bottle of red wine with her and attempted to take it up with her to the top, but was stopped by the security guard upon entry. He kindly promised that he would watch over it while we went up.....

We made our way up to the top. It was just stunning. The lights, the view. It was just gorgeous. We took a couple of photos of our achievement... all that exercise used to go up the two lifts that it took to get to the "sommet"... haha.

At the top, there were couples kissing - unfortunately we didn't see any romantic proposals or anything quite like that - and it was a tad overly romantic. However I got my kiss on the top of the Eiffel Tower just as well....

We made our way back down, through huge queues and by this point we were shattered. Such a long but exciting day. Angela scurried off to retrieve her bottle of wine only to discover that it was no longer there. I didn't expect it to still be there to be honest... Oh well. 

We had the most amazing time in Paris and all felt as if we had achieved so much in a day. I could spend so long there, months even. I will definitely be meeting you again. Je t'aime Paris.