Lost in the Louvre

Jessica gave me her darn cold, and now I'm in Paris and I'm sick.

The train ride from Prague to Paris was decent. We had to switch trains at 6:30am, but that gave us a chance to pick up something to eat as well. After about 15 hours on the trains, we made it to the hostel in Paris around 2:30pm.

We wanted to keep it simple, so last night we walked along the Champs-Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. It was a nice night walk, and we had a good view of the Eiffel Tower when it was all lit up.

We are in this room at the hostel with 3 beds, so we have a roomate, which is fine, but last night our roomate snored all night long. Luckily it wasn't as loud as Keith's snoring in Munich so I was able to get some sleep.

Woke up around 8 this morning, had breakfast, and headed out for the day. Today's itinerary: Notre Dame and the Louvre. I liked Notre Dame, but after the cathedral at Prague Castle, it wasn't as impressive. Still beautiful though, and I have to say I prefer the gothic churches (Notre Dame, all the ones in Prague, St. Stephen's in Vienna) to all the renaissance style churches in Italy.

Next we wandered over towards the Louvre, but on our way found what we had wanted since we arrived in Paris... crepes. Jessica had hers with butter, but I opted for the Grand Marnier. Now I need a bottle when we get home so I can make them for myself because it was sooooo good!

We finally made it to the Louvre, which by the way, is MASSIVE. We walked around there for about 4 hours and still didn't see everything. No cameras allowed, so no pictures, but we saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, and some other really great sculptures and paintings. Unfortunately, although this collection was impressive, it had already been outdone by the Vatican Museum.

We were tired and hungry and decided it was time to go find something to eat. But at that point we were deep in the Louvre, and though we followed the exit signs (the ones we could find), we still found ourselves wandering through the museum for good hour just trying to get out. Good thing I'm not diabetic or something.

We finally made our way out and after wandering around Paris for another 45 minutes, we found a place to eat and had a nice lunch. Even though I can't really taste anything right now. I think I'm going to sleep the rest of the day.

We wake up early tomorrow to fly back to London...