Lyon --> Paris (Running of the people to the train, The Louvre, etc.) :)

8:45 am: Well we've had an interesting morning! And its not even 9 a; yet. I am writing this while on our train to Paris. But first let me back up a bit. Yesterday was a very chill day. We literally did nothing! Besides go to the grocery store a couple times and a few other places in Brignais. Then we had dinner at home with Nadine. We helped her finish all her leftovers from the party! The dessert was especially delicious! Taylor and I actually really enjoyed tiramisou. We thought it would taste too much like coffee, but actually it was great. And we also had some wonderful homemade ice cream which Nadine made herself! It was strawberry. So fresh and tasty! :) After our nice dinner we finished packing and then went to sleep in order to be as rested as possible for today.

This morning we had a nice 6:15 am wake up call and then hurried out the door a little after 7 am. Our train left at 8 am. Traffic was pretty heavy, so by the time we were near the station it was like 6:57 am (or later!). We literally ran from Nadine's car up to the track and climbed on board as the minute warning bell rang. I am still a bit shocked we actually made it! Of course, then we realized we weren't in the right cabin, so at the first stop we hopped off and then ran even faster to get to our cabin before the train started again, which was about 7 cars away! We were very out of breath when we got on. But at least we got to the correct seats.

11 pm update: Of course that didn't even really matter either because no one ever came to check our tickets! The train ride was really quick and easy. I enjoyed it more than an airplane. The seats are bigger and more comfy, and it just was nicer overall.

After getting off the train, we figured out how to get to the metro. We had no problems finding our hotel, which is a cute little place in the heart of Paris. We are very happy with the location, and for one night the room is fine. Then off to another place tomorrow. The life of a European traveler... ;) When we got to the hotel it was too early to check in, so we just left our bags and had a nice little lunch at a cafe down the street. Once again, we had ham and cheese sandwhiches. For someone who never really ate ham at home, I am really getting to the point where I am ready to have a new lunch! It always tastes good, but no matter how good a meal is having it too much can just make ya uninterested I suppose. But I am honestly going to miss the food. And I am really going to miss all the cafes! I would go buy a new loaf of bread every morning at a little boulangerie/patisserie if we had good ones at home!!

Once we finished lunch, we headed to the Louvre. I am really not a big "museum" person. Typically I don't enjoy them all that much after a half hour or so. But this one was different. It is an exhausting place, but SO cool. We all agreed it was well worth the trip and we really enjoyed it. Just the outside is awesome. At first we thought it was going to take awhile to get in, but the line moved very quickly and once inside we waited no more than 5 minutes to get our tickets. We started off with the Egyptian wing. That was all very interesting and a really neat way to start off seeing the museum. It is just so crazy how intricate they made things and how much work they put into preserving the people. We walked in a tomb, saw a mummy and sphinxes, and lots more.

We spent a good amount of time with the Egyptians, and then headed to another area to check out some Roman sculptures. Sadly I know very little about art, but I know we saw a couple famous ones! And then we decided to try and find the lovely Mona Lisa. Which really isn't that impressive. I need to learn more about what makes it so famous, because going in person and seeing the mass amount of crowds around a little portrait like that just doesn't make a ton of sense. They were so many more "impressive" pieces of art around that it almost seemed funny that everybody was there to see THAT. But, I am still very glad we did, if even just to say so lol.

We walked around a bit more after seeing Mona Lisa, but by that point we were getting a little sick of walking around such a gigantic place. We walked through the Napoleon III Apartments, which had some awesome chandeliers. Still not entirely sure what the apartments even are for (Napoelon did not live there by the way)... Taylor and I had a nice laugh because we felt like we were recreating a scene from The Hangover when we had this little convo:

Taylor: So all of these objects are from Napoleon's house?

Me: I don't think Napoleon lived here!

Taylor: You sound like Alan when he asked if Cesear really lived there!

.... Ok, so it was definitely funnier in person! Anway...

We walked around outside near the Louvre for a bit, and Keegan and I had some yummy gelato. Then we came to the hotel for a little siesta time. After resting up we headed to the shopping area right by our hotel. We spent all our time at one store that has like 6 stories. It is massive! And way too expensive for us. I enjoyed looking at the 101,000 Euro Tiffany ring and Marc Jacobs purses though! And Keegan enjoyed looking at 20,000 Euro wine! Pretty intense stuff!

We had dinner at the Chinese place in the mall. I didn't love mine but Keegan and Taylor liked what they had. Then after a bit more shopping we headed back to the hotel. But first we had to stop at the pub/cafe next to our hotel for Keegan to have some strange drink. I had more unnecessary ice cream. And now we are in our hotel room with the window open listening to the live music from a band at the club/bar also just down the street. We kind of want to go down and see the show, but we will probably just listen from up here instead.

I am really excited to see more of Paris the next couple days! Lots of fun things we still plan to do. We all agree that we like Paris WAY more than Barcelona. London and Paris are probably tied at the moment. Love them both. I would definitely come back here again sometime!

Bonsoir mes amis!

Kaitlyn