Europe Trip Part 3: Last day in Paris

We hit all the big stuff on our last day in Paris. We started out looking for a nice patisserie where we got some pastries and hot chocolate to eat in front of Notre Dame, but not before we saw this guy....

Both his ears and his belly were touching the ground. It was both adorable and pathetic at the same time.

Someones been having a two few many pastries...

 

The pastry shop we stopped at.

They made a little tent bag so the pastries wouldn't get squished.

Hot chocolate and an eclair in front of Notre Dame. The eclair was actually the least delicious of all the pastries but we had to get one, obviously.

Notre Dame in all its glory.

Apparently the dogs aren't the only things that are over-fed in France. After getting their fill from all the tourists, the pigeons would come here to bask in their gluttony. 

We got to go all the way up to the bell tower. The hunchback is apparently very short, even I had to bend over to get through the doors.

Michael got to touch one of the great bells.

The real secret to the bells of Notre Dame...

Famous Gargoyle.

Views from the top.

We took pictures of the Rose window, but after Sainte-Chapelle it just wasn't as impressive.

 

I mean, how can you top that?

Sante-Chapelle was apparently commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house the Crown of Thorns and other Passion Relics.

Downstairs there were a bunch of pillars with different types of leaves and for some reason this one was my favorite :)

Neat arch ceilings in the Paris Conciergerie.

To end the day we went to the Louvre. It was huge, and would probably require a good month of exploration to really appreciate - we had half a day. Michael thinks they should downside and send more than half of the artifacts to smaller museums around the world where they would be better appreciated -because, let's face it, more than half the people who go there only see the most famous pieces.

Ourselves included...

Although we did stop to appreciate some of the more politically correct exhibits.

As usual, the ceilings were my favorite.

Michael's attempting the Mona Lisa Smile. It's not so easy, must be why it's famous....

Another hidden gem.

Ok we don't really remember why we liked the duck so much.

This was my ultimate favorite.

Even though the slab only has a width of about a foot, the amount of depth is unreal. I just couldn't stop staring.

More statues.

The Louvre was unreal. So much stuff. We really enjoyed walking the the statues. It's just amazing that people so long ago were able to create such impressive, realistic, and detailed work. What happened?

So our big story with the Louvre is about how we got in. Michael had previously lost his Museum Pass at Versaille the day before (despite mocking me several times for how paranoid I was about zipping up my pockets and checking them often), and so all we had was my museum pass and a receipt showing that we had purchased two. We hadn't had any problems with the other sites, but the Louvre proved to be different. For some reason one of the most famous sites in Paris, which probably receives hundreds and thousands of visitors who don't speak French, doesn't have emplyees who speak English. I tried to explain in bits and pieces of French that we had purchased two but lost one, but they just weren't taking it. The Louvre itself had three different entrances. We went to the first one and were shut down. We went to the second one and got rejected again. Finally, at the third and final entrance someone took pity on us; it was a very tense moment. We thought that once we were in we would be ok, wrong. Even though each of the three sections did connect, many of the connecting rooms were closed and some sections didn't have corresponding floors. Most people switch sections by exiting and then going through the entrance into the next section, but since we couldn't exit we had to be a little more creative. It was quite the adventure going up five floors just to cross over into another section and then trying to find a way back down three levels to end up where Rick Steve wanted us.

After the Louvre we got some paninis for dinner and ate them in a lovely little park. They were delicious, of course.

To finish the trip off, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We couldn't go to the top because I found a little too late that it books out more than a month in advance. Oh well. 

The view from the bottom was still pretty good.

A cute little cave things next to the Eiffel tower.

It was fun listening to the people selling Eiffel Tower trinkets on the side of the road. They would start at some outrageous price like 1 for 10 Euros and then come down to 4 for 1 Euro if the person wasn't biting. I feel bad for the poor sucker who took the first price, but I guess they deserve it. 

A cool doorway

France was AMAZING. Everything from the cute little cobblestone streets to the delicious food made our time there so magical. I really liked just walking around with Michael exploring all of the nooks and crannies to see what we could find. The big stuff was awesome, of course, but a little too touristy for my liking. The best times were when we had no idea where we were going. 

The ride back to London was bittersweet. I was sad to be leaving such a magical place, but excited for the even bigger adventure ahead of us.