"Pigging Out"

June 7th –

The day started early, as I woke up around 6 am. We went out for some breakfast, and I had a ham and cheese omelet. We also stopped at a grocery store, and got a couple snacks and drinks. Nicolette told me I needed to try some Orangina while I was here, so we bought a bottle of that. Will found some smoked ham flavored chips, so we got those as well. It was really weird eating a chip that tasted like ham, but it was actually really good.

Will’s dad needed to do some work on his laptop, so Will and I ventured out on our own. Our first stop was the Louvre, and we decided to walk there from the hotel. It turned out being a lot farther than we anticipated and took us about an hour. We entered the museum, and grabbed a map. It was so overwhelming how large the museum is. I didn’t really know where we should start. I only had one particular piece of art that I had to see before leaving, and that of course was the Mona Lisa. We walked around for a bit and eventually found the famous painting. My first reaction was to notice that the painting is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. It was located in a large room, so it wasn’t too difficult getting up to the front of the crowd. We looked around at more artwork, and decided that it was time to go once the pain in our feet got uncomfortable (remember we walked an hour before actually getting to the Louvre).

We were going to try taking a subway back to the hotel, but before we got to a station, I noticed a sign that read “Comedie Française”. For those of you who have seen the movie The Producers (and know the songs by heart like Will and me), you will know why it was necessary for us to go take a peek at this theater.  I also found a touristy store that had a reasonably priced purse, and I bought it because sadly, the purse that I brought with me broke the first day we got here. We finally got to the station but weren’t experienced in figuring out where we were or where we needed to go, so we gave up on the idea and just got a taxi instead.

A quick note about driving in this city… I would never, ever consider driving in Paris! I don’t know if it’s like this in all of France or just in a big city like Paris, but I just would never survive driving here. I am always a bit nervous when I’m in a taxi because I’m almost certain we’re going to crash (of course we never do). It is especially scary when we get to the famous round-a-bout that circles the Arc de Triomphe. Man, I do not get how that works at all!

Later that night, we decided to take a Bateau-Mouche  (like a tour boat) on the river that runs through Paris. The tour didn’t start until 10 pm, and it was an hour long. On the tour, we saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, and a lot of other major attractions along the river. The tour lady mentioned at one point that we were about to pass under the most romantic bridge in Paris, and that it was a good place for a kiss. Of course, Will and I had to try it out for ourselves! Don’t blame us – we’re in the most romantic city in the world! ;)

We ate dinner really late that night, so we went to a 24 hour café. We started off with a platter of pork and ham, as well as some French onion soup. I decided to have the duck, which I enjoyed. I was given some more red wine with my meal, but I decided to pass on drinking it. I wasn’t ready to give it another try yet. Will got some dessert, and they gave us little marshmallow "pigs" that were really cute. We didn’t get back to the hotel until around 2:30 am, and we were exhausted by then.

Did you catch all the piggies I ate today?