Paris, France Day 3: Le Louvre

Sunday morning we woke up just in time to be checked out of our hostel by 11:00am. We hurried to Le Louvre, one of the last two things on our to-do list for Paris. Unfortunately, we were in a hurry while in Le Louvre, so we only got to see a small part of it. Of course, we made a point to see the Mona Lisa (totally overrated), but we also saw Venus de Milo and many other works. Most of what we saw was Ancient Greek/Roman statues, and Renaissance artwork. What amazed me the most, however, was how beautiful the architecture of the actual building was. Most of the ceilings were painted with gold accents and masterpieces painted on to the ceilings.

After seeing Le Louvre, we hurried down to the Eiffel Tower in hopes of riding all the way to the top. Unfortunately, however, we didn't have enough time to do so without missing our flight home. Instead, we got some crepes (banana and nutella... yum!) and sat next to the Seine and under the Eiffel Tower to enjoy them. It was a beautiful Spring day, so even though we were unable to go up to the top, enjoying the weather and the view from the bottom was enough in itself.

After eating, we hopped on the Metro to get back to our hostel. We grabbed our bags, hopped back on the Metro to the train station. When we arrived at the train station, however, we encountered some problems. The ticket machines only accepted coins and credit cards, and our balance was €17. We obviously didn't have €17 in coins, so we tried using our credit cards (four total between the two of us), and NONE of them would work. We were already running a little bit late for the airport (we were planning to meet Claire there 2.5 hours before our flight), so this wasn't good. We stepped out of line and went to the Information/Help desk to purchase tickets with cash, except that in France it seems to be perfectly acceptable to just leave the desk whenever you feel like it (we encountered this same problem several times throughout the weekend), so there wasn't an attendant there. We tried our credit cards one more time before finally leaving the train station, buying a candy bar, requesting that all our change be in coins, and then hurrying back down to buy our train tickets. Crisis averted. Almost...

We hurried down to the train tracks where our train was supposed to be departing only to find that there was caution tape across the tracks. A sign written only in French (no English translation) explained that this track was closed, and that the train had been re-routed to another track. Good thing I can read French. Unfortunately for us, the track that the train had been re-routed to was at the far end of the train station, so we were hurrying to reach it before it left. We managed to get on it, but not until 4:00pm, the time we were already supposed to BE at the airport. We called Claire and told her to check-in without us. The train was only supposed to take 30 minutes, but it turns out we got on the non-express train, which stopped at every station between where we were and the airport. So, instead of taking 30 minutes, it took 50 minutes. We arrived at the airport at 4:50, checking-in with AirFrance at 5:00, with just 30 minutes to spare before boarding for our flight began. Luckily Passport Control and Security didn't take too long, so we were even able to grab a quick lunch and some souvenirs before arriving at the gate just in time to board. Overall, it was a hectic afternoon, but it worked out well in the end.

We arrived back in London just a few minutes after we left Paris (due to the time zone change, we only lost about 15 minutes of time!), and finally got back to our flats around 7:45.

Looking back, Paris was definitely the best city that I have visited thus far. I'm not sure if it was just because the weather was so nice, but I think it was just a beautiful city. I had heard terrible things about the Parisians, but with the exception of our taxi driver, we encountered no real problems. I think that Paris is a city that I could definitely see myself living in some day, even if just for a short amount of time.