Day 59 – Friday, November 9, 2007

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Day 59 - Friday, November 9, 2007
It was a beautiful day in Paris except very windy and cold! We headed out of the hostel towards the Arc de Triomphe. We are staying in an area called Montmarte which is an artsy area where many famous painters found their hiding places including Picasso. After we spent some time sketching we headed towards the Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel). The amount of people selling stuff on the streets and beggers (sometimes wearing Nike shoes) really put a bit of a damper on our visits, I felt like we were fending people off constantly. The beggers would ask if you spoke English and if you said yes they would show you this paper saying they couldn’t afford food for their brothers etc so as cynical as it is, after a while we just started answering no to their question. We went up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower but did not go all the way to the top because the stairs weren’t open and Katie didn’t want to pay more to take the elevator, (plus it was FREEZING up there!) We spent some time in the Parc du Champ de Mars which is the park at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower and then went to investigate an interesting building we saw that was close by that we saw from above. We found out it was the Musee
Afterwards we went to the Louve (Palais du Louvre.) We went in to see infamous entrance by I.M.Pei but did not go in to the exhibits. Part of our decision on this was because we’ve been told several times that you need AT LEAST a day in the Louve if not two, and honestly, there was more we wanted to do than just look at paintings. (I know, I may regret our decision but for right now, I don’t…) By the time we left the Louve it was dusk so we walked down the Avenue Des Champs-Elysees which is the major road that runs between the Arc de Triomphe to the Louve so it was cool to see it lit up. We stopped and had dinner at a small Coffee shop/Bistro and walked around some more before heading back to the hostel.

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