i can't feel my legs, i have no legs - can't hardly wait

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highs
saw the mona lisa (and various other paintings and sculptures) at the louvre
stood on top of the arc de triumphe
visited notre dame and climbed all the way to the top (which nearly killed me...)

lows
the rain - it's rained every day since i've been here
the lingering smell in my dorm room, even though i'm driving my dormmates mad by opening the window every chance i get

people i've met
more dormmates - elena from argentina, edson from brazil (who has japanese grandparents and lives/studies in bristol??), a lady from the czech republic (don't remember her name though), and a wierd american guy called phil


It's my fourth day here in Paris and i'm kind of over it already. I think that's because it's rained every day since I got here so I bought myself a 4 day museum pass and i've been pounding the pavement and the halls of all the museums and monuments in town, and so my feet and legs are really sore, and i'm really quite tired. I really need to stop and relax a bit but because of the rain I can't just lie on the grass and look up at the eiffel tower as Bec had suggested, and i'm wearing myself out.

On the first full day I went out a wandering I kept looking at places just to avoid coming back to the dorm room cause I was dreading having another shower in the bathroom with no door, and also cause the American guy that was sleeping in the bunk below me was a bit weird and I think that it's him that we have to thank for the smell that hits us each time we enter the room.

I'm not kidding you know, I caught a glimpse of his undies poking out of the top of his jeans as he was lying on his bed and they were turned inside out, so I think he was subscribing to the 'you can get more than one day out of a pair of undies theory' - eeeewwww!

Anyway he's gone now, and i've got the whole showering thing down to a fine art now, so it's not really bothering me so much. And for the record - thank you Mum for the water tight oversized zip lock bags you bought for me 😊

So on day 1 I headed straight for the Louvre Museum, and my god that place is big! I spent 3 hours there and only managed to cover one wing. But it was the one which contains the Mona Lisa so that was plenty for me. After that I headed over to the Pantheon and climbed to the top (about 200 or so stairs) and got a birdseye view of Paris. I still had some time to kill so I caught the metro up to the Arc de Triumphe but it started to rain just as I got there, and me being the lazy git I am decided against climbing the 200 or so stairs to the top and scammed my way onto the elevator reserved for disabled people instead.

On day 2 I hit the church scene and started my day at the Saint Chapelle, which is no longer a church but was one during the reign of King Louis the ??? (my French history is really bad, sorry). Anyway it has the tallest stained glass windows in Paris (and you don't have to trek up 200 stairs to see them...).

I couldn't stay away from those damned stairs for long though, and climbed about 400 or so to the top of Notre Dame. It was totally worth it though, and I was very proud of myself for making it up there. I got some great photos of the gargoyles 😊 Inside Notre Dame is gorgeous, and the day I visited was a special occasion on the religious calendar (again sorry, my religious knowledge is also crap) so Mass was being held, and I thought that that was a rather special experience.

I visited thw Chateau de Versailles today, along with half the tourists in Paris it seemed - and you know where those tour guides can stick their bloody umbrellas... Anyway, it's about 45mins out of Paris and is the former home of the Kings and Queens of France at one time or another. The rooms are just as lavish as you'd expect them to be and they're surprisingly well preserved considering they're over 300 years old. The chateau is huge, but the total estate is truly enormous, over 700 hectares to be exact. And again I opted for the path of least resistance and hopped on the shuttle to get to the other side where the summer home of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were. I ended up spending about 5 hours there in total, and am just as tired now as I was the last 2 days when I hiked around Paris all day.

I've still got one more day to go on my museum pass, so I think i'll head to a couple more museums that i've heard good things about tomorrow.

Until next time...

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