Tour Day Two: Free Day in Paree

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They fed us breakfast at the hotel (croissants, which aren't really French, and some meat and cheese. I think I ate about 3), and then we headed into the city of lights around 9:00. It took us an hour to get into the city because of the traffic. I don't think I could drive in Europe, there aren't really any lanes so everyone just drives where ever they feel like it. We were dropped off at the Eiffel Tower with instructions to return there at 7:00 pm.
We didn't really know what we wanted to do in the city. The cues were already way too long to go up to the top of the Tower so we looked at our map and decided the Rodin Museum looked cool. As we were walking there we saw a building completely covered in greenery. It was very cool. We saw the museum and of course, the thinker was still thinking. My camera on this day was mostly dead so Lauren has a lot of the pictures. We both agreed that Rodin was a fantastic sculptor. All of his work was mind boggling to me.
Next on our list was Notre Dame we decided. So, we set out on foot to try and get there. The two look a lot closer on the map I must say. We did really love wandering through the little streets though. We found a little snack shop where we got the best food we had so far on the trip. They were baguette sandwiches more or less and mine was like a cheeseburger. It was definitely delicious. We also discovered the Pantheon quite by accident because we were slightly lost. It was at this point that we took the dreaded wrong turn that led us to the non-tourist part of Paris. I am actually glad we did though because it led to my only full conversation en Francais. A man approached us and explained that we looked lost. Thankfully he also explained how to use the metro system because I really don't think we could have walked much further. So there it is... "we got lost" for the first time, but not the last.
After this we did actually make it to Notre Dame. We didn't want to go in because we were just way too tired to stand in line. So we walked a bit farther and sat in the Tuileries Garden outside the Louvre to finish our sandwiches. Quite content, I pulled my travel book out to see if there was anything unusual we could go do. We discovered a Picasso Museum that seemed pretty neat. So we took the metro over to that (we had pretty much given up on the whole walking concept by now). When we got there it was a wild goose chase just to try to find the building. There were a bunch of signs we were following but it turns out we were always closer than we thought. We did see a building called "Le Institue de Gestion Francais" We were tempted to stop and ask for a bathroom (the digestion institute get it? haha..) but we didn't think they would find it as funny. The Picasso Museum turned out to be really very cool (once we found it). I have decided I would not have liked to have been one of his models. Those poor girls...
Then we headed back to the Eiffel Tower and collasped in the grassy area there for about half an hour before dinner (which wasn't very good.) After dinner we went on a Seine River Cruise. They showed us many of the sites as well as the French copy of the Statue of Liberty. I thought that was cool personally. We stayed up at the hotel talking and getting to know people until about 3:30 at which time Lauren and I went back to our room and somehow talked until 5:45. Don't ask me what we were thinking..
Even though we got utterly lost.. this turned out to be a great day. Lauren and I didn't mind not seeing the typical tourist sites because we already have. I actually think I prefer the little side streets.

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Photos

A Cool Building?
I think this was some sort of art museum.. but I just thought it looked pretty.

A "Legit" Footlong Sandwich
The best food so far...

Tuileries Gardens
Our view from the bench we plopped ourselves down on for a while to finish our sandwiches.