Paris Day 2

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The last time I wrote we spent one day in Paris. I wasn't sure if I was going to write about it, but I will as a warning/story for others. I almost was pickpocketed in Paris. On Thursday night, we ate dinner in the Latin Quarter. Towards the end of our meal a group of begging children came to our table. We were eating outside on the sidewalk. They were had maps and one boy tried to lift my iPhone from the table under the map. I reacted quickly and grabbed my phone, smacked his hand, and yelled "Nein! and NO!!" Then the waiter, came and smacked him on the head and called the police. It was an interesting experience and left me a little shaken. I'm really glad my phone wasn't stolen and it just made me keep up my guard more.

So, on the second day(Friday) we really tried to wake up early and get to the Lourve but we were so tired (and relieved to be sleeping in a room with air conditioning) that we slept longer than anticipated. We took our bags to the train station then we took the subway to the Lourve. (FYI: Kristen only reads maps, not Michael 😉) Word of advice: if you ever go to the Lourve, go by the subway entrance. We didn't have to wait in line at all to buy our tickets. We waiting about 10 minutes to get into the building and that sure did beat waiting outside the pyramid in the sun.

What I think I enjoyed most about the Lourve was the history itself of the building. We were able to see the medieval embankments and moat that the Lourve once held. The Classical statues were awesome. I got to see the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and much more. I recognized quite a few paintings and sculptures from my art history class from college. I did not like the crowding/moshing to get to see the Mona Lisa. I thought there was a more efficient way to see it, but maybe the French should take a page from the Swiss or Germans.

After the Lourve, we wanted to see as much of the city as possible. We got back on the tour bus and tried to leave a lock at this bridge but were out of time and had to get back to the train station for our train back to Basel. There's this bridge where in Italian and other European cultures, couples leave a lock on the bridge to seal their love/leave a part of their love somewhere. Michael and I wanted to this, but we didn't have time and we will probably go back again whenever we go back to visit Michael's parents in Switzerland.

We did spend part of the afternoon on Avenue des Champs-Élysées. It was my favorite part of Paris. It was beautiful and had great shopping. It was also much cleaner than the rest of Paris. I shopped in Zara and bought a few gifts for home. Champs-Elysses is the location where the American soliders marched when they took back Paris from the Nazis and it also houses the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde.

Then we took our train back to Basel where we were great in Munsterplatz by a symphony playing for the open air cinema's presentation of Charlie Chaplin films. It was such a surreal day.

Au revoir,

Kristen

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