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Yesterday we got into Paris in the afternoon and after we checked into our hostel we went straight to the Eiffel Tower and then just wandered around downtown Paris. We also walked up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, and then somehow ended up lost in the richest area in Paris when we were the hungriest. When we finally realized where we were, we took the subway back home got two bottles of delicious wine for 5 euros a piece! We had dinner at the restaurant in the hostel and then drank our bottles of wine with our 'roommates' in our room. We are staying in an 8 person dorm and everyone has their own bunk with a little curtain, it is loud though!
Today we slept in, but had baguettes for breakfast in the hostel restaurant. Then we headed out to the Musee D'orsay where we waiting in the rain for an hour to get in. Once we were in though, we saw tons of famous Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir paintings, but left fairly quickly since we know and care very little about art. After that, we went to Les Invalides which is this huge building that Napolean built for injured soldiers, which later became home to the King's guards and soldiers. It is now home to the Army Museum, where we saw old weapons, armour and outfits from the 1600s to the late 1800s. Beside the building is a cathedral where Napolean's tomb is kept. It was a very large tomb for such a small man.
After that, we got lost again at our hungriest and ended up wandering for a very long time looking for a menu that we could understand. Finally, a man with four teeth invited us into a small pub, where he said had the best food. After struggling for about twenty minutes to order food, the man finally helped us order a meal that they ended up being out of, since their lunch menu was over for the day. That meant that the cost of food had drastically increased for their dinner menu. The man wanted us to stay so badly and try the food that he ended up ordering duck for us and covering the increase in price. So we ended up each having a duck breast that was bigger than any chicken breast we had ever seen in our lives. It came with these yummy potato wedges and ended up being the second best meal we've had on our whole trip, after Eating in one of Europe's top restaurants in London, and one of the cheapest since the toothless man covered almost half our bill. After our meal, he talked to us in a broken english for awhile about his online gaming presence. After 7 years on World of Warcraft he can now refer to himself as the Black Knight.
We spent the rest of the day ironing out the logistics for the rest of our trip, and reserved all of the trains for the remainder of our journey. For dinner, Josh finally found a McDonalds outside of a train station...in other words, I finally gave in to his incessant nagging about the quality of McDonalds in the City of Lights.
Aside from the horrible rain, constantly getting lost, not understanding the language and the smell of pee on the subways, Paris has been great. The weather is supposed to clear up for tomorrow so we are off to the Louvre first thing tomorrow morning and then back to the Eiffel Tower to climb up to the top!
Au revoir!
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Lisa
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Wow, you've already done a ton of stuff! We missed you at Mother's Day lunch, your mom was really happy to have talked with you. This blog is such a great way to diarize your trip and fill us in isn't it? Look forward to reading more....