Mastering Paris

Today Austin started the day waking up at 6am, while Quincey slept in until 8:15. We grabbed breakfast downstairs, which was delicious. They made scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, and pastries as well as orange and grapefruit juice. Our first stop was to the Notre Dame which was free of charge and absolutely beautiful inside. The architecture was incredible, and the cathedral was dimly lit with candles all around. There was even a working confessional in which people waited to visit. While we were inside there was some sort of service taking place in the center. After leaving the Notre Dame, we visited a bread and cheese festival in the courtyard. We both sampled different baguettes and Quincey was brave enough to try a hazelnut sweet milk, which she quickly discarded of (the milk in Europe is not what we're used to).

Continuing on from the Notre Dame, we walked up the canal past the Louvre to the Musee D'Orsay. We spent a couple hours walking through each exhibit, viewing Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Surrealism, Art Nouvea, and sculptures and antique furniture. While exiting we realized that we missed the Van Gogh exhibit on the 5th floor. We quickly turned around and climbed all 5 flights to view it before we left. Austin's overall favorites were Van Gogh and Renoir.

After the museum, we continued our mastery of the Metro system and found our way back to the hotel. Quincey was on a mission to find hair product that didn't exist and settled for buying a converter, while Austin was on the task of finding a nice bottle of French wine. After running all of our errands, we rested our feet at the hotel and took what was supposed to be a 45 minute nap. It turned in to a 3 hour nap. We woke up at 8:30pm, made ourselves a snack of baguette and salami that we bought at the supermarket, and headed out to see the Arc de Triomphe by night. It stays light until 9pm in Paris.

We walked underground to view the Arc de Triomphe from underneath. Because it was getting so late, we decided not to go to the top, and instead headed towards the Eiffel Tower to get a glimpse before our plans to visit it by day tomorrow. We strolled through the park towards the Eiffel Tower, and at 12:00am, the tower lit up in twinkle lights. It was one of the best sights we've ever seen and were so glad we had the chance to see it by night. Exhausted from our long walk, we decided to head back to the hotel. We've been saving a lot of taxi money by taking the Metro which is only around 2 Euro each! So here we are back at the hotel. We're planning on stopping by the Eiffel Tower during the morning and spending whole day at the Louvre tomorrow. We might even take a nice walk through the gardens. We'll let you know how it goes!