I caught quite an unfortunate cold right
before arriving in Paris. Liz and I had an extremely early flight from
Barcelona and only one night in the city so I recuperated in our hotel room for
a few minutes before venturing out. Our first order of business was food and
coffee. We found a delicious Asian noodle place right next to the hotel, which
also served coffee so we went there for lunch. After the coffee kicked in a bit
we made our way to the nearest metro stop to try and figure out the city’s best
transportation. The metro itself was not difficult to figure out, having
already mastered the tube, however the ticket system is quite odd. After
pondering at the ticket machine for a bit we decided our most cost efficient
option was to buy a book of tickets. It came with ten tickets each of which
allows one to take one ride on the metro within the city. The system is not
difficult just obnoxious. The ticket machine shoots out all of these individual
tickets at you, each about the size of my thumb. These tickets you then must
keep track of and keep the used ones separate from the ready to be used ones.
Not the ideal system, although quite a bit cheaper than the tube.
We decided to do the most touristy thing
first: see the Eifel Tower.
And of course we climbed it. The cheaper
option was taking the 49 flights of stairs to the second floor of the tower. It
was a rather cloudy day but we still got a pretty good view of the city.
We then went to see the Arc de Triomphe and
wander a bit before getting a pastry and calling it a night fairly early
because I was not feeling that well and we wanted to get up early the next
morning to get to the Lourve.
Our hotel offered breakfast which was a bit
expensive but much easier than hunting for breakfast so we decided to eat there
and they did provide a wide selection of food. We then headed to the Lourve
where we proceeded to spend almost the entire day.
That museum is absolutely huge! We didn’t
even see everything in it and we were there upwards of 5 hours! The museum legs
were really kicking in by the end of it; although, it was amazing to see the
world famous Mona Lisa in person. It’s hard to get a good picture of her because
of the glass she is behind, but I tried.
After the Lourve we wondered a bit before
needing to get to the airport to catch our flight back to London. Paris was
amazing. I was happy I was going to get the chance to spend more time
there because I felt so sick and it was a bit chilly.
Have a wonderfully marvellous day, au
revoir! ~Laura
