Date: February 13, 2016
The next morning we went for a city tour. Our main destination was The Louvre Museum, but we took our time to explore the city a bit first and started off with a real French breakfast.
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Notre-Dame
First stop on our Paris city tour was: Notre-Dame. This cathedral is big and ethereal.
I was looking to see if I could see Quasimodo lurk behind of the pillars :p
Actually before entering Notre-Dame, we went to this underground museum right in front of the cathedral that displays a history of the Notre-Dame.
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After the Notre-Dame we continued through the beautiful city. I must say, I understand now why Paris is called “The City of Love”. There is an inexplicable aura of romance in the atmosphere. I could see myself walking hand in hand with a significant other in the street. It probably would be beyond cheesy, but I don’t care.
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The Louvre
We eventually made it to The Louvre. The building is huge from the outside and I could only imagine the amount of treasures kept inside. We first took some pictures outside of the building, which is an experience on its own and finally went inside. We didn’t take the main entrance as that has a big line, but found another way in.
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We stopped for some coffee at Starbucks first, where Ryan has his first cup of coffee EVER. Yes, you read that right. Well if you are going to try coffee for the first time, I think Starbucks is an OK place for your first sip.
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Inside the Louvre I had a major Dan Brown fan moment. If you’ve read The Da Vinci Code you know the significance of the below picture. And I can proudly say that Dan Brown himself has reposted this picture on Instagram. Yes, I nearly died of excitement the day he did that.
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Oh, since we are talking about The Louvre, I have to tell the bathroom story.
After our coffee break and before entering the actual museum we all went to the lobby bathroom to empty our bladders. Well let me tell you: even the toilet in The Louvre is a museum on itself.
Yes, there was colored toilet paper in every color imaginable, the stall was all fancy, smelled and looked great and it had free Wi-Fi…. Oh and there is no toilet brush… you have an actual butler (read: cleaning lady) that cleans up after you. For realz. I am not making this shit up…. Pun intended.
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So finally we bought our entrance tickets and went to explore the museum.
First we had some religious statues, than made it to the Egyptian art, than some Royal jewels, more art work everywhere and finally made it to the world famous Mona Lisa.
Yes, she is beautiful, but a lot less big than imagined. But still an amazing sight and I was fanning out (to The Da Vinci Code). We explored the rest of the museum until it was near closing time.
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We then went for some macarons and walk The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (the most expensive street in Paris) and finally visited Arc de Triomphe. We didn’t go up the Arc de Triomphe as it was crowded and cold. And I recall it even faintly snowing.
After our city stroll we were picked up by Ryan’s cousin and we went to dinner at a restaurant. And yes, of course we needed to have at least one French thing to eat so we order: snails. Yup…. I can’t describe the taste. Nothing I have had before. Not bad though. Just… different.
After the dinner we went back to the apartment, Ryan went to bed, Farid and I kept on drinking and decided to see what the Parisian night life was like. And oh boy, did we find out.
More about the night out in the next Paris post.
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