Paris Isn't for Sissies....Day 2

Got up Saturday morning. Had to store our luggage in the hostel luggage room because that night they were switching us to a 5 person room. First stop of the day.... Eiffel Tower. Little did I know I was about to encounter the love of my life.

First viewing of my tower up close. Oh. My. Gosh. It is getting bigger.



These dudes sell mini Eiffels.
I wanted to ask them if they realized that the ACTUAL thing was RIGHT behind them.



From the bottom. There's no way to adequately show how big it is in a photo.
I flipped. It's so big. It's such a great tower.


Lillie and half of Matt as we ascend to the 2nd tower floor.
(The top was being worked on)



Me on top of my tower


View from tower


Pretending to be a tower



Lillie and me pretending to kiss by the tower


Freddie and Kelley (actual couple actually kissing by the tower)


Group and tower.
Man, I love that tower. I mean...well done Mr. Eiffel. Well done indeed.


Ok now black and white. Black and white just fits Paris so well... and
it is especially flattering for my tower.


We took every single....


tourist pose we could think of!


Arch de Triumph... beautiful, but you're no tower


Ok so at this point, I should tell you that I really knew nothing about Paris before I went. Besides the Eiffel Tower, I wasn't sure what else I was supposed to see. Ok and I guess the Louvre, but I really didn't fully understand what I should see there either. Now, I can tell you the names of things one should see when touring Paris, but I'm not entirely sure of the history or significance of each site I saw. So this Arch kinda falls in that category. It's a cool arch. And when people win things they parade down the street towards the arch. My ultimate plan is to NOW go back and learn more about the things I saw. I learn better that way anyways. But odds are, it won't happen. I'm lucky just to get these pictures up before next weekend. SO, offer any info you have about any of this stuff. The photo below is another example of things I didn't know about Paris. My fellow travelers were taking a picture under this street sign. I said why. They said because it's a famous street of shops and stuff. It runs from the arch to the Louvre. So I took a photo under it to. I mean it's famous.


Paris Disney store on the famous street


Statue in the park along our walk to the Louvre.
Get it girl.



Gazing upon the arch from afar


Somewhere between arch and Louvre is this giant ferris wheel.
In my opinion, it's kinda an eyesore in the middle of all this old stuff...my tower to one side, the arch in the back, and the Louvre in front....It just doesn't go. And it's neon bright at night.
Also, those birds are seagulls... what in the world? How did they get so far from the sea.


The Louvre ... the pyramid is the entrance.


Barely drizzling as we wait to enter Louvre.


Side note: When I turned 26, I had a mini life crisis. Basically, I felt the hands of time turning. I was getting older. And everyone I knew was getting older. And we weren't going to stop getting older. Which meant we would all KEEP getting older until we die. Time was running out. I could literally hear my biological clock ticking in the distance. How did I get to be SO old!? Essentially the reality of immortality slapped me in the face, as irrational as it sounds, and it hit slapped me hard. Thankfully, I handled 27 with much less drama and have managed to get somewhat of a grip. However, someone has now decided to play a cruel joke on me and place me smack dab in the middle of 52 twenty-year olds. AND that someone has decided to place me and those twenty-year olds in country/continent where "youth" get student discounts. Literally everywhere we went in Paris, there was a discount for "youth," which meant people ages 18-26. That's right....26. So I hope someone is getting a kick out of this. I am just taking it as a message that I need to get over it. I did manage to weasel into the Eiffel Tower (oh I love that tower) as a 23-year-old student because they didn't ask for an I.D. But at the Louvre, I had to fork over 10 whole euros while the others went in for FREE! Ok, enough whining. On to the Louvre.

Napoleon's chair


Someone's crown


Someone else's crown. I literally heard a french woman say "Ooo la la" while looking at this! Ha!


Little Napoleon himself and some photos of his "apartments"



He had it rough


Knight


Big room we sat in resting... my body was aching at this point from all the walking


Sooooo ok. Next is the Mona Lisa. And I'm just gonna lay it out there. . . not that impressive.
She is located in this huge room of paintings. She is not a big painting at all. Some of the other paintings in this room are almost as tall as my house. But there's Mona, sitting behind this glass casing with tons of tourists snapping her photo. So please, art friends (Heather, Kim, Via...anyone) tell me why this painting. Why the Mona Lisa? Is it because she's kinda a dude and kinda a girl? Is it just because it's da Vinci? I really want to know, because it was maybe the biggest let down of Paris. I'm not sure what I expected, but ... ok I'll just stop before I sound even more uneducated.


Seriously, I could've gotten the same experience from viewing this plate of Mona in a souvenir shop.


Trying to get me and Mona... zoomed in too close


There we go. Matt thought he overheard someone call me "mal-educada" while I was taking this picture. But then he said they took one just like it.



Winged statue...I forgot the name


This one I like



Lots of boob in the Louvre



See this girl?


This is her name:


Maybe I was named after her?
Definitely a resemblance.


The Louvre at night




I lurv the Louvre



But guess what I love more.....????



And as we were taking yet another ridiculous tourist pose....



This happened!!!!! Hope this video works.


And with this sparkly display, the Eiffel Tower sealed the deal on my undying love for it.
What a great tower!
Day 3 coming soon