Paris: Le Premier Jour

     After our final week of classes, our 4 weeks of traveling were about to begin! With the first stop being, Paris! We were super excited, but as with many travel plans we hit a roadblock before we even got on the flight. In order to get the best flight prices, we booked all of our flights months in advance. It took us about a week to figure everything out from which times we would arrive in each city, which hostels we would stay in, and what countries we wanted to go to. After a while, we were delirious with all of our plans and must have overlooked the fact that we bought a plane ticket to leave London at 7am. The early flight wasn't the problem, but the lack of transportation was. Since our Uni was in South East London it took about 25-30 minute to get into Central London and then it would take about another hour on a bus to the airport. We also like to at least have a hour at the airport before boarding time to get through security. This all meant that we would have to leave our dorms at 3am! Since the tube closes down at midnight we wouldn't have that option, buses can take hours to get into Central London, and we were terrified of what the cost would be to take a cab. 

After frantically weighing out the pros and cons we ended up changing our flight time at 1am. We got charged extra to change our departure time to an afternoon flight, but in the end we thought our peace of mind would be worth it. After that little hiccup was settled we got to the airport in London and had time to get a box of Krispy Kreme donuts. They were the prettiest donuts we had ever seen and it was nice to relax a little before take-off after our stressful night. 

Before we knew it we on our flight heading to Paris. It is fair to say that many people dream of visiting the "City of Love/Lights" and we were no exception. We were ready to partake in all the cliche and romanticized versions of the city. When we landed we roamed around the airport trying to find and buy tickets for the metro. We ended up asking the attendant at the help desk how to get to our hostel and he was super helpful. He explained in English exactly what trains and metro changes we needed to make and before long we were in our comfy hostel. 

It was super nice with a private sink and shower, TV, and a nice big bed. We got to our hostel a little late and didn't have any time to get dinner. However, McDonalds never fails to be everywhere, including right across from our hostel, so we got a quick bite and went to sleep to prepare for tomorrow's jam packed museum day.

We got up bright and early, and headed straight to the Louvre on the metro. Cailin and I had studied a lot of art history throughout school, and have always loved art and museums, so we were excited to see a lot of the works of art that we had only seen in textbooks. We got breakfast in the large shopping center that surrounds the Louvre and got into the museum as quickly as we could. The Louvre is overwhelmingly huge. After all, it is said that if you take only 30 seconds to look at every painting it houses, without any breaks, it would take 100 days to see the whole museum. In turn, we saw as much as we could within one day. All the paintings were really impressive and the structure of the Louvre is beautiful and full of energy. We spent a good hour or two just admiring the Louvre Pyramid, strolling around the plaza and people watching. As per usual, Cailin took many photos to capture the Louvre in all its splendor. 

After we bought our tickets which were definitely worth the 22 euros we each paid, we were ready to see some art! We started off in a large room of sculptures which were all pretty big and life-like. Except my favorite which was a bust of a man with a pot on his head. Not a very life-like scene, but I thought it was really funny. 

All jokes aside, the Louvre has some amazing art and famous pieces like Liberty Leading the People, The Raft of the Medusa, and Mona Lisa. We learned a lot about these works in our World Culture/World Literature class in high school and were able to recall the history behind the paintings and their meanings.

Except we couldn't do that for Liberty Leading the People... because it wasn't there! After scouring the museum and being sure we had been in every room, the painting was nowhere to be found! Eventually I just went up to someone who worked there and asked them if they could point us in the right direction. They ended up telling us it was on exhibition at another museum. Sad, but it definitely gives us a good excuse to go back to the Louvre again someday! We also went around the museum following the signs to find Mona Lisa. As everyone says, Mona Lisa is much smaller than you would expect, and they're right in that it's relatively small. That didn't stop a big crowd from forming around it though. After patiently waiting and a tad bit of maneuvering, we finally made it to the front of the crowd and were able to take pictures of us with one of da Vinci's most well-known works of art. It was definitely cool to see such a famous painting in real life.

The Louvre is organized really well with art from the same time period or nationality being housed in the same room. We definitely got a great glimpse of all the Louvre has to offer but I definitely would not hesitate to go back and spend even more time there. Ultimately my favorite painting was David's Oath of the Horatii. Besides being a really powerful piece, I spent a lot of time learning about it in class. Although it had been four years since my class covered it, I remembered talking about David's consistency in using threes (painting three columns in the background to match the three Horatii brothers), as well as the use of light that really defines the strength and prominence of the figures. 

After looking at all of the rooms, staying in some of our favorites longer than others, and gazing out the Louvre windows to see gorgeous views of Paris, we finished and headed outside. We had to be typical tourists for a second and take pictures of us touching the point of the Louvre pyramid which was really funny because everyone around us was doing the same. 

We also had a mini photoshoot around the area (since I love taking pictures!) and just ended up strolling around the Louvre and peeking into shops before our dinner plans. 

We were meeting our friends in Paris later into the trip since one friend was staying in Versailles, and the other was with her parents for a few days. However our friend's parents were nice enough to invite us to dinner at their really nice hotel, Hotel du Louvre. As you can guess by the name, it was right next to the Louvre so it was perfect that we were right there already! 

We had a great dinner and were lucky to have some real food and by real food I mean Sea Bass, my favorite! We also were treated to dessert and I got two cute tiny scoops of Pistachio and Chocolate ice cream. It was nice to have a fancier Parisian dinner, catch up with our friend and tell each other about our first days in Paris, and meet her parents. It was such a great first day and made us even more excited for the next four days ahead. I mean we were seeing the Musee d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower the next day, what was not to be excited about?!