Day 13: Paris - FREE DAY!

Whoooo! Hi guys, just got back in, so excited and slightly overwhelmed. Just spent a whole day in Paris! It was amazing. I come bearing words and pictures of my day and all the exciting things we did. I am tired though, by the time I reached the Notre Dame I was pretty much overstimulated and hardly taking it all in. But enough rambling, lets start from the beginning....

We started the day as a whole group by going to the Eiffle Tower. We were disappointed by the fact that the top of the tower was closed because it is winter and the wind and cold just makes it unsafe, however, we did decide to take the lift up to the second floor. Below are photos of me at the Eiffle Tower and of the view from the second floor. The sun was rising and the rays of light through the clouds just looked amazing.

See - I'm actually there

The view

The sun through the clouds

So after that we broke off into our groups. I was in a group which included Claire, a seasoned Paris traveller with a plan for our entire day. We began by catching the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe where we visited the tomb of the unknown soldier and posed for many pictures.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Arc before we went through the underpass to get onto the roundabout it is located on

After the Arc we walked along the Champs Elysee (meaning the "fields of peace", but I prefer "Elyse the Champ" :P) There we did some shopping and grabbed a bite to eat before getting on the Metro to go to the Louvre.

Yeah Boiz

Me on the stairs in Swarovski

Disney Store!

So after a bit of a shopping spree and a short metro trip, we arrived at the Louvre. Today I appreciated the fact i was under 18 as entry to most things is free for children (under 18) which meant that my trip to the famous at museum was free. It was amazing! There are many pictures I could show you, but lets just skip to the most important one:

That's right. Front row at the Mona Lisa. It actually looks awesome in real life, the images you normally see are yellow tinted so she looks sickly and bland. I was pleasently surprised at how pretty it actually was. And yes, the eyes do follow you around the room; I checked.

After the Louvre we went to see Monet's Water Lilly Paintings at Orangerie. There's no really good pictures to go here, just photos of the paintings in the oval rooms. Let me tell you though, it was very pretty. The works were fabulous and made me wish I was creative.

We were disappointed as our next trip was to the Paris Opera House, which was unfortunately closed for renovations. The Phantom was obviously busy today and we sadly decided to hit the shops for some Paris fashion. One of the stores there had a dome as a roof that was abolsutely gorgeous. See:

Yes, that is the roof of the local department store. Really makes Pitt Street Mall look second rate aye? Such is my continual realisation that Australia has very little to show for its age.

After we expressed our inner shop-a-holic, our group travelled to the Notra Dame (Church of our Lady.) We were originally going to stop at Saint Cathedral, however this place to was closed for renovations. So we went straight back to Notra Dame and spent a lot of time there, taking the place in. I even sat through part of a sung mass, which was interesting as it was in French so I didn't have a clue what was going on. I didn't get any decent photos of the inside, which is sad, but the images couldn't have captured the place appropriately.

On our way home Matt, our bus driver, took us into the Louvre courtyard to show us how gorgeous it is at night. he wasn't lying. Seriously, this photos I have to share with you:

Louvre by night

I know I am owing in other images and photos of me in other cities, but I don't have the time to share them with you tonight. Tomorrow we meet with the Australian Mission to Paris, which is very exciting. Hopefully, I can share photos i owe tomorrow night. Until then,

Elyse