Life with MK: A Tourist in Paris

Today I allowed myself to be a typically tourist. I don't know why but I really hate standing out from the local culture, but I put that aside, threw on my Nikes and my rolled up jeans and headed out to the biggest tourist attraction in Paris: the Eiffel Tower. We made sure to get there by 9am do that we could avoid some of the lines (it opens at 9:30am). While it wasn't a super quick wait, we were up at the very top by 10:10, which in my opinion is pretty fast since it can literally take hours to get from the end of the line. The views from the top were quite amazing, and the height is spectacular. I got a lot of good picture (and a few on my iPhone so I could post them here). We took in the views for a bit, headed down to the second level and looked a bit more, then took the elevator down. Our elevator got stuck on the first level so we were forced to stand packed like sardines until the maintenance people could get us going again. Luckily is was only about 5 minutes of "stuck time."

After our Tower visit, Dad and I decided to head to our next tourist attraction: Versailles Castle. We walked to the nearby RER station to grab the 30ish minute train ride out. Luckily our metro passes are for all zones and covered the ride!

We arrived at the Versailles station and walked to the castle. The first view you see as you're walking up the street is of the huge golden gates with the very ornate palace behind. It is quite beautiful. Dad bought our tickets, then we found out our museum pass was probably valid for the visit. Anyways, we had a nice time walking through the castle and viewing the impressive grounds. The day turned out to be pretty nice too and the sky was a beautiful blue with wispy white clouds. When we were ready to leave we walked through the town a bit to try to find some food. We ended up at a small Boulanger where the person working didn't speak English and spoke very fast French with no regard to the fact we were massively confused. She seemed really pissed off because she grabbed a different thing than dad ordered and was super huffy when he pointed that out. Anyways, that wasn't a great moment and kind of killed the happy a bit.

We ate while walking back to the RER station and then caught the train back to Paris. The train ride was in eventful minus our two transfers and we finally arrived at our third touristy location of the day: the Louvre.

The Louvre was quite nice, but just like the city is beyond enormous. We walked around a lot and saw a ton, making us just want to get the heck off our feet! When we finally decided to leave we had a little change of plans, and instead of walking right back to the hotel we decided to get back on the hop on-hop off your bus since our ticket was still valid and get off at the stop near our hotel. Well, we had a change of plans AGAIN and ended up stopping at the Musée d'Orsay to see the famous painting. They had Monets and Van Goughs and Manets and Cezannes and so many other famous artists pieces. They also had a furniture section that was interesting.

After the museum we walked across the park Tuileries to our hotel to rest before our last dinner in Paris at Laurent! Now dinner at Laurent was just as good as I expected and remembered. I had the same meal I had eight years ago: longostini in a pastry shell with basil pesto and sliced beef with potato souffles and a parmesean flan. For dessert I had a sacher cake with orange marmalade and dark chocolate. The presentation was unbelievable. The between courses were also amazing and I definitely ate a ton!

After dinner we finished off the day by walking to the Seine to see the Eiffel Tower at night. We took some picture and got to see it sparkle! Now we are back at the hotel and ready for bed. Tomorrow we will see a bit more of Paris before heading out to Ireland!