Notre Dame, Musée du Louvre, and A Little Moulin Rouge :)

Wednesday, May 16 - Day 22

Preface: This post?  Mostly told through pictures again. :)
This morning began with heading to the Notre Dame Cathedral.  SO PRETTY.  Crazy gorgeous stained glass windows inside, and everything else. :)

Why yes, yes we did have a sunny day!
For the most part, that is ;)

Notre Dame :)

The giant, gorgeous stained glass window!

I'm just a little obsessed with lamp posts...

Cute little European street :)

Along the bridges over the Seine river are these chain-link fences, that people who have gotten married put a lock with their names on it attached to the fence, then throw the key into the river.  SUPER cute.  I love it :)

Some of the locks are SUPER cool :)

After that, and walking around the grounds a bit, we made way to the Louvre - aka: the Musée du Louvre. :)  The Louvre is HUGE.  REALLY HUGE.  I mean, I've heard before that it's big - people just never quite emphasized to me how GIGANTIC it truly is...

THE LOUVRE!

Beware of pickpockets.

Kyla and Holly demonstrating how easy it is to be pickpocket-ed :)

THIS nifty one is DOUBLE SIDED.

See???

MONA LISA!

CRAZY cool painted ceiling :) --Remind me, why don't we do this anymore?

Little bit o' RENI

Lookin' up from inside at the center of the pyramid.

And now...for the Napoleon Bonaparte Apartments. :)

Can I PLEASE have a conversation chair like this?? I LOVE IT!

GINORMOUS CHANDELIER!
And the funny thing is-- in the room before this one there was a big one, and I thought "Wow. This is the biggest chandelier I've ever seen." ...Then my mind was truly blown.

Dining room - nbd.  Just 3 chandeliers in this one.

INVERTED PYRAMID!  Super cool :)

Sadly, I got separated from Kyla and Holly- and as I spent time looking for them, I ended up not seeing as much of the Louvre as hoped... but, even had I been able to stay with the other girls going through more it wouldn't have been enough time.  That's the thing with being the only art minor in a group.  I think I like to look at these things longer than anyone else.  I could have sat there forever and ever.  But it's ok that I didn't get enough time, cause that shall be fixed when I go back at the end of my program with Leesh - so no worries :)

I eventually did find some of the other girls, Jasmine and Taylor, in our group and spent the rest of the time with them- going to get a crepe for lunch, walking along Rue de Rivoli window shopping and looking for this hot chocolate place, which is apparently really good.  We never found it though.  We DID however, find a delicious chocolate shoppe.  --I really want to go back there.  We'll see if it happens.

After killing some time, we decided to head back to the hotel to see if the other girls had made it back there so we could hopefully all be reunited.  Luckily, there they were!  So, we all ate dinner, and headed to the Moulin Rouge to take pictures before it got dark.

Becky, Holly, & Jasmine

Kyla, Taylor, and Me :)

Success.  We also walked up the streets further to get pictures of the windmills.

Sadly, my camera died at this point.  As it always does.  But, you can enjoy some pretty scenery I captured before that sad moment ;)

I love silhouette-y things :)

And now as a side note, because I was going to put this in my post from yesterday, but I forgot...

A few things I've learned in Paris:
1.  I think I'm allergic to Paris.  -This is why I thought I was getting sick the other night.  When I'm inside the hotel?  Totally fine.  When I'm outside?  I get all congested and gross.  I think it's the smoke.  But, I'm slowly adjusting to it-- no worries.  (Or worry - not sure if it's bad or good that I'm adjusting to it?!)
2.  The rumor about the French being rude and smelly?  Pretty accurate.  Except for a few select people.
3.  The French also have no concept of personal space.  Really.  Especially on the metro.
4.  Paris?  Super pretty.  Once you get past all the garbage and dirt :)  --Which I'm slowly getting past more and more each day ;)
5.  I need to learn how to look more scary
6.  I wish I knew how to speak French.  (Luckily Jasmine knows enough to teach us a little bit and get us by with menus and asking for directions and such - with those few select people who refuse to speak english with us - or just don't speak english...)
7.  It's great to know that the Lord is always on your side, and keeping an eye out for you -- REALLY.

Much love from Paris. :) <3