We Louvre Paris

Street in Sacre Couer
Street in Sacre Couer
Shopping
Sacre Couer
View from Sacre Couer
Jennifer and Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower at night
Eiffel Tower at night
Our small room
Room
Notre Dame
Notre Dame
Louvre
Louvre
Mona Lisa

Our day started off kinda rough. We got up at 4:30 am (and got to see Brandi's 50 year old neighbor - Naked but we couldn't see much-his belly was to big-ha!) and left for the train station at 5:15am to meet our 5:45 train. We got to the train station at 5:30 (15 minutes early) and couldn't find how to validate our tickets. Of course the language barrier is a HUGE issue so by the time we figured out how to validate and find our gate .. the train was pulling away right as we approached .. UGH! We looking crazy running around trying to figure things out. After "talking" to the ticket counter people we figured out that we could not change our ticket but had to purchase a new one-way ticket to Paris, which only ended up being 45 euro. We were able to get on the 6:01am train, so we weren't delayed on time. When we arrived in Paris it was much cooler than what we had expected. It was chilly and windy-probably 60 degrees. Thank goodness Brandi suggested that we take a long sleeve shirt for the evening. We ended up wearing the long sleeve shirts all day since we came to Paris wearing shorts and a tank top. After we got off the train we had no idea what to do, so stopped in a cafe to have a drink and look at the map. Jennifer got a coke which was 3.90 euro! Wow! It's seriously cheaper to buy a glass on wine here than a coke or water :) We walked .. and walked .. and walked until we finally came across Notre Dame, which was beautiful. This probably took us 1.5 hours to find. We then came across the Louvre, which we went inside to check out art. We got to see the Mona Lisa, which was much smaller than we imagined. We then walked several more miles to the Eiffel Tower (total miles yesterday probably 10-15 miles). We ate dinner and a had a bottle of wine (which gave us the giggles-I think the wine here is stonger) close by the Eiffel Tower. After dinner we went on a boat cruise tour at 8pm that took us down the Siene past several more landmarks. The boat tour ended at 9pm, which is when the Eiffel Tower lights up.. which was awesome to see! At this point we were exhausted and took a taxi toward our hostel which was in Sacre Coeur area. The taxi driver dropped us off in front of the Sacre Coeur which at that time (10pm) was the hopping place-young people everywhere on the steps drinking and partying. We were a little intimidated by this only because we were staying in a hostel-afraid these were the people that would be coming back into our 6 person room. However, we set off toward where we thought the hostel was ( we felt lost ALL day) and discovered a very cute area with bricks roads, lots of shops and restaurants. The thought of a hostel was really making us nervous, so we went into a Comfort Inn to check out their rates. They had 1 room left and gave us a deal - a single for the price of a double :) The price was only 65 euro-great price! When we climbed the 7 flights of winding stairs we reached our room, which was literally the size of a shoebox! There was enough room for a bed and that is about it. And you could barely fit in the shower and there was NO turning around in there. Then the excitement began. Anyone who knows Jennifer, can probably guess what happens next. Jennifer started freaking out and was scared for her life. And said, she felt safer sleeping on the streets. Mindy was only afraid of bed bugs so tried to make Jennifer feel better about the poor choice that they had made. Instead Jennifer's hysteria started to scare Mindy. At this point it is 11:30pm and Brandi is in bed since she has to work Tuesday morning. But.. we call her anyway from Brandi's cell phone that we took with us. Mindy could barely talk because she was laughing so hard by the crazy situation and probably lack of sleep. So Jennifer talked with Brandi asking her to check out the hotel on trip advisor and read us all the comments on the hotel (which were good) and for an emergency # in the case that something did happen. Brandi gave us strict instructions to only call the number if there is a fire not because someone is knocking on the door! That helped the situation a little and we both fell asleep (with our money belts on) and didn't awake until 10:30am Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday we walked around the area in which we had stayed. There is a lot of shopping and restaurants. The shopping in Paris is never ending... so we were in heaven. We had a low-key day compared to yesterday. We took the 6:50 train back to Grenoble which got us to Brandi's at 10:50pm. We couldn't wait to take a shower, wash our hair, pack for Italy and go to bed. Our bus leaves at 7am tomorrow morning for the airport. Our plane to Rome leaves at 9am. We will post again tomorrow... from Rome!

Oh.. and you all will be happy to know that Brandi booked our rooms in Italy .. so we will have NO more problems like we did in Paris .. as far as rooms are concerned. And..... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATELYNN!