October 11 - Paris

Contiki finished after breakfast and everyone was still parrow from the night before so they hardly made it onto the bus. I said bye to everyone at Charles de Gaulle and then made my way back into the town to check into my hostel. I was surprisingly comfortable traveling around Paris by myself. Wendy left me her train ticket and museum pass so I used them to hit up the Louvre to see the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa (la Joconde en Francais), the painting of Napoleon crowning Josephine, Medusa’s Raft, the Victory of Samothrace statue, lots of Egyptian stuff and other really cool art. The Louvre is freaking huge and I only did about 1/3 of it really quickly before I got tired/lost and left. I made my way over to Ille de la Cite again, this time past the Conciergie where Marie Antoinette and Robbespierre were incarcerated during the French Revolution. Then it was back to Notre Dame to go up the bell tower and see the gargoyles! Each gargoyle was different and I loved it. Also saw the big ass bell. The stairs down kind of did my head in – I am tempted to dub my Paris visit one giant stairmaster.

Having seen the biggest sights, I thought it was time I saw the more obscure sights that nobody else was interested in, like the Place des Vosges and Victor Hugo’s house! It was #6 at Vosges and pretty fancy. Saw the desk he wrote at and all of his books (we have the same taste). Then I went up to the Pantheon which had Victor’s tomb, as well as Rousseau, Voltaire and Zola’s, but I missed the last entry and my camera battery died so that sucked. Interestingly, it was right across from the Universite de Paris law school! Alas, no photos. But I love this city and will definitely be back (and in any case Andrea and I agreed to meet back here in a year!)