Paris

day 1:

We arrived in Paris Saturday evening settled into our apartment and then went out to a nice dinner near by. We are in the 1st district, so we are right by the Louvre and right in the heart of Paris! We had an expensive, but delicious, dinner. I figured I've got to splurge one night in Paris. We had Duck breast in raspberry sauce with potatoes, DELICIOUS! Then Chris, Brad and I shared 2 desserts: chocolate cake with a hot fudge center and vanilla ice cream on top, then a slice of amazing cheesecake with a bit of a cinnamony crust and a scoop of salted caramel ice cream on top, and a drizzle of amazing raspberry sauce. So worth the 22 euro we spent! Then we went back to the apartment to wait for May, who arrive at around 11pm, we then all played French Scrabble for a few hours until bed.

day 2:

We woke up at 9 got ourselves ready and finally out the door by 10:30, then we went to search for a market to buy food. We found some places open on Sunday thankfully. I bought some chicken veggies and potatoes to make dinner (for a much more modest price) and I also bought some croissants, bread, and yogurt for breakfast. We dropped the food at home, quickly ate breakfast, then headed out to get into the Louvre for free on the first Sunday of the month? NOT, the 3 hour line wrapped entirely around the building, which is HUGE. So we took a bunch of pictures of the outside and the garden. Then set out walking towards the Arc de Triomphe. We got sidetracked and looked at a few more beautiful buildings, and eventually made it over to the Eiffel Tower instead. Then we had a delicious Chinese lunch before heading to the Arc de Triomphe finally. We stupidly did not realize there was an underground path leading to the Arc from the other side of the street, since it is in the middle of an enormous round-about, so instead we played a little game of Frogger and ran as fast as we could when we saw a break in traffic. After the Arc we took a little stroll down the Champs-Elysses, looking at stores much too expensive for us, but sadly many were closed because it was Sunday. We strolled a little more and finally decided to head back home to relieve our exhausted feet and make dinner. We spent the night, once again, playing French scrabble.

day 3:

We slept in a little out of necessity today. We finally go out of the apartment around 11:30 and headed to Notre Dame. We waited in the line for not too long and went in an then back out. We had lunch indoors at a restarant because it was starting to rain. We waited out the rain and I had my first ever Croque Monsieur (slice of thick bread, ham, and cheese toasted). Afterwards we walked over to the Centre Pompidou which is a museum of modern art that is seriously the most disgusting piece of architecture on the earth. We had ice cream for dessert: caramel pecan-toooo delicious! Then we did a little bit of window shopping. We were exhausted, and Brad wasn't feeling well, so we made it an early day and headed back to the apartment to rest  at 5pm.

Overall it has been a satisfying Paris experience. Being my second visit, I am not as anxious to see everything there is to see, but rather just relax and enjoy the beauty of Paris and the fact that I am on vacation! Tomorrow early morning I leave for Germany, 6 am, so I will have to the leave the apartment at 5 am to be safe. I am very excited to see Lena and see a new place with new people.