The whole museum was a bit overwhelming. There was three wings and to go to a new wing, you had to go back to the center (under the glass pyramid) and then show your pass again to get into the new wing. It was pretty frustrating, especially because we were super tired and our feet KILLED. While we were there, they started making an announcement something to the effect of "Everyone needs to evacuate the museum." It took us a while to finally understand what they were saying because it was repeated over and over again in French, English, and Spanish and through these huge, echoing rooms. We actually just stayed because we knew if we left we wouldn't come back in and the security guards were all staying too so we figured it wasn't a big deal. The announcement finally stopped after about 30 minutes and we were fine.
One of the pieces that surprised me in the Louvre was Winged Victory. It was AMAZING. It is placed at the end of a hall in this huge room and has a great impact! The other piece that I loved seeing was Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People. One of the reasons I liked it was because Coldplay used it as one of their album covers, but it was still HUGE!
Soo tired after the Louvre
After the Louvre, we just wanted food so we set off on foot to try and find this restaurant that was recommended to us... Well, it ended up being farther away than we thought so we decided to go find the best ice cream in Paris! Our professor had told us about it and it didn't disappoint!
Next we went to the Orangerie. This was one of the things I was looking forward to most about Paris! First we saw the Debussy exhibit they have right now. Unfortunately, the signs were all in French so we didn't understand it, but we did see some of his manuscripts, the most famous being Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. His writing was so neat compared to the other composers I had seen already.
The highlight of the Orangerie is their collection of Monet's Waterlilies paintings. Monet actually chose the Orangerie specifically to display these paintings so they are displayed as he would want them to be. I was in awe. I sat on the benches and the paintings just enveloped me. It was so peaceful and I was surprised at how much I found to examine in the paintings. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me.
The last thing on our list of required things to see was Napoleon's Tomb at the Hotel de les Invalides. It took us a while to find the right entrance, but when we did, we found a tomb to the side that said "Joseph Napoleon I." So we figured we had it and we thought it was interesting that his first name was Joseph, but we figured that since we were here we should look around and see what else was here. Well, we went to the middle of the room where there was an opening down to the floor below and we looked over the edge and we found Napoleon's REAL tomb. haha It is HUGE!
We found a place to sit for a nice dinner, and then we were off to the last place on our list - the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. We saw the graves of Rossini and Oscar Wilde, and as we were trying to find Chopin's grave, a van stopped us and told us the cemetery was closing so we had to leave. But we hadn't seen Chopin yet!! So we started running. Imagine this - five girls running through a packed cemetery with headstone after headstone after headstone. We were quite the scene! Another van stopped us and we pointed asking "Exit?" The driver replied in French and nodded and kept driving. Sometimes the language barrier helps! :) After running and searching, we found it!
As soon as we were finished, we had to get to the train station to catch the Eurostar home. It was so good to come home to London! I've never been so glad to see the tube. It's SO much better than the Paris Metro!
When we got home, I went with Amanda and Jaden to Burger King because we were starving! I was pulling my little suitcase because we came straight from the tube, so as I was waiting for my food, this guy starts talking to me about how my trip was and we get through all the usual questions of where I was from, what I was doing here, etc. Then he asks if he can join us. There's three of us, so we figure we're safe and it ends up being the four of us eating together in the basement of Burger King. Good times! We had a really interesting conversation with him. His goal in life is to teach in the States so he asked a lot of questions about that and such. He asked what we did in our free time - if we went out for a drink or what. That led to the "We don't drink" conversation, so we told him we were Mormons and we had an interesting conversation about religion. Turns out he had investigated the church a few years back but it wasn't the right time for him. It was my first "church" conversation here - it was not as stressful as I thought it would be!
Overall, I loved Paris. When I was in elementary school, I made a list of places I wanted to visit in my life and Paris was on the list! M. Nielsen's French classes just intensified that and it was surreal seeing these places that had become legendary in my mind. It was magical. It was just as I had imagined it to be and more. I think that if I lived there, it would lose its charm, so I'm glad that I call London home now. Someday I'll be back Paris - I haven't been to Disneyland yet! :)
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