July 15, 2007 The Marvelous Museum aka Muse D'Orsay

Things started off on a good foot, we ate at the wrong breakfast area. Apparently the dining area in the hotel with the basic breakfast foods we had been eating, wasn't for us and some place out the back down an alley, at least it looked like one to me, had be reserved for us. After almost everyone at the wrong place, we got on the bus for out tour with Pierre. I don't remember much of what he said, probably because I slept most of the time. The tour took us to Notre Dame, which was still as impressive as ever. From there we split off into our little groups, and my little group made its way to the Latin Quarter which is in the 5th arrondissement on the left bank . It was an interesting place, full of shops, people, and of course bistros. As breakfast wasn't very filling, we decided to eat here, and found a nice little outside cafe/bistro. I had one of the pastas and it was quiet good, and had a water to drink. I mention this only because of the price of this particular water, about 6 euro or $8.50, and this was a normal liter bottle. After this we split up since we had plans as a group that night. I had to see the Muse D'Orsay again, and ended up going there by myself. I knew roughly where it was from where the rest of my group left me, just down a couple bridges and across the river from the Louvre. As I walked I stopped occasionally to admire some of the art and reprints along the river walk. Once the Muse D'Orsay was in sight I stopped to get a picture, and as I was admiring the building itself, I noticed a lady, a tourist as she had a map in hand, walking towards me. I didn't think anything of it at first, but she was on a path with a street sign in the side walk. By the time I realized that she didn't realize there was a pole in front of her, it was to late and she ran into it, the map had absorbed most of the hit as she was merely walking. After she realized what happened she looked at me, as I was passing the sign coming from the opposite direction, and smiled with embarrassment. The line wasn't that bad this time, and didn't have american college girls in front of me talking like high schoolers from valley high. Not having Red and Chris there to talk to in line this time made it a little harder to wait, but I made it in. It was equally amazing as last time, considering the fact I didn't have Red around to discuss the paintings and sculptures with. I took my time wondering around and found my way to the stair case leading up to the lookout that gave a spectacular view of the central hall of the museum and the giant clock across the way. I took a picture with my good camera this time, so I could get it blown up later. I still had one more place I wanted to visit before meeting the whole group at the Opera House, The Hard Rock Cafe. The HRC was pretty close to the Opera House, so I had a bite to eat there and got a t-shirt of course but forgot to take a picture of the outside. After that I still had a little time left, so I explored the area close by and found an internet cafe called "Milk", I didn't get the meaning of the name, but went in anyway to check email and see if anything important happened while I was gone, or if Grandma had found out where I really went on this trip--as far as I know she thinks I'm still home=) . The french layout of the keyboard was really really hard to get used to. After my time was up, I made it back to the Opera House and waited with a little of the group that was already there. We were suppose to gather around 6:15 to catch our Eiffel tower tour, which we did. Standing before the tower is always an amazing feeling, one I could never tire of. The lines to get to the top by elevator on the other hand are something I would eventually tire of, but the experience of being on top, and the view make it all worth the extremely crammed elevator ride. I stuck with my little group most of the time. We ran into a few of the other groups near the top. On the way down we took the elevator again, I couldn't convince anyone to walk this time. Once the entire group reformed at the base, we proceeded to the dock for the river cruise portion of Paris by night. It was worth it, the lights and buildings at night along the river were a site to behold. There is little else I can say about the cruise, other then everyone should take it at least once. The night has now come to a close and we proceeded to the rendezvous point for the bus, after watching the tower sparkle of course, it would be an utter travesty to miss such a spectacle. The bus ride started out normal enough, but we ran into a detour and there wasn't enough room for the bus to turn around, so we went backwards down the narrow street instead. Needless to say, we were all highly impressed with the drivers skills. Finally we made it back to the hotel, and I tried to get some sleep as we were heading to Nice the next morning.