Paris (and you have to drop the S so it sounds cooler), Louvre, Opera House, shopping, more Louvre

Setting out on our 2nd day in Paris was fun, we felt more comfortable..more aware of our surroundings. Ready to go drown ourselves in art. Which is impossible NOT to do in Paris. Seriously. We walked across this gorgeous stained glass just walking through the city trying to get the Louvre. It was just on some innocent corner, nothing special than BAM huge gorgeous stained glass window.

Then we hit the Metro...and wow. It smelled...think of those lovely european tourists you accidentally got to close too, or were forced to share a bench with on Splash Mountain at Disneyland. Yeah, you will kind of understand what I smelled as I entered the underground airless halls of thousands of europeans. It was lovely. Deodorant REALLY needs to come into fashion there. But oddly enough I think I got used to it, because as I continued to use the Metro it didnt punch me in the face so much...go figure.

This is the underbelly of the Louvre. Its how you get to all the seperate sections. The place is CRAZY HUGE. We hit as much as we could but man alive there was a lot. It was all surreal and beautiful the french really know how to show off their stuff.

And boy do they have a lot of STUFF! This was a huge ballroom we passed going up to see the Winged Victory statue, just hundreds of things draped with plastic.

Here is a small portion of the Louvre from the inside. This was taken through a window.

One of my favorite paintings. It was massive, not the centerpiece to this huge room we were in but when I saw it I gasped, I knew exactly who it was of. Because I had just seen her in London and it was plain as day. This portrait is of Queen Elizabeth's deathbed. It was really beautiful.

Ah the lovely Mona Lisa. So this picture is deceiving. I look like i'm alone..really I had just smashed myself through a throng of tourists to get to the ropes around the painting. You seriously cannot get CLOSE to her. And even if there was no ropes around it, then there is a wooden partition THEN a bulletproof glass encases it. Seriously overkill people. The crowd wasnt HORRID only about 50 people :P I'm guessing its a really cool painting...but since I didnt get TOO good a look at it i'm going to just have to keep on guessing on that one. lol

The inside of the Pyramid at the Louvre, it was very beautiful, very artistic. We were blessed with a gorgeous day.

Matt fell in love with this confection. He took about 5 pictures of it, trying to get it to look as good on camera as it did in person. He didnt succeed, it was amazing. I got a huge baguette instead...it was also very yummy.

This place was AMAZING. It actually said "no pictures" on the front window there. So we had to control ourselves inside, but it was so so lovely..oh what is it? Its a yarn store! A gorgeous beautiful yarn store. It also had a large part devoted to buttons and things. I wish I had bought some buttons now...it was a very cool place. Even Matthew enjoyed hisself there, and we bought his mom some lovely fabric too.

And some shopping! We had to do some digging to find where "normal" people shopped. We found plenty of boutiques that had 20 pieces of clothes on the racks and asked 200euro for a shirt. But then aha we found Printemps, a shopping district for the lowly middle class. I got a nice warm cardigan/sweater thingy there and a necklace....and some other things. I wanted to get Matt a tie but he didnt want to "waste the money" whatevs!

This is the lovely Opera house, ya know the one in the Phantom of the Opera? This is it baby! It was really really big, and had really cool gargoyles and statues all over it. We hung out and people watched here for a little while, then went into a chocolate shop across the street and splurged on some french chocolate. :) We passed on the tobacco truffles :P

I wish I had a bigger picture but this is all matt took of the french cooking stores we went into. They were really fun and I wanted to snag something french for my kitchen...but the only thing i really fell in love with was these gray enamelled dutch ovens and ...yeah that wouldn't of been very enjoyable dragging in our backpacks.

The Louvre at night is lovely. It doesnt close until 10pm so we headed back there at the end of our day trying to get more of it crammed in our heads. Matt LOVED LOVED this setup. He's all about things lining up, its the City Planner in him. And he took a million pictures of how LINED UP this was. lol

On facebook that night I said that we got escorted out of the Louvre. And left it at that, the next morning I had TONS of comments of people freaking out asking what I HAD DONE! And most were not surprised I had been. (thanks for the high opinion guys!) but really it wasnt a big deal. Turns out the Louvre peeps are VERY punctual. At 9:30 they start shutting doors, herding the patrons out door by door. It was very creepy because they also turned out lights. So imagine the room next to you goes dark then you see 20 people walking out in a line basically arm in arm to ferret us out of the next room. Matt and I were admiring this merman sculpting when BAM 20 scary quiet guards were telling us to scadat. Closing the door behind us. It was very rude! lol Also freaky to walk passed a dark room where marble statues are being exhibited. It looked REALLY freaky. Anyway yeah they had EVERYONE OUT at 10pm on the dot. The french mean business about quiting hour!

Paris! Notre Dame, St. Louis, Musee de Orsay, Champs-Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel freaking tower

Ahh Paris. I'm really glad I was going to Paris from London. Because it made it easier, a little easier to leave London. Paris did not dissapoint. It was amazing. BUT take a look at matt and i's first look at Paris. Yes this graffiti covered wall was our FIRST look. Note to Paris, not a great first sight people.

This is the outside of our hotel. It look like a beautiful area doesn't it. Do not be deceived my young friends. This is the red light district for Paris. We had a brothel on each side of us. But they were very nice and didnt step outside their doorways at all. Matt just kept his eyes forward while I led the way. It was nice during the day though. And the hotel was nice and clean and not a fortune. :) PLUS we were RIGHT by a metro station. So it was a perfect location for us.

This is my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. We were walking across the bridge to Notre Dame and as I looked across the Seine saw this lovely beauty.

Lovely Notre Dame, I really enjoyed my time at this place. When we got there, it started to rain rain rain. Which lucky us was the one ONE time we DIDNT bring our raingear and the ONE time we needed it. lol SO Matthew ran back to our hotel (he was gone for like an hour) and got our jackets and umbrellas. I was spoiled and got to sit back and relax in this beautiful building. Listening to the organ and the choir occasionally. And really take it all in. It was wonderful. Very peaceful. Much more peaceful than the English Cathedrals..which were more "showy." Like in England the cathedral has these huge tombs EVERYWHERE of all their rich patrons. In France it wasnt like that. Very simple and lovely.

This delicious concoction was a crepe with chocolate and bananas, and my lovely chantilly (whipped cream) on top. This was really really yummy. Matt had strawberries instead of bananas in his. His was SO GOOD. So i got that from then on whenever we had dessert anywhere. I REALLY need to learn to make crepes.

This is after our lovely lunch at a cafe on St. Louis. I loved the cafe because it was a definate tourist stop and very quaint. The manager/owner was so friendly and was great at explaining everything to us. VERY helpful. lol

So afterwards we walked the isle in the rain. Looking at the beautiful shops lining the small streets (MATT LOVED the small street size hahaha)

the lovely backside of Notre Dame, you can kind of make out the flying buttresses. Notre Dame was one of the first buildings to use these buttresses to support the massive weight of the roof.

This was a picture we took from the Musee De Orsay's balcony. So so beautiful. Its the Basilica in Paris. (more to come on this place later)

This was our favorite Museum. It was not overwhelming, it had beautiful pieces, and a great variety. Plus matthew LOVED the building :)

us being all lovey outside the Museum :) Isnt he adorable.

Matt got very picture happy in Paris. Like insanely picture happy. I was not thrilled about being the main subject of the pictures, but luckily he has some gorgeous buildings to distract him...most of the time. lol

This was in the Tuilleries. A very popular HUGE garden in the middle of Paris. I was suprised that there wasnt much too it. A TON of very well kept up trees..hardly a leaf on the ground to be seen. And some nice fountains. But very different than the colorful gardens i'm used to at home.

we walked down the Champs-Elysee to get to the Arc de Triomphe, and what do ya know. Sephora was there :) HAD to go inside of course and man ALIVE the biggest makeup store i've ever seen! It just kept GOING, and it even curved at the end, so you arent seeing all of it in this picture. PLUS you arent seeing all the perfume section either since i had already walked through it when I took this picture. You can see me in the pink shirt...I was a bit overwhelmed.. lol

The lovely Arch of Triumph. All those bumps are the top are peoples heads. Yep I didnt know you could actually go to the top but yessiree you can. Over 200 steps. And those that went to Yosemite with me in Junior High and did the Mist trail with me...yeah you can imagine the pain i was in. I havent gotten very much more endurance since Junior High. Matthew was a good sport though. :)

At the top! And a little closer to the Eiffel Tower. It was perfect timing for us. We got there just as the sun was setting. it was so so beautiful. Then after the sun had set the lit up the tower. It was gorgeous and sparkling. My girls love watching the video we took of it.

Matt and I went to the Eiffel tower to get a closer look. We settled at the end of one of the massive reflection pools. It was so romantic and beautiful. And I really got a kick out of this naked woman statue watching it. lol