Paris Day 1! I think I'm going to like it here

We started off today a little colder and rainier than yesterday. I woke up bright and early at 6:40am without even having to wait for my alarm - I wonder how long that will last.

First place on our list today was the Arc de Triomphe!

It was huge and absolutely beautiful. Everything here is haha. We learned about the Arch and the role that Napoleon had in building it. It's funny to me how France reveres Napoleon and sees him as a hero, while everyone else in Europe hates him.

Next up on our agenda was Palais Garnier, also known as the Opera House. Oh my goodness was this place incredible. It was gorgeous. The pictures are gorgeous and they still don't do it any justice. Everything was gold and luxurious looking and the murals were breathtaking. 

Mimi, me, Anna, and Abby on the side haha

Me, Mimi, Sienna

I am now inspired to watch Phantom of the Opera (I've never seen it before)

The last "guided" part of our day today was going to the Musee Carnivalet which is a museum that follows Paris through time periods from agriculture tools dated back to 6500 BC,  a whole canoe made out of one single piece of oak dated to 2900 BC, all the way to 20th century photographs and works from artists. There were fully furnished rooms from the 1700s and 1800s and very creaky wood floors that I was a worried I might fall through. The museum is actually housed in an old mansion turned hotel turned museum so that was pretty cool.

There was also a very pretty courtyard/cafe area enclosed by the museum where we ate our sack lunches (me, Marie, Sienna, and Audrey) which are provided by the hostel we're staying at. Yay saving money! After that we headed to the Marais district at Rob's recommendation, which according to google: is filled with hip boutiques, galleries, and gay bars. We didn't find any of those things unfortunately, but we did find some very yummy pastries and had fun walking around anyways. We did try to find a thrift store because Rob told us there was some good ones there. We walked into what google said was a thrift store, looked at the tag for a jacket: 400 euros. Looked at the tag for a t shirt: 90 euros. We walked right back out. Oops.

After walking around there for a bit we all decided we were tired and headed back to the hotel. Marie took charge and found the train we need to take and guided us back home. Marie and I then proceeded to try to do our homework (blog post) which took us a lot longer than it should have (Marie fell asleep and I just procrastinated). I was able to finish mine up though thankfully, and then we headed back out with Sienna and Audrey to get some dinner! We went to Harmony Cafe where we ordered Croque Monsieur. It was toasted bread with bechamel, ham, and cheese. It was quite tasty and it is a very typical Parisian food. It also came with some FRENCH fries that were perfect and a yummy little salad. Overall I was very satisfied. Our waiter did not really speak English and I felt very bad that I did not know any French. The bartender knew the main phrases and we were able to get it figured out with some pointing and going back and forth. Something I noticed especially at the restaurant is that everybody in Paris smokes something, whether its a cigarette or e cigarette or vape. The bartender just had one hanging out behind his ear.

That's pretty much it for today! If you got this far (which I think is probably only Mom and Grammy), I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to like and subscribe! ;)

Just kidding I'm just trying to be like the real influencers.

Bonus pictures from walking around and other things!!

Random notes/happenings:

The lights in our bathroom/hallway are all motion sensored but they also all have switches so you can just keep them on if you need to. That is, all of them except for the one for the mirror in the hall. Trying to get ready when the lights turn off every 2 seconds and having to get up and do a crazy dance to get them back on is not very fun. 

I hated the train the first time we took it from the airport because it was so crowded and super stressful trying to get off the train because nobody moves for you, even after Mary Ann yells in French. However, that must just have been a bad time because we took the trains all over today and it was actually quite fun. I felt very big city.

Pain au chocolat count for today: 3! 2 at breakfast and then the extra delicious pan au chocolat amande (almond) from the bakery we went to. I am going to be eating a LOT of those for sure.

Love you all!!!