Day 6: From Paris with Love

Wow... So today was absolutely amazing. Courtney and I met up at 7:20am as planned and were off to the train station. She had previously stopped by a bakery to pick up some pastries and bread as snacks for the ride. We boarded the train at 7:40am and were off soon after. The views of the French countryside were soooo pretty. I love trains. You
get to see soo much of country the way the land changes the closer you get to a city. You see all the little villages and just beautiful landscaping. The journey was about 3 hours but it went by very quickly.

Courtney read her book and I gazed out the window while listening to music. We arrived in Paris around 10:44am and decided to go get our return tickets to Dijon while still at the station. I had missed the second confirmation code when purchasing our round-trip tickets. I for some reason thought I had one code for both legs of the trip. So it didn't go very smoothly while trying to retrieve our return tickets. For some reason (maybe the lady was just on the wrong screen) no return trip was coming up even under my last name. This was completely wrong because I know i had purchased a round-trip ticket. Anyways after getting my return ticket to Nice printed out just to have it, I was just about to buy a one way ticket back for Courtney and me when she convinced me to figure something else out. So I got on my phone, logged into my email and found the email with our confirmation codes. haha it was there all along, we plugged it in a kiosk and tadaa printed out our tickets. Okay all set now it's off to see PARIS! I really only had a few things I really wanted to do: See the Louvre and the Mona Lisa painting, see the Eiffel Tower and eat a real crepe in Paris.

On our way to the Louve Courtney and I crossed this bridge where couples write their names on locks and then attach the lock to a link on the fence. There were two fences covered with these little pad locks on two difference bridges.

After crossing the first bridge our first stop was at Notre Dame. This one was really big and gorgeous. It looked just like the one from the movie haha.

After a few photos there we walked to the Louvre.
The line to enter the museum was pretty long but it moved quickly. The outside was amazing. So beautiful and the buildings were just breath taking. I love every inch of this place. After several minutes of standing in the heat, it was getting very sunny and warm by now we were finally through security and inside the main area between the difference exhibits right under the Louvre pyramid.

Maaaan talk about greenhouse effect it was so hot right underneath the Louvre pyramid. Anyways I got our tickets to enter the exhibits and then we were off! We walked through a statues hallway then some paintings and then it we turn the corner and there is the Mona Lisa! It was very cool I don't care what others said I loved it. I finally got a nice picture of it, no one else is in it :).

After my time with Mona Courtney and I walked around some of the painting exhibits. There are some very interesting events being depicted. Well after only spending an hour at the Louvre we head out and walk towards Arc de Triomphe. I got a couple pictures there and by this time we are getting a little hungry. Since we are still quite some distance from the Eiffel tower we decide to take the Metro over to it. The Eiffel Tower is soo cool up close. Pictures don't do it justice. The moment you see it up close you finally begin to realize that you aren't in Tacoma anymore but in frickin' France.

We walk all around the tower and then start lookin' for a place to snack. We end up at the little restaurant where we had a wonderful view of the tower. Courtney and I each had her favorite salad which is a green salad with toasted pieces of bread and warm goat cheese on the bread and a Dijon vinaigrette dressing it was veery good. I also had a Kir Royal which is Kir Liquor and champagne. It was also quite good and it's a staple french drink I was told. The whole meal was amazing oh and the day was perfect! Sunny, warm, breezy, clear with just a couple puffs of white clouds in the sky. We couldn't have asked for a better day. It's now almost 4:30pm and I still want to get my crepe so we walk around the other side of the Eiffel Tower and I get my very first crepe.

Courtney and I both got a crepe with banana and nutella. It was gooood. We ate them along the river with the most spectacular view of the water, the other side of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
Well our train back to Dijon leaves at 7:45 pm ish so we start our walk back. We are really far from the train station but we figure we can make it. after 2 hours of straight walking along the side of the river we decide to take the metro the rest of the way; we didn't think we would make it in time and having to stay the night in Paris wouldn't be good.

After 10 minutes or so of trying to figure out where the nearest metro entrance was and then trying to find the correct train we finally find the two connecting trains to get us right inside the station or at least very close to it. We barely made the second train do to lots of people trying to also get on board and arrive inside the train station around 7:23pm. Courtney and I look at our tickets to see what train number we are on so we can find our what platform to head to... Well... looking at our tickets we find out that our train leaves at 7:28pm NOT 7:45pm... We had no idea what we were thinking... Well I spot our train number and it's at gate 11. I look and find 5 a 26 or whatever and that was gates 5 to 26 or whatever so now Courtney and I are running and these platforms were waay the heck out there. We run and get to platform 11 around 7:27pm quickly jumped on anywhere and then started to look for our carriage then seats, Courtney then jumps off to quickly ask someone that works there if we were in fact on platform 11 and that this train did stop in Dijon. The answer was yes, Courtney jumps back on, we get to our carriage and the trains takes off. Wow, a minute later anywhere along our journey and we would have missed this train. Some girl was sitting in Courtney's seat but after showing our tickets she got up and left and Courtney and I were on our way back to Dijon. We got back home around 9:07pm. I dropped her off at home and said goodbye in case I didn't see her tomorrow since she has a lot to do before Spring break and her family gets there. I'm not in my hotel and kinda bored. In a weird mood but it's okay. I'm kinda dreading going back to Nice I've had just a great time here. Well, I still have tomorrow to walk around Dijon I plan on going to the Musée des Beaux-Arts which I hear is wonderful. I really hope to see Courtney again tomorrow but if not meh oh well!
Okay I'm out. cya.

Day 6: From Paris with Love

Paris, France