Walk About Paris

“A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life.”

-Thomas Jefferson

The second day we were in Paris, we got up bright and early to eat our free breakfast provided by the hostel.  Oh, and also to get to see everything in Paris.

Unfortunately, it started raining after five minutes of us walking outside.  Even more unfortunately, the only one who had an umbrella was Kat, so the rest of us were getting soaked as we walked.  It wasn't raining too heavily, but enough so that the umbrella routine of cities ensued.

#thestruggle

(Side note: the umbrella routine of cities refers to the game of raising and lowering your umbrella depending on proximity to other umbrella-holders on the sidewalks, under scaffolding, and crossing the street; usually occurs in light to heavy rain in crowded city areas, such as London, Paris, and New York City)

Our first stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral.  The girls and I stood outside and observed the intense architecture of the building, including all the small, intricate details in the arches.  The little bit of spraypainted art on the "Do Not Enter" sign was a bit snarky, but made a statement about the burden of work.

The inside of the cathedral was beautiful, and I felt like taking pictures inside was very sacrilegious.  I mean, I did anyway, but I definitely tried to do it discreetly, hiding my iPhone behind my hand and such.

We were all hungry (shocker) so we stopped at McDonald's (#freewifi).  Fun fact: you can get macarons in McDonald's in Paris for only €,90!

Who needs Ladurée??

Even funner fact: the options for drinks include Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Evian, and Heineken.

This was completely necessary

After a warm meal at the quintessential embodiment of American capitalism and globalization, we headed back out to go to the Louvre.

Pictures of people taking pictures of the Louvre

While we were out before in the rain, Sidney and I discovered that caps costs significantly less than umbrellas, so we bought some to keep ourselves dry.  It was probably one of my favorite purchases in Paris, and we proceeded to wear them everyday we were there.  And include them in selfies.

Selfies with Sidney

We actually returned to the Louvre multiple times during our trip, but that's a different story... After the first time at the Louvre, we walked around the park nearby since we had a lot of time.

"HERE"

We saw this piece of artwork and just needed to climb on it.  The small sign nearby said "Do Not Touch," but who follows rules anymore??  The whole piece spelt out "HERE," and since we figured we'd never be "HERE" again, we decided to experience the artwork firsthand (by climbing on it).

Sidney and Alison went to Pitchfork, a music festival that was taking place in Paris the weekend that we were there.  Kat and I aren't really into that scene, so we had a date night while the other two were at the festival.  We went to dinner, then back to the Louvre!

She's so artsy

At this point, it was raining again, so after dinner we headed back to the hostel, drank some wine, and fell asleep while watching The DaVinci Code.

Rachel