2-June: 2nd day in Paris

The day started off a lot nicer than yesterday -- not as much rain, a little chilly in the morning, but it warmed up to a nice 75-ish degrees by mid-day! And some friends outside our window!! We walked our feet off, too -- we promised ourselves we wouldn't do that the last time we were here but it's really impossible to see Paris without walking quite a bit.

Today's adventure started at the Modern Art Museum. We spent quite a bit of time there, but it was not  fantastic or anything special. Meghan was able to see her favorite piece by Marcel Duchamp ("Fountain") but that was the highlight for her. Tres thought the museum overall was interesting but modern art just isn't Meghan's thing.

Next, we decided to head to the Army Museum/Hospital and Napoleon's Tomb. The museum, we both agreed, was more or less nothing but a fashion show of army clothing portraying the different rankings, etc -- go figure...it's the oh-so-fab French we're talking about here! Napoleon's Tomb and the church it was held in was grandiose and huge! The pictures depict the size of the tomb as well as the ornamentation/decor of the building, crypt, and coffin in which his body was placed.


After site-seeing for nearly 5 hours straight, we finally decided to grab some lunch on the way to the Eiffel Tower. Tres had a typical American cheeseburger (or so he thought) and Meghan got a smoked ham and cheese sandwich (on a baguette). Tres' cheeseburger was soaked in some kind of spicy-pickle-tasting sauce and the ham on Meghan's sandwich was like raw bacon (except thicker and wider). Needless to say, it was  an interesting experience and a lesson learned.

The Eiffel Tower was packed with people sitting on the lawn and just enjoying the landscape. It was nice to see people out during this time of year -- last time we went to the Eiffel Tower, it was cold and a bit rainy/dreary -- so it was a nice change of scenery. We decided not to go up the tower until Friday due to a museum pass that we need to take full advantage of today and tomorrow....so don't be surprised if you see something about the Eiffel Tower on Friday's post.

Our next stop was closed by the time we got there -- the Conciergerie or one of the former palaces. So we decided to skip that and head on the Louvre. Before we headed there, though, we took advantage of the lovely view of the Seine River from Pont Neuf. Once we got to the Louvre, we spent the rest of the day there. It is so easy to spend a day or more there and still not see every piece of art! This is Tres' second time and Meghan's third time and they still have not seen everything within the museum. Nevertheless, we hit up the main selections we wanted to check out before the day was over. Be sure to notice the sheer size of some of the paintings of which we took pictures!

Upon leaving the Louvre, we realized hmm...it's 10pm and we STILL HAVEN'T EATEN DINNER! And it was still bright outside, it didn't start to turn dark until after 10pm.  Our feet were killing us and it took a while to find our way back to the hotel via the map of the metro system -- this city is so confusing to maneuver around and you have to be careful and look around before you break out the map -- you never know who is watching and/or waiting to steal from you. Meghan saw an older French woman have her bag stolen yesterday and it wasn't even a tourist which was stolen from.

Anyhow, we finally found a place to eat, and wouldn't you know it wasn't French! We have no idea what to eat (aka what won't make our stomachs flip) here in Paris besides foods from different countries (Turkey, India, America, etc). Steak tartar is definitely not on the menu and escargot is only eaten by Tres (and that's just sometimes)...if you have any suggestions, please let us know! Our dinner tonight was chicken curry and rice -- it was quite good, even if it was 11pm!

We're just now about to go to bed and it's 1:03am here or 7:03pm EST, so we will wish everyone a goodnight and we hope all is well at home!