After waking upon and enjoying our free breakfast (croissant, granola, coffee, juice, milk), Bryan, Ryan, Bun, and I were ready for a day in Paris! Bun informed us about a Paris bike tour the previous night, so we decided to go with her. Upon exiting the metro, we arrived at the meeting point for Fat Tire (not affiliated with the beer) bike tours, which was under the Eiffel Tower. Bryan was apprehensive, especially after his bike disaster in Malaga, but I convinced him to do it. The tour was all in English, and it was led by a recently graduated student from Texas A&M. I talked to him and learned about his summer gig as a bike guide in Paris. He asked me if I was in the FIJI fraternity at Dayton. I informed him that UD does not have a FIJI chapter, but I told him I knew a few FIJIs at Case Western Reserve. He then asked me, “Oh, so you must know Matt Patton.” I said, “Yeah that dude is a punk.”
The bike tour was fun. We were in a group of 20 people, and we saw a good deal of the city over 4 hours. We basically rode for 15-20 minutes, stop at a monument and learn its history for approximately 8 minutes, and traveled to the next place. We saw an external view of almost every notable location in Paris. We stopped for a lunch break at an outdoor café in a park near the Louvre. I ordered a ham and cheese crepe. Despite being overpriced, it was delicious!
The weather was on-and-off sunshine all day. For about 30 minutes, it would be sunny and warm, and then it would be cloudy and chilly for 30 minutes. Thankfully, it never rained.
After the bike tour, Ryan, Bryan, and I strolled around the massive city of Paris. We walked down Avenue des Champs Elysees which features Paris’s best shopping. We stopped at many stores including Adidas, Nike, and Virgin. Everything was really cool and very fun to look around, but, obviously, the prices were beyond expensive. After walking to the Arc de Triomphe, we walked back down Avenue des Champs. I stopped at a McCafe on the way, just to say I went to one. Note: this was not a McDonalds, it was a McCafe. It was actually pretty cool.
The Louvre had free admission for students under 26 years old on this night, after 18:00. We were all over this fantastic discount! One word to describe the Musee du Louvre: madhouse. This place was more like a zoo than a museum. People were crawling from all corners of this place, screaming, running around, and aimlessly taking pictures of everything they see. I felt like I was in a funhouse because of the huge paintings, staircases, and winding rooms. I am unsure if the Louvre is always like this or if it was because of the free admission, regardless, it was crazy. (Note- I guess I contributed to the tomfoolery when I, ingeniously, posed as one of the desperate boaters in Raft of the Medusa. Bryan took a picture of it, so it was worth it.) I felt that the Louvre was not even a true museum. One could not truly appreciate any of the works there because there are so many people. You could rarely stop and absorb the painting.
Aside from all of the people, the Louvre was really cool. This place is incredibly huge. We aimlessly walked around for about 1.25 hours (only stopping at the major works), and we saw less than 25% of the entire place. I saw the big three (Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and Mona Lisa). One again, huge crowds were around these three. The Egyptian artifacts were very comprehensive and interesting, especially the collection of mummy tombs. There were less people in the Egyptian section, so that was refreshing. Overall, it was a fun experience.
For dinner, we went to a small café. It was nothing special. I ordered a small ham sandwich on French Bread. Bryan, craving some American cooking, ordered a steak and fries. After dinner, we bought some wine and walked over to the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower. There was a massive celebration happening here. The youth of Paris were everywhere! I asked someone what was going on, and she said that everyone finished final exams today and is celebrating the beginning of summer. Imagine a 20 acre park full of youth celebrating the completion of school, in front of the Eiffel Tower none-the-less! Given our limited French, we found some locals who spoke English and talked to them.
Seeing the Eiffel Tower at night was really impressive. We decided to travel to the top at night to get a night-view of Paris. After buying our tickets, the employee informed us that the top just closed and would be closed for the remainder of the evening. He refunded our tickets, and we opted to return tomorrow evening. It was a little frustrating at the time, but it was not too bad because the rest of the day had gone so well.
On the metro ride home, I met a guy from Morocco who I spoke to for about 15 minutes. We were talking politics, America, Paris, and society. He was a really cool dude. One of the recurring themes of this trip has been my joy in meeting new people. I hope to write an entire entry about all of the interesting people that I met with in Europe. It just brings me so much joy and happiness to meet a complete stranger from another country or from the States. On this trip, I have met people from all over the US (Boston, San Francisco, Houston, University of Kentucky, Clemson, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Utah, etc.) and the world (Canada, England, Morocco, France, Spain, Germany, Finland, Singapore, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, etc)! It is such an exciting and full-filling feeling!!!
Anyways, we got home, and I passed out (literally). I was so exhausted from our jam-packed day in Paris that I feel asleep with all of my clothes on, even my shoes.
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