“He’s a Rooster, and we are his gaggle of Hens!” - 12:55am Paris, France

Today was an early start to our free day in Paris. Hannah D, Adam (and Jennifer) and I aimed to leave the hotel by 7:30am, and be on the metro shortly after that in order to get in everything we hoped we  could… that didn’t work… By 7:50 we finally left the hotel and wandered around to the metro, in circles as we tried to find it. This Canadian saved our bacon though! After leaving an Aussie to try and find the ticket booth (and maneuver around some rude French people), it turned out that I still understand enough French to survive in France. I was able to find the ticket booth, and to understand enough of the key announcements, and talk enough French to survive. Bring it France – you can’t bring me down! It’s also nice to be speaking a little French again.

Adam, Hannah D, Jennifer, Alex, Angie, Amanda and I headed to the metro and into the Louvre Museum. We queued for the line when we arrived around 8:30, and waited until they opened at 9. A quick jaunt through security in 10 minutes, bought our tickets (one person bought them all, as we realized very quickly that that would be better time management than everyone buying their own), and ran off to find the Mona Lisa. Somewhere along the way we lost Hannah D and Jennifer, so Alex, Adam and I took some photos as they caught up to us. Angie and Amanda had opted to do the Eiffel Tower first, so got off the metro before us.  Finally, we met up with Jennifer and Hannah again, turned around, and Alex had disappeared. Fuck. Adam ran around looking for him at all the nearest exhibits, and then came back to us, at which time we decided to go see a couple statues (including the Venus de Milo). Adam continued to try and find Alex, before meeting us down at the Venus. He arrived having failed in his mission – unable to find Alex. We breezed through the statues, and headed out to the glass pyramid where we could get some free WiFi (thanks to the Apple Store!) and try to contact Alex. We waited around with no response, and decided to let him know where we were going next and head on our way. We were, after all, on quite the time constraint and had a lot to see!

We exited the Louvre on one side, walked through the courtyard past the pyramid and out the other side towards the Notre Dame Cathedral (stop number 2). Upon leaving, we took the path to Notre Dame that took us along the Love Lock Bridge. Hannah D, Jennifer and I bought locks to leave behind for the experience. Along the way, I stopped and loaded up on some more cheap canvas prints. I’m hoping that they survive the next 50 some odd days. When we got to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the line up was insane. We were hoping we could climb to the top of one of the towers, but alas, time won. >.< We decided to wander around the Cathedral and take photos of it from the outside, including the little courtyard which I remember spending time in with Christine on our last trip to France.

At this point, Jennifer informed us that she seems to liken people to animals they remind her of. She dubbed Adam the ‘rooster’. He towered over us and was the type of guy to always check on us, by wandering ahead (always keeping us moving!) but waiting for us to catch up with our short stubby legs. He was continually watching us and keeping us all together. He, however, was easy to spot – it was easy for him to see us with this height advantage, but it was also easy for us to spot him.

After Notre Dame, we metro’d to our next stop – the Arc de Triomphe, where Hannah D, Adam and Jennifer decided to climb it. Seeing as I’ve already done so before, and I have another 50 some odd days to work with a bum knee that was already bothering me, I opted not to join them for their climb. After our fiasco with Alex, we knew where and when we were meeting (with some variable success this time… never lost, but they were late and had me second guessing!). My job while they were climbing was to find a postcard for Sofia, a post office to mail them, a toilet, and an ATM. Check, fail, check and check (but it didn’t work)… and only if you count a McDonalds bathroom as a sufficient toilet. Haha. We then headed off to find the Eifel Tower. When we left the Arc de Triomphe we wandered around Paris to try and find an open metro station, as everyone we stumbled upon seemed to be close for renovations… When we finally found one, we jumped on to find that it randomly stopped in between stations, and then wouldn’t let us down the line past another station. We were (almost) officially lost… Again.

At the Eiffel Tower, the line ups were freaking crazy! Nothing has changed in 10 years, so we opted not to climb, found a baguette sandwich truck for lunch, and crepes – Nutella and strawberries! Yes please! Although I missed Paris (and with more travelling, realize I didn’t really enjoy the city of Paris), I still missed this food! Good thing we’ll be back to France a couple more times!

We found a dodgy toilet before our bike tour, although it still took 40 minutes in the line up (of a whole 6 people…), and boy was it grungy. There were two stalls, one on either side of the makeshift building… one toilet completely plugged and started overflowing while we were waiting in line, so there was quite the wait for the other. Although it was highly entertaining watching people walk up with a ‘wtf’ look on their face as they looked at the lineup for our toilet, walked into the overflowing bathroom, and promptly left disgusted. They never looked back! Haha. It’s all kinda fitting seeing as it’s Paris…

We met up with our tour leader from the Fat Tire Bike Tour for our bike around Paris. We stopped at a few major sights (including the Louvre, Toulouse Gardens near the Louvre, the Dome Church, Invalides, the Place de la Concorde, etc). It was a great tour, got tons of photos and had even more fun! We even got unceremoniously poured on… The one day I didn’t pack the rain jacket as it looked so nice out this morning – I’m just thankful I wore the quick-dry capris and tank top and not jeans today! Our tour guide was awesome, she even had a planned stop and hang out with a beer in the middle of the tour where we watched Adam with ‘the girls’. We practiced many ATM’s – Advanced Traffic Maneuvers throughout the bike tour.

 After the bike tour, we hit and actual ATM, and a pub for drinks. Just down the road, they were selling double Heinekens for only €1.50. Adam and I loaded up! We then met back under the Eiffel Tower for a picnic dinner. Zoe and Jude even provided us with frogs legs – definitely prefer snails over frogs… 

We had a chance to change on the bus before the Cabaret show, where Jennifer and I confronted Adam about whether or not his pickup line was to say that he was bad at remember names, and then use their name in a sentence while watching girls swoon. It was totally working on some of the bike tour girls, and he was quite shocked that we would think it was a pickup, and that it might actually work in his favor!

Afterwards, we headed off to the Cabaret Show. I wasn’t going to miss out on one this time, as being 16 and in Paris last time, it was one the one thing we were all disappointed we had to miss. Two more beer later and I was a little tipsy and hurt my knee in the dark leaving the cabaret… oops! Good thing tomorrow is a drive day!

Hands down, Cabaret trumps burlesque and strippers (combined). I would pay to see it every weekend. Singing, dancing, chiseled abs, minor acrobatics, boobs, costumes… it’s all there. Although really, I’d probably pay every weekend just to see the chiseled abs. Haha.

We had a little confusion leaving the Cabaret show trying to find the right metro, but we managed to get home just fine with the help of our tour leader Zoe! The plan was to go for drinks when we returned, but seeing that everyone else was asleep, and no one knew where there was a put or something to go to, I decided to stay in and sleep… drunks can be exhausting. Tomorrow, we are off to Switzerland!