Prayers to Mercury: Paris, Day 1

(Theme music for the following two posts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMIuuV05uc)

Well, now that blogger has let me back in, I can finally start posting stuff from my trip! Hooray!

Again, I am posting this in chunks because I have TONS AND TONS of pictures. I don't want to overwhelm you all :). I apologize particularly for the number of Egyptian artifacts and such in this entry. The part of me that still sort of wants to be an Egyptologist just couldn't help itself! Also, it was overcast most of the day. This means some of my picture quality isn't great. Not to mention the nice people in the Louvre were very unhappy if you used your camera flash. I did the best I could.

First of all, let me say Paris was FANTASTIC. I'm pretty sure the Louvre is my favorite museum in the world, and considering I used to drag my family to the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in DC once a year on my birthday, that's saying quite a bit. I mean the entire BUILDING is a work of art, not to mention all the incredible artifacts inside it. The beauty of being a historian, is that you get to study everything, because everything is relevant to history, and this museum is not just an art museum, it also represents the history of the human race.

Anyway, I arrived in Paris the night before, at about 10pm, having decided I didn't want to buy one of the high-speed tickets, and therefore having spent about 12 hours on trains. Fortunately, I had booked a room 4 blocks from the train station, 2 blocks from Sacre Coeur, and it had a private bathroom. I was a happy camper.

My first day in Paris, I was incredibly productive. In the morning, I walked down the the Place de Concorde to look around a bit. From there, I strolled down to the Grand Palace, the American Church and the Eiffel Tower, and then met my uncle and aunt, Sean and Lori, for an absolutely spectacular lunch. It was really nice to be able to sit down with people I knew. And need I say, the lunch was DELICIOUS!

After that, I went to the Louvre, where I discovered that, because I am a resident of the EU between the ages of 18 and 24, I could get in FREE. Works for me! I spent most of my time in the Egypt and Greece wing, though I of course swung by La Giaconda, to say hello, waved to Napoleon, visited the Winged Victory, and saw the awesome fort they've unearthed beneath the museum.

From there, I went back to my hostel, relaxed for a bit, then walked to a nearby bakery to pick up dinner (a baguette), and walked up the many flights of stairs to Sacre Coeur. Dinner was a simple affair, but it worked well enough for me!