Day 3: The City of Lights

Wheee we're in Paris!! And my oh my is the Eiffel Tower impressive at night. As cliched a sight as it is, it is SO worth going to see at night. Too bad it doesn't get dark til like 10:30PM right now... haha. But it worked out well for us, because we ended up getting a late dinner. Ok, back to the start.

No explanation necessary. Just <3

We arrived in Paris around 2:30, via the Thalys train from Belgium. It was super fast, and zipped through the beautiful green countryside! Unfortunately, it was sprinkling when we got into the station, and stupidly, I had packed my umbrella snug inside my carry-on suitcase. So we had to walk in the rain for like half a mile to get to our hotel. ick. Bad start to our stay. Fortunately, the hotel was pretty nice (despite being budget) and had free wifi YAY.

We then left armed with umbrella in hand, and rode the subway to the Louvre, where we snapped some pictures in the dreary wind/rain, and then made our way to Angelina for some delicious hot chocolate! This tea room has been around for ages, and was apparently frequented by the French aristocracy and the likes of Coco Chanel back in the day. Now it serves pricy but scrumptious hot chocolate, and their specialty dessert the Mont Blanc, a sweet chestnut cake. (Look familiar Monica?!?!) Stephanie and I shared a hot chocolate and Mont Blanc, and oh my god were we filled up on sweets. It was a struggle just to finish them because they were so sweet! Not to say they weren't delicious and special, but just too much sweetness at once, I think. Sigh, and I thought I had a huge sweet tooth... >.< Nevertheless, couldn't leave without also buying a few macarons for later!

Angelina's famous Mont Blanc

Afterwards we headed over to the Musee D'Orsay, my FAVORITE museum in Paris! It's worth a visit every time, just to see all the Impressionist pieces. And if you're like Stephanie, it's worth it just to see the giant ornate clock. ;D Of course I love the Monets, but my other personal favorites are the pieces by Cezanne and Renoir. Nooooo as I type this, I just realized that since we left early without seeing a lot of the other collections, I totally forgot to stop by the Seurat paintings.... T___T

You can see Sacré-Coeur from here!

By the time we left it was already almost 9PM, so we quickly headed over to dinner, passing by the School of Fine Arts and various bridges with love locks on them. Unfortunately the restaurant we had planned on going to had already closed their kitchen, but we were instead able to stumble upon another well-rated bar/restaurant with a very friendly owner/waiter. So far, I've only had pleasant experiences with the French! (Except a drunk guy on the subway who almost fell onto me twice before his friends grabbed him, haha) So far so good, and can't wait til tomorrow! Goodnight zzzzzz