Paris: Day 2

After a 12-hour sleep, we finally woke up in Paris feeling very refreshed and ready to start the day. Unfortunately though, I woke up with an unbearable headache, a runny nose and congestion and my friends also woke up with bad coughs. I’d say that it was the air quality, cigarette smoke and pollen in Paris that was making us sick. Also, unlike the sunny 70 degree day that we had on Friday, this day was a lot cooler and wetter.

As soon as we got dressed we stopped at a pharmacy so that I could buy some ibuprofen for my headache. As I was buying the medicine, the pharmacist made sure to warn me not to take more than 400mg every couple of hours (she obviously doesn’t know me).

Breakfast

Afterwards we stopped at a small restaurant to have breakfast. Because we didn’t really have dinner the night before (and because we slept 12 hours) we were starving. At the restaurant, which by the way was very cute and French, we each ordered a breakfast that consisted of coffee, orange juice (that was super sweet), a pastry and a scrambled egg and bacon mixture. I ordered a croissant for my pastry and it was delicious. The breakfast didn’t really feel me up as much as I thought it would, but it was still good.

My first crêpe

After finishing breakfast we headed to the other side of town to visit another attraction that we were anxious about, the catacombs. While on our way to the catacombs, we came across a food stand in the street that sold crêpes. One of my friends loves crêpes and had to buy one. I had never tried one before so I ordered one also, with chocolate.  We ate the crêpes while we waited in line to enter the catacombs. It was delicious, but the chocolate was a little bit much for me, especially without water.

The Catacombs is an underground ossuary in Paris that holds the remains of about 6 million Parisians. The story of how the catacombs were created is fascinating.

Catacombs

Back in the 18^th century the citizens of Paris all chose to bury the remains of their family members in private church cemeteries. The only thing about the cemeteries, however, is that they were small and Paris was an extremely crowded city at that time. The people had to literally start piling bodies on top of each other. Eventually, the cemetery became so overcrowded to the point where the citizens of Paris started to suffer from disease due to the contamination caused by the corpses.  Eventually, the government decided to take action and so they dug up all of the remains in the cemeteries. They then placed the remains in abandoned quarries. The catacombs today consist of a mass tomb covering a network of underground tunnels in the center of Paris.

Catacombs

This description of the catacombs may seem a bit eerie, but for me, visiting the catacombs was more fascinating than anything. It was amazing to see all of the skulls and bones that were over a thousand years old all aligned in such an elaborate and decorative manner. It was a little creepy to be in a cold, dark tunnel underground surrounded by millions of bones but creepy in a cool way. It definitely reminded me of something that I would see in a movie, like The Mummy.

Catacombs

They say that one of the most interesting things about Paris is what lies beneath the city and from my tour of the catacombs combined with the history that I’ve learned about the city, I definitely agree. I would definitely suggest people to visit the catacombs. It has such a historical and cultural significance to the city of Paris. And it’s so cool.

After visiting the catacombs we decided to head to the cathedral of Notre Dame, another famous landmark in Paris. While on our way to the cathedral we stopped for a while to walk along the Seine River. The Seine is a long river that flows through the heart of Paris. If you were to take a cruise around the river you would see so many important landmarks in Paris, like the Eiffel tower or Notre Dame. 

A view of the Notre Dame Cathedral

In my opinion, the Seine is one of the most beautiful parts of Paris because it has such a serene, romantic and enchanting ambience around it. After looking at the river we crossed the bridge and went to the cathedral of Notre Dame. This cathedral is considered one of the finest examples of French gothic architecture in Europe. In most cathedrals that I’ve seen, I generally like the outside of them more than the outside. The outside of the Notre Dame was very beautiful and the beauty of the church was only enhanced by the area surrounding it, with the Seine River to its right and a big plaza in front. I wanted to see this cathedral because it’s very popular but truthfully, I’m a little tired of seeing cathedrals.

Restaurant Menu

After stopping at the cathedral we decided to find a place to eat lunch. We found a cute little restaurant to eat at and, surprisingly, it didn’t take us that long to find it. We were the only ones there so the food came very quickly. We shared a salad and I ordered a dish with beef, vegetables and rice. It tasted really good and reminded me of the delicious pot roast that my mom cooks. We also ordered a bottle of wine to share (this seems to be the cheaper way of having it).

Louvre Plaza

After lunch, we took the metro to the Louvre Museum, one of the largest museums and the most visited art museum in the world. We weren’t actually sure what time the museum closed but we were going to try to get in just in case it stayed open late. When we got to the museum we found out that they had already stopped selling tickets so we decided to return on Sunday. In any case, the trip was still worth it because the outside of the museum was almost as cool as the inside. The museum is housed inside the Louvre Palace, which began as a fortress in the late 12^th century. Covering the entrance to the museum is a glass period and it’s located directly in the center of the Louvre Plaza. The outside was definitely a sight to see.

Do you really even need a caption?

After leaving the Louvre we decided to stop at the biggest Landmark in Paris, the Eiffel tower. I had mixed feelings about seeing the Eiffel tower after dark. I’ve heard that the tower is so beautiful at night but I also knew that my camera takes really bad night pictures and I really wanted to get a good photo of myself in front of it. As soon as we got off of the metro we turned around and there it was, staring us right in our faces. To me, seeing it was very surreal, it was crazy to think that I was all the way in Paris, on the other side of the world, seeing a thing that I’ve obviously seen in movies and television, read about in books and heard about in songs. It just reminded me of how lucky I am to be in Europe. The tower was very big and all lit up. And although I didn’t get a good picture with my crappy camera, my friend got a great photo of me with her “photographer’s camera.”

We were in a good mood after leaving the tower, so we decided to stop somewhere and have drinks. We stopped at this bar that had live music and a happy hour drink special. We had drinks there (I had a cosmopolitan) and listened to a musician sing and play the piano. It was a great atmosphere.

My friend really wanted another crêpe, and since we weren’t really hungry enough to eat a big dinner we decided to stop at another crêpe stand for dinner. This time I got a crêpe with ham, egg and cheese. It was so good; I really want another one right now.

After eating the crêpes in the street, we headed back to the hotel and got a good night’s sleep in preparation for day 3. Louvre MuseumLouvre Museum