Paris 8/29/2008

We went to the Eiffel Tower again today first thing, to beat the crowds. We took the stairs up as high as we could, which is about halfway to the tippy-top. I counted 708 steps. Kelly had trouble counting (as usual) and got 716. There were pictures around the whole edge of the level we were on that had pictures informing which buildings were what in the Paris skyline. I looked and looked but couldn’t find the Eiffel Tower which was disappointing. There were also some really cool photos of lighthouses around the world, but they left off Cape Hatteras (snobby Europeans). It was cloudy when we started, but by the time we were ready to go down it was sunny.
We walked around the city some more trying to kill time until 6oclock when the Louvre would be free to students. While walking around, we looked for a place to eat. We were sick of paying a lot for food, and wanted the cheapest thing possible that would keep us from being hungry. We finally found a place that had a few good sandwiches and decided on it. Cost was most important to us, and when he asked us for our drinks we both got Orangina which said 5 Euros on the menu. When he asked medium or large, we both responded immediately with the obvious answer: medium. We were so proud of ourselves for finding the one decent place in Paris when we got the bill back. We then learned that the “small” was 5 Euros and the “medium” (probably about 20 oz with no refill) was 10 Euros, or about 15 dollars. It was the best Orangina I have ever had.
Disappointed in ourselves, we moved on to the Louvre, this time to go inside. It was busy, but navigable. We entered through the pyramid. We went pretty quick through the Renaissance Paintings exhibit, and saw the Mona Lisa. We also saw a lot of Egyptian artifacts. We also saw the Venus de Milo, which I missed the first time. A friendly man took a picture of Kelly and I in front of this which was nice. My favorite was the French sculpture. There were two spaces that used to be outdoor courtyards that they converted into an indoor sculpture garden. We saw it right at dusk so that there was still some natural light coming in. It was very pretty and probably my favorite space in Paris. When we left the museum, it was night and the Pyramid was lit and very pretty.
Today was our last full day in Paris. We did a lot of things and had a lot of fun, but we were ready to leave and go to new places tomorrow.