Paris Day 2: Where is the Metro Stop???

After a long day of traveling but great first day, we got up around 7:45 to be out the door by 8:30.  The Louvre opened at 9 so we wanted to get there as early as possible to beat all the crowds.  Surprisingly, we got out the door pretty much on time after a very yummy free breakfast provided by the hotel.  Their bread was amazing.  The bread the whole weekend was amazing...I'm now addicted and I don't think I've ever eaten so many carbs in one weekend but o well it was so worth it haha.  I'm only in Paris once right?  Anyway we hopped on the Metro and headed to the Louvre.  We actually ended up getting in free because we were students and that was a huge bonus!  The Louvre was gigantic.  It has like 4 wings with like 5 different floors filled with artwork and various other things.  You could probably spend days there but we didn't have time for that obviously so we only hit up the important stuff.  We saw Mona up close and personal, Napoleon's apartment, and a couple other various exhibits.  It was really cool and I really enjoyed the apartments because they were beautiful.  I don't know how Napoleon lived there because it wasn't ornate or anything haha.

Mona Lisa duhhh

 Part of Napoleon's Apartments

 Outside the Louvre

After the Louvre, we wandered around the city and the gardens that were right next to the Louvre.  The weather was not as good as the first day unfortunately because it was super windy and kind of cold.  It wasn't bad when we were walking though and I'm just thankful it didn't rain all day.  We ventured to find the Longchamp store because we all wanted to look and possibly buy one since the brand originated in Paris.  The flagship store was definitely a letdown.  They didn't have much selection at all so we decided to venture to the Galeries Layfatte to see if we would have better luck.  Turns out we did!  I splurged and bought a black tote bad with a gold Eiffel tower printed on it so that was my big Parisian purchase.  It took a little bit to finally buy because we made the people in the store go in the stock room below since they had no more on the floor but I don't care because I really wanted the bag haha.  My 2 roommates and I actually ended up all buying the same bag but none of us cared.  After our purchases, we headed to the famous Laduree to eat a "life-changing" macaroon.  I don't really know how to describe a macaroon but it's like 2 cake-like cookies with filling in the middle.  It was kind of life changing because I've never had a dessert like it and they were really good.  I got raspberry and coffee and they were both really good so if you go to Paris go to Laduree.

 Gardens Next to the Louvre

We basically wandered through streets and shops after this because we were originally going to pick up food from local markets and picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower because everyone has told me that we should do that.  The weather did not want that to happen however.  It was SO windy and cold that it was definitely not the right weather to picnic.  It then proceeded to start to rain, also not picnicing weather, so we had to change our plans.  We had bought tickets for a boat cruise that night so we decided to just head over there to get out of the rain and do it since we were in the area.  The boat cruise was fun and it was great to sit and be out of the rain for awhile.  The aftermath of the boat cruise was not the same however.  It proceeded to DOWNPOUR on us after our cruise and we had to run to a Metro stop that we didn't know where it was.  We were soaked when we finally made it to the Metro station but getting there was hilarious because we were all yelling at each other, jumping into puddles, running across streets, etc.  It is definitely something that I will never forget because it was so funny.  We headed back to the hotel so get out of the rain and dry off after our escapades.  Some of us had not eaten dinner though but the closest food was about 10 minutes away so we just ate at the hotel restaurant soaking wet.  The meal was actually pretty good but the service not so much.  None of the people working there really understood English even though on their little name tags it said they did.  They lied because I had a 10 minute conversation with a woman trying to ask her about salad dressing...how do you not know what salad dressing is?  They didn't get a tip but whatever haha.  We hit the hay pretty early again that night because of our long day.