Does the Moonlight Shine on Paris?

In the morning the camp counselor in me came out. We said that we wanted to be out the door by 9AM so that we could get into the Louvre without having to wait. Lo and behold, the 3 of us walked out the doors of Oops! Hostel (what an awful name for a hostel, by the way) at around 9:07AM. Not too shabby at all.

Thankfully, we got to the Louvre just as it was opening. In less than 10 minutes time we had gone through security, gotten our tickets, and were heading upstairs towards the one and only Mona Lisa. Ok, so I went into the Louvre knowing that I was supposed to feel overwhelmed and impressed by the masterpiece that is Mona Lisa. Not so much. Sure, it was nice, but I couldn't get close enough to admire her so-called beauty or see the technique or even get a semi-decent picture.

After getting crushed by all of the people who at this point (a half hour later) had entered the Louvre and gone straight to the Mona Lisa; Sarah, Angelica, and I all decided to split off because each of us had different goals and we didn't want to spend all day there. The Louvre doesn't really house "my type" of art - it just doesn't appeal to me, and I see enough of it in Rome. I hate to be what some call naive or ignorant, but there are only so many paintings of Jesus or the Madonna and Child that I can see without having them all start to blur together. In my wanderings I happened to have a really weird moment (that had nothing to do with the art) where I ran into one of my friends from AU, Sienna, who is spending her semester studying in Madrid. I love it when the world seems small.

Laura met us outside the Louvre after we all took a glance at the inverted pyramid that Dan Brown talks about in the DaVinci Code, and from there we took the metro back to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. the view was just as pretty during the day as it had been the previous night. We wound up wandering around in the little area, which I guess you could call Montmartre, that is by the Basilique, and we had an outdoor lunch. I had the most wonderful Croque-madame (a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with an egg on top). I once again felt like I just belonged in Paris. It was such a quintessential thing to be sitting at an outdoor cafe eating one of their traditional foods. The waiter was even really nice and tried his hardest to help all of us with our French - that almost never happens.

The 3 of us that were not studying in Paris had our heart on seeing the Moulin Rouge - so, that is exactly where Laura took us. The street that leads up to the famous nightspot is crazily sketchy, but equally as funny. Along the way we managed to find a Phi, as well as two fat statues that were outside of the erotic museum - so of course, we had to stop and take pictures. The windmill was impressive, but that was about the extent of the entire site. I don't think that we ever got closer than across the street from it. Yet, it is still pretty neat to say that I have been there - or at least close to it.

The 4 of us did a quick hour of shopping that turned into me sitting down and resting my tired feet. But, after that short break (and a cup of coffee to get the blood flowing), Angelica, Sarah, and I made our way towards the Eiffel Tower. We got off the metro right as dusk had fallen the clock had struck the hour. This was perfect timing, because as we rounded the corner to step into the shadow of the tower, the lights were once again sparkling.

Once down underneath the tower we choose what we had deemed to be the shortest line to go up to the top. After waiting 40 minutes (and being annoyed by the obnoxious German couple in line behind us), we come to find out that we were in the line that doesn't take you to the top in an elevator - we are in the line that you are supposed to be in if you want to climb the stairs to get to the second platform! By this point it made no sense to change lines, so we were committed to climbing those 700 stairs to make it up there. At least, though, we would be able to take an elevator to the tippy top.

The view from all 3 platforms were amazing. I was just so happy, I felt like a small child who's parent told them that they could go to the zoo to see the baby elephant. Many of you know the wide smile that I get when everything is perfect in my world - imagine that times two and you get me on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Once we came down, the three of us found a small piece of pavement and just sat and looked at the tower. It was as if I was starring in my own movie. The moment just felt perfect. The moon was out, the tower was twinkling for the 4th time in the 3 hours we had been there, and my dream of being in Paris had come true in the most magical way.