After a rocky trip to Paris we navigated our way through some pretty ugly streets and found our hostel. Unfortunately, we couldn’t check in so we hit up this little coffee shop across the street from our hostel. The espresso and club sandwich hit spot since I was feeling pretty bad due to lack of sleep and some mysterious rash that came from the beds in London. We then headed back to the hostel and I took a shower and a pretty serious nap. Later that night we went to the Eiffel Tower. It was awesome to see the tower lit up at night and the flickering lights that go off every hour. However, I didn’t have my camera, I may have broken my back, and I was told to never come back again by an African street peddler. 

The next day I woke up feeling a ton better and we decided to head out for a day of “touring.” Our first stop was Notre Dame, the famous cathedral in Paris. It was interesting to compare Notre Dame to some of the Italian churches we’d seen so far.

From Notre Dame we walked along the Seine River and got a better feel for the Parisian atmosphere and culture. Some of the highlights included a bridge with locks on it, pictures of naked women on postcards, and crepes. After a quick bite for lunch

we went to Musee d’Orsay. At this point on the trip museums were losing a bit of their excitement. It was interesting to see the paintings of Van Gogh and Monet since I had learned about them for so many years. I enjoyed Van Gogh’s style of art the best. From there we ventured around Paris and refueled with some Starbucks before heading into the Lourve.

On our way to the Lourve we saw a giant ferris wheel and spent some time sitting around a fountain looking back on our trip this far. Even though everyone was running out of gas and we had gotten under each other’s skin, it was cool to reminisce and think about all that we had done in the past week. 

After a brief photo shoot by the girls we headed into the Lourve for our highlight reel which mostly included the Mona Lisa and the different sculptures and paintings along the way. I would have liked to have seen a few more things but we were all hungry and tired and opted to find some food before heading home. My favorite part about the Lourve may have been seeing it from outside at night. The Mona Lisa just didn’t really do it for me.

The next day, Wes and I headed out to check out a few more sights and continue the grand Doner Kebab tour. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe, A arc that was constructed in honor of French soldiers that died during the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. At first we thought we had to play a human version of Frogger to get to the other side but after a few failed attempts we found a tunnel leading to the other side.

The Arc de Triomphe really seemed like the pulse of the city with the constant buzz that was surrounding the area. After a good start to the day we headed back to the Monmarte area to check out Sacre Coeur and the Montmarte area where Dali, Picasso, and other famous artists once lived.

After destroying one of the top Kebabs of Europe, we headed up to Sacre Coeur. It was not an easy journey navigating the gypsies and street performers. However, Sacre Coeur was awesome and the view overlooking Paris was amazing. The highlight may have been a street performer performing some of the most incredible juggling I’ve ever seen. Sorry texture crew.

After finding a few more street performers, we walked around Montmarte and saw some of the paintings the street artists had made. For being such unknown artists these people had incredible talent. It was interesting to see in this area how many people were performing on the street just trying to earn a Euro and had great talent.

After walking around the area a little longer we headed back to the hostel for our last night in Paris. We decided to head out in the Moulin Rouge, Red Light Districtesque area to an Irish Pub named O’Sullivan’s for our last dinner together. After a couple drinks we all headed back home before heading back to Lugano for a much needed break.