Paris

What a whirlwind of a séjour (stay) in Paris thanks to my dad's cousin and his family!

• Monday: I got to visit the musée du Louvre. We visited the Egyptian wing and, of course, the Mona Lisa (La Joconde). The painting is definitely not as big as one would hope, but is nonetheless impressive. 

• Tuesday: What didn't we do today? Or better yet, where didn't we walk to today? We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and got great pictures with the tower and fountains. (We didn't go up the tower because the lines were too long.) From the Eiffel Tower, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe. The walk up the Arc de Triomphe is totally worth it- I believe it has the best views of the entire city of Paris, even better than the Eiffel Tower. After lunch along the Champs Élysées, we walked through Place de la Concorde and the Jardin des Tuileries all the way to the Louvre. We turned at the Louvre and then walked to Notre Dame. I learned that in 2013 the cathedral will be celebrating its 850th Anniversary! Nonetheless, we were ready to call it a day after visiting Notre Dame. 

• Wednesday: A shopping day! After an afternoon of shopping, we had tea at Mariage Frères, a well-known tearoom in Paris. All tea enthusiasts would really like this tearoom! 

• Thursday: The first stop of the day was Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, which is another magnificent site for views of Paris. It was also really cool to see the Monmartre artists' paintings of Paris. From Montmartre, we took the metro to the musée d'Orsay. Anyone who enjoys late nineteenth century or early twentieth century art should visit this museum! I didn't know that the musée d'Orsay was originally a train station that was later transformed into an art museum. I was very impressed with the work of the Impressionists that I saw. Although I had studied Impressionist paintings in French class, pictures of the paintings do not accurately convey the depth and intensity of the real paintings.

• Friday: Back to the Lorraine region!