I would like to start this blog off with an apology to our viewers as it is a blog of yesterday, but last night I was hit with a pretty bad fever and soar throat that forced me into bed extremely early. With that being said...
Yesterday was our first full day in Paris, in a stay that is unfortunately far too short, and we were hit with some pretty bad luck all day. It was the first time we have really had any bad omens come our way on this trip, so we were probably due for something but Professor Ryan says we'll be all set now for the rest of the trip.
The day began with breakfast, which is 40x better at this hotel than the Royal National, and a meeting where we went over our final paper ideas and discussed the itenerary for the day. The itenerary conisted of going to Sorbonne and then doing a little optional shopping and then afterwards going to the Louvre. After our meeting at 10:00 however the weather turned for the worst as there was practically a monsoon outside; we decided we would try to start the day anyways, but after about one crosswalk we decided to turn around and wait an hour to see if the rain would pass. Unfortunately it did not, so we decided to travel to the Louvre first due to the fact that we would be inside, and away from the rain.
To get to the Louvre we had to take the Paris tube system, which is not quite as effective as the system in London in my opinion but still probably better than New York, to the stop which is actually right in the museum's basement. Because Prof. Ryan had already bought the tickets, we were able to skip the huge line which was great. Once we entered the museum it started to hit me personally, and possibly others, that I was in the most famous museum in the whole world. There were many Catholic artifacts on display as well as a big representation of artifacts and statues of Greek mythology. The entire time we were going through these different sections I was getting more and more ancy for the Mona Lisa. Finally, when we got to the painting's location I turned the corner and said out loud "wow, there she is." The group and I wiggled our way through a huge tourist crowd to get a close view for a picture and I could not get over that I was about 10 feet from the storied paining. After seeing the Mona Lisa and the enormous painting of the Wedding at Cana we headed onto the next section before a little more bad luck. All of a sudden an alarm went off saying everyone had to leave. Most people in the museum didn't even react to this alarm, but after a little while it got old and we decided it was time to leave, as we had been there for close to two hours anyway. Some people in our group are still convinced there was some type of fire in the museum, while others think something was stolen; basically it could have been anything. Or nothing at all.
After seeing the Louvre, there was still a Syracuse-type downpour outside so we headed to get some lunch at a nearby restaurant. Although the portions were not overly big at this restaurant, I think we were all in agreement that the food was yet again fantastic. I personally ordered the "Spagettis Bolognaise" which was phenomenal and then we all had a taste in some desert, which I also believe left everyone satisfied.
After lunch it was back to the hotel as we made the executive decision to postpone the trip to Sorbonne a day, and at the hotel we all hung out in a couple of different rooms. As far as the rest of the night: unfortunately this is where I really started feeling the effects of my illness and went to bed so I cannot comment much on that much further; however I believe everyone got together and hung out as a group, and it sounded as if they had a great time.
Overall, as this was probably the least busy day due to inclement weather, it was still a fun day where we got to see many famous things. Professor Ryan claims that with this bad weather we won't see any rain for the rest of the trip and I think all of us will be holding him to that claim, as we've been having a fantastic trip so far.
-DS
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