We woke up early and headed to the museum.  Like I said before, the Metro was absolutely wonderful so that wasn’t a problem.  The problem was when we got off the stop we had no idea where to go for the Virgin store.  When we Google mapped it, it looked like it was right next to the Louvre.  Not true.  We walked all around the Palais-Royale which is where the museum is housed and found absolutely nothing.  So we stopped in a little café to ask for directions and grab an amazing raspberry torte.  The guy we talked to was super nice and for some reason he loved Megan and I.  We got our picture together and then he gave me his address so I could send it to him.  He wasn’t up on the technology so he had no e-mail address.  He said the store was a 10 minute walk down the road.  So we started walking.  We got to the point where we felt like we had either missed it or it wasn’t down the road we were walking, so we stopped and asked another nice man.  Come to find out it was located on the Champs d’Elysees, which is the road leading to the Arc de'Triomphe, which is all the way across town from the Louvre.  Seriously?  We both were so mad. 

We hopped on the Metro and finally found the store.  By this time we had wasted about 1 ½ hours.  When we got up to the counter to pick up the tickets the lady didn’t know any English at all and Megan hadn’t brought the card she purchased the tickets with.  The lady told us it was impossible to look up the information without the card.  Can we say pissed?  Megan started getting a little uppity with the woman because we were beyond frustrated and then the lady just told us she didn’t understand and to wait.  Well we waited…Megan started looking to see if she could find the card information on her iPod which gets internet.  SCORE!  We found it.  After a lengthy phone call with her supervisor the lady was able to find our tickets.  Oh and after all that they charged us a “convenience” fee of 3 Euro per ticket.  CONVENIENT!?!?  Definitely not.  When we passed the Louvre in the morning there was no one at all in line.  We should’ve just bought the tickets there, but what can you do?  

Laduree

After we stopped being mad, we walked the Champs d’Elysees and saw all the shops with some of the top designers like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel.  They were huge.  We then stumbled across this place called Laduree which is where we had wanted to go in the first place.  It was a bakery that had opened in 1862 and served Macarons.  Have you ever had a Macaron?  They are the most amazing things I

Cherry Macaron

have ever tried!  I bought a cherry and a pistachio one. The cookies were 1,70 a piece which was pretty pricey for their size.  I wanted to buy a box of 6 but that was going to cost me 15,95 Euro.  Ugh they were so good and I keep getting cravings for them.  Made our way to the Arc and took pictures in the middle of the road.  Found the pedestrian tunnel to actually go to the Arc.  My cousin went to Paris before and didn't realize there was a tunnel and tried to cross the 12 lanes of traffic to the inner circle.   He actually did make it out alive.  It was so cool being right there, in a place where I have seen so many pictures that is enriched with so much history.

After triumphing the Arc…get it….get it?  We went to the Louvre.  We needed a snack break first and sat down so Megan could eat and I could people watch.  Met a nice little Brazilian man who was a painter.  Sometimes when you’re in a foreign country where you think they don’t speak the language you can get yourself in trouble.  Megan and I were sitting on the bench commenting about this girl’s outfit who was smoking a cigarette and who looked like she was 14.  I liked her outfit, but Megan didn’t and suddenly the guy next to us piped up and said that all women were judgmental and witches of one another.  We started laughing because we didn’t know he could understand what we were saying.  He then showed us his whole portfolio and asked if I could be his muse. Super nice, but this was only the beginning of running into strange men.  He wasn't too bad in comparison with the others.

Mona Lisa at the Louvre

We headed to the Louvre and did it in a whirlwind.  Started with Napoleon's Apartments and than ran to the Mona Lisa.  That's all we had time for, as we had lots of other things to see!  Megan was a butt about seeing the Mona Lisa and thought it wasn't that great of a painting.  That's when a little art teacher we were standing in front of explained the importance of the painting and how avante gaurde it was in Da Vinci's day.  I had to secretly laugh, because Megan got scolded by a middle school art teacher at the Louvre.

Paris Opera House

After the Louvre we hopped on the Metro and got off at the Paris Opera house.  I only had time to snap a quick picture in front of it, and then we got right back on the Metro to the Basilique du Scare'-Coeur, which translates to the Sacred Heart Basilica.  It was just funny because on the ride over to the church, things started to get more "colorful."  Megan and I were definitely the minority and once we got off the train we realized why.  We stepped out and it seriously was like the Harlem of Paris.  The road we walked up to the basilica was only wig and hair braiding shops, and everyone was just standing outside talking to one another.  It was fine in the day to see a different side of Paris, but I wouldn't have wanted to walk those streets alone at night.

Basilique du Scare'-Coeur,

Coke Zero Time

Yummy Steak & Fries

Once we walked the millions of stairs to get to the top of this hill, we were greeted by this beautiful Basilica that looked like a wedding cake topper, and looked across the entire city.  It was beautiful and breathtaking, but Megan and I were starving, and all we wanted was some food in our bellies!  We walked around the back of the church because Megan's friend had told her about a little market area with souvenirs and painters, etc.   Once we rounded the corner, it was so stinking cute.  I had to get some pins and post cards and get pins and post cards I did.  We couldn't make up our minds where to eat, but we finally decided on this little outdoor cafe.  I splurged and bought

Little Artist Square

myself a 3 Euro Coke Zero.  It was amazing.  I also had some steak for lunch which is a little heavy in the afternoon, but I was starving!!   After eating a wonderful meal, I was so happy and Megan was too.  We found the little artist square where Van Gough's brother also had a studio.  If I were an artist I would want to paint and draw there.   Scouted out the church which was beautiful from the outside.  The inside wasn't too much to write home about.  Afterwards we were off to our next adventure!!  To be continued . . .