A Weekend in Paris is Never Long Enough (Day 3)

It's crazy how tired we were when we woke up that morning, and Courtney and I had some bandaged feet for sure. But I was excited to eat breakfast, which wasn't too bad for being included in our stay (without the upgrade).

Today on the agenda was the Louvre, the Ad Museum, and the Eiffel Tower. So we had breakfast and headed toward the metro (which is a lot easier to read compared to the London Tube, the sewers, streets and metro in Paris were all built together and resemble each other).

We hopped off at the metro station right next to the Louvre, how convenient.

The Louvre is so large, I knew that we would be a little overwhelmed and would just need to see a few areas to get the feel for the massive museum/chateau. We saw all sorts of interesting things...

Courtney and Justin were a little surprised to see how small the Mona Lisa was and I got to show them my favorite painting, the one directly opposite of the Mona Lisa (also the largest painting in the Louvre).

But I was just as distracted by the Louvre's ceilings this time as I was in 2010. I hardly looked at some of the paintings and sculptures because the ceilings are (in my opinion) far more beautiful and impressive.

Stunning aren't they? After the Louvre, we walked past some of the shops near by looking for the Musee Publicite (Advertising Museum) and we found all sorts of fun things. From a macaroon shop (with samples), a carnival by le Seine river and a book shop! I had totally forgotten that I wanted to get some French children's books.

I found The Cat and the Hat (bilingual), 

La Belle et le Bete (a really beautifully illustrated version),

Olivia fait son cirque, 

et Le Petit Prince. 

I also grabbed a book from the creators of My Little Paris (a book my mom got me, it's an insider's guide to hidden secrets around the city, plus there's a blog and an iPhone App) I highly recommend it and it comes in English aussi.

The book I got is called Les Parisiens 

and a book that shows the exact spots of a lot of movies filmed in Paris called Paris fait son Cinema.

Both so fantastic. There were a couple I wanted that I'll have to wait to get 

Stuff Parisians Like

And Paris Versus New York

But enough about my nerdy obsession, eventually, we found the Ad Museum. It was a lot different than the Ad Museum in London. It was less cluttered and very chic of course. But we couldn't take any pictures. We only got the door.

After the Ad Museum, we had to eat because we were starving. We found a cute little cafe called Mimosa and had some good food and some fun with our cameras.

After our fantastic late lunch, we headed to the infamous Kilo Shop. You can buy X-amount of clothes for 6 euros per kilo for example. I went all out on some scarves, why not, it is Paris. Courtney was overwhelmed. And Justin met a drunk homeless man.

Apres the Kilo Shop we went to the Chocolate Museum. We learned about the history of Chocolate and enjoyed some samples and spiced hot chocolate. It was delicious of course. 

We dropped off our souvenirs so we could visit Montmartre without lugging around dozens of bags. Montmartre is the home of the Moulin Rouge, the filming locations for Amelie and the Basilica Sacre Coeur (church of the sacred heart).

The Moulin Rouge is a little disappointing up close after watching the movie but it's still cool.

Amelie is a very quirky and funny French movie I watched for class Junior year of school. It was nominated for 5 Oscars. So we wanted to see the cafe she worked in.

We climbed the hundreds of steps to the top of Montmartre to see the Basilica and one of the best views of Paris.

The sun was starting to set and we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower before and after it was lit up, so we rushed across town. We arrived just in time, and just minutes after, they turned on the sparkling lights.

It was a perfect end to a perfect day but I couldn't believe we had less than a day left before we had to go back to London. I didn't want to go back. None of us did.

Bisous Bisous,