Our last day...

Good evening. It’s the last day in Paris as we are headed back home tomorrow. Let’s talk about our day.

This morning we woke up early to meet Marcus and Anthony for breakfast as they were both heading to their respective homes (Hamburg, Germany and New Jersey) today. We had breakfast at the hotel as Trustmark was paying for it, which consisted of Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, pastries and get ready for this…. it was 154 euro for 2 people, it was the same breakfast you get at home. Needless to say we will not be eating breakfast at the hotel tomorrow morning. After breakfast, we parted ways from the boys sadly and scared, and now we are really on our own!

First thing we did we walk up to the concierge’s desk (like we know what we are doing) and asked for advanced tickets to Louvre Museum. He gives them to us and Nicole whipped out her credit card and he said no, cash only….of course neither of us had any euros since we’ve only used our cards. He then directed us to the ATM across the street. Kim goes first and gets out 120 euro (which is now all gone), then it was Nicole’s turn. As Nicole was receiving her euros, someone came up behind us, grabbed us, and said give me all your money!!!! Kim yelled and Nicole didn’t move, then we heard a familiar chuckle and we turned around to discover it was our crout friend, Marcus! He was on his way to get coffee while waiting to leave for the airport. After the scare of our lives, we picked up our tickets to the Louvre, hopped in a cab and we were on our adventure.

We get to the Louvre, followed the herd of people, and it was spectacular! We got to see the actual Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and a multitude of other art. Kim could spend 5 days there and never get tired, Nicole on the other hand thought 4 hours was plenty. From the Louvre, we read our handy little map by ourselves. We walked from the Louvre back to our hotel instead of taking a cab and got a little sightseeing in the meantime. Kim was whining about her sore back, and Nicole was whining about her sore feet, so we went to change to more appropriate shoes (or so we thought).

When we arrived back at the hotel, there was a sign on our room door stating that the room was being cleaned (obviously, we’ve never stayed in a 5 star hotel, because we just burst in the room). The maid was in the middle of changing the beds and tried to get us to leave, however, we continued to get other shoes and act like she wasn’t here. After that awkward moment, it was time to rejoin the adventure.

We first went to the Galeries Lafayette (the shopping district). We were told that this shopping district was for reasonably priced items. However, we saw very few things for under a 100 Euro. We spend about 3 hours wandering around this large exclusive area. After that, we stopped at a café and had a bite to eat. Nicole had a hotdog and Kim had a grilled cheese with egg and tomato. Yummy and reasonably priced. After satisfying our hunger, we started off again on our walking tour of Paris. We went back to the Opera to take pictures then did some more walking….ALOT MORE WALKING. We visited the Madeline, which is another cathedral. From there, we walked to the Oblisque, which looks like a big pencil and is Egyptian and also the spot where Marie Antoinette was put to death. We also visited the Grand Palais, we also could see the Arc de Triumph, but it was a long way to walk. So our next stop was Affaires Etrangeres. Let me just tell you, these buildings are massive. Then we were on our way back to the Eiffel Tower (walking, mind you) because Kim needed to get souvenirs and crepes. Nicole by now is whining about her sore feet because she didn’t wear the appropriate shoes. After finally getting within a block from the Eiffel Tower, we flagged down a cab, who at first, does not want to drive us one block because it’s a waste of his time. He was very rude. So one block cost 7 Euro, because that is the minimum you can get a cab for. We get to the Eiffel Tower and picked up some key chains only to find there were no crepes. All we want to do is see the model of the Statue of Liberty that was used to create the actual Statue of Liberty. We knew it was somewhere in the Seine River. Kim flags down a police officer to ask which direction we should head from the Eiffel tower. He said go back to the main road, cross 2 bridges and when you get to the third bridge you will see it. However, He did not specify the distance!! We walked. And walked. And walked some more! Very close to the second bridge, it appeared that we were not in a good part of the city. Kim is tired and Nicole’s feet are killing her, and they are both very uncomfortable with the area and finally flag down a taxi. By this time, we are both too tired to continue to try to locate the Statue of Liberty and we needed to pick up a few things back at the Louvre Museum. After the Louvre (again), we hiked it back to the hotel to clean up for an early dinner.

We decided we wanted pizza for dinner and asked the concierge where we could find a good place. His direction was “left out of the building, right on the main street, and then right again. It is exactly on the other side of the building across the street from our hotel”. After walking around the same block 4 times looking for this so called pizzeria, we stopped at the Gap and the two gentlemen working there gave us opposite directions to the pizzeria. This trip took an hour and a half that should have only taken 10 minutes. We know the people watching (in line for a concert) were thinking what the heck are these idiots doing!! Dinner was great, in France, the pizza is crust, olive oil, cheese, and toppings, no sauce, just tomatoes. For dessert, Kim finally had her crepe. And this is the first and only day of this trip, without wine! We may go into DTS, ha ha!!

After dinner, its late, we are exhausted and have a long travel day tomorrow so its back to the hotel, where once again took 45 minutes because we made a wrong turn. In conclusion, we are proud of ourselves we found our way back every time!!! This has been an amazing trip, and we cannot wait to share our pictures with you!

No post tomorrow as we will be on a plane for 9+ long hours! We will try to finally post the pictures within the week! See you back in the states!!

Till next time,

Nicole & Kim