Aww yeah, I get to do this again

07 Jan
Can I be honest as I start this post? Paris was great today, but I liked it better yesterday, I think. Guess I'm a sucker for Christmas lights.
Absolutely delicious breakfast at the hostel of cereal, fresh baguettes with ham and cheese, applesauce, and yogurt. Yumm!! Then we hopped on a free NewEurope tour right from the hostel. It was awesome. Highly, highly suggested. We're definitely doing them again in other countries. Our guide was hilarious and we learned a ton about Paris. Really important stuff, like all these faces are Henry IV's friends drunk out of their minds after drinking literally all of the wine in his palace place and then all of his secret stash floor-to-ceiling of the finest champagne in the country.We got to walk along the Seine again, see Notre Dame cathedral from the other side, learn about the Louvre (even though we're not going to go inside this trip), and learn about all of the places we saw last night in our wanderings.

Apparently writing names on locks, locking them to this bridge, and then throwing the key into the river is a big thing here. There were so many locks, the sides of the bridge looked golden. 

 And how to tell how the person in an "equestrian statue" died. Fun fact: if all 4 horse's legs are on the ground, they died a natural death; if both are up in front, they died in battle; if one is up in the front and one in back they died an unnatural death. And, like, best part of all of Paris - we saw the fountain in The Devil Wears Prada that Anne Hathaway throws her phone into at the end.

Then we kind of died, I think, and crashed in McDonald's for like 2 hours. Zombie mode. With free wifi.  Then another awesome tour of Montmarte, and le Basilique de Sacre Couer, which is SO SO SO PRETTY. Oh my gosh, stunning. Maybe because it was French, maybe because it was on a mountain, maybe I've already forgotten how gorgeous the cathedrals were in London, or maybe because it was the first one I've seen in a few days, but I was blown off my feet even more than I was in London. Sorry Mark. Maybe that's a lie, though. I dunno! There was an AWESOME-LOOKING organ in the cathedral, though!
The whole area of Montmarte is cool, and different from the areas of Paris we saw last night. It's up on a mountain, and that's the "artistic" section of the city -- i.e., where pretty much every famous artist in Paris lived. Saw the Moulin Rouge, (which doesn't look quite like the movie), a bit of Paris's version of the red light district, and a stunning view over Paris.

Paris has so many museums, buildings, and other places that I would love to check out if we had more time. I could probably spend another week here. Good thing that Kirstyn will be able to come back often over the summer, and then tell me all about it :)

That was today! We're back at the hostel now. Yay!!!