I blame Florence. You should too.

Okay, Paris. You’re back on my good side.

So last night I passed out at about 7 o’clock. And I do mean passed out. My clothes were still on, window was still wide open, lights still on, and I wasn’t even under the blankets. I came to at 5:48, then went back to sleep until 7:30. I went downstairs to grab a quick breakfast before heading out, and the woman who was working as a waitress seemed very confused when I told her repeatedly I wanted no coffee or tea.

I left the hotel and made my way into the metro. For some reason, the automated ticket machine wasn’t accepting my money, so I had to go to the man behind the counter. “Bounjour, parlez-vous anglais, s’il vous plais?” I asked. “Non,” he said. So I had to do some tough thinking and figure out the correct vocabulary for what I wanted, when I finally asked him “can I get the 10 pack of metro tickets” in French, he responded with, “Oh, yeah. I can do that, of course” in English. Damn liar.

I arrived at my first goal of the day, the Louvre, at 8:45 am. The museum isn’t supposed to open until 9:30, so I figured that being almost an hour early on a day where it was still raining was going to get me a good spot in line. It would have, too, if good was #1,682. There were so many freaking people there I couldn’t believe it! I said to myself “screw this” and decided to take my chances with the tour bus again.

Yes, I'd love to waste half a day standing in line.

 Luckily there was a bus stop right there at the Louvre, and the busses seemed to be running smoothly. Even more luckily, it seems that the one bus driver that I actually rode with yesterday didn’t activate my pass, so I still have one more day to ride the busses. I got myself a seat on the top deck of the bus and rode one whole circuit through the city.

Today was kind of one of those soaked-to-the-bone-while-sunburned days. Just the kind I like.

So the Arc de Triomphe is cooler than I expected, as well as the Tour Eiffel.  I was also pleasantly surprised by the Place de Concorde and the Trocadero. The good thing is that I can always go back to these places and hang out at them for free.

Without fail, part of the bus has to photobomb the coolest picture I've taken all day.

 Finally I made my way back to Notre Dame. I ventured inside to find that there was a mass in progress, but visitors still flowed around the cathedral as well. I should just say now, though, that Florence has ruined me when it comes to cathedrals. I was pretty underwhelmed by Notre Dame. Don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely a beautiful building. But Il Duomo completely blows it out of the water. Notre Dame seemed small, bland, dark, and cluttered compared to Il Duomo. Also, remind me never to travel during tourist season again. The crowds played a large role in ruining every site I visited.

So I guess the best time to see it is at sunset? This is the best it's looked all day.

 After Notre Dame, I visited the “Crypts” of Notre Dame. They weren’t really crypts, they were the old Roman-Gallo ruins which laid beneath the square at Notre Dame. It was a cool, but I’ve seen better. At least it was free admission and quick to look through. My dilemma at this point was whether to go next to Cluny or the Conciergerie and Saint-Chappelle.

I didn't know the Romans lit their buildings with florescent spotlights...

 I decided in favor of Cluny and the Musée du Moyen Age and made the short walk to it. I didn’t really know what to expect from Cluny, I had never seen any photos of it or really known any of its history. All I knew was that it was an important abbey/monastery. And I must say that it looked… not so abbey-ish. I didn’t see a church from where I was, and it looked more like a chateau than an abbey. But the museum was pretty cool. They just so happened to have a special exhibition: The Sword, Usage, Myths, and symbols. This was a fun exhibit to see. They had Charlemagne’s sword as well as those belonging to Jeanne d’Arc, and Roland. I have my doubts that any of those three people ever handled any of those weapons, but they were gorgeous nonetheless.

If Charlemagne actually used that sword, I'll eat my hat. And my hat's chainmail.

The museum also held a famous collection of tapestries called La Dame et le Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn). If you’ve studied medieval art, you’ve probably seen these tapestries. It was pretty amazing to see them in person. They were so big and so colorful it’s hard to imagine how they’ve remained intact for so long.

Did people have oddly-shaped heads in the Middle Ages, or is it just me?

At this point it was starting to get a little late. I decided to head back to the tour bus and see if I could make it to the Hôtel Invalides in time to look around in there. Sadly no, I didn’t make it before they closed. So I headed back to the Ile de la Cité to relax and unwind as the sun set on Notre Dame. With basically all of the sights that I wanted to see closed and my calves badly in need of ice or massage, I decided to get some food and head back to my hotel room. When I got back, I finally got the internet working on my computer, spoke with my mom on skype, then watched horrified as one of my power converters died on me (smoke and all). I plugged in the other one to charge up my camera battery, but it started to give off the “I’m about to spontaneously combust” smell, so it’s unplugged. I don’t know if I’ll have enough power to take pictures tomorrow or post another blog, so… maybe you’ll hear from me again by the time I get to Pau? We’ll see. But at least there’s suspense.