Day 6 The day Esther's heart fell open and spilled all over the musée de orsay!!!

This is us outside of the musée de orsay. It was a lovely venue
because it use to be an old train station! We are really happy in this
picture because we didn't have to wear our coats today!!! Hooray it
was much wamet today! and when it did decide to rain, we were inside
of the museum looking at beautiful art. :)
I(Alyssa) don't know as much as Esther does about all of the artists
but I absolutly loved this museum!! It was much better than the louvre
because it wasn't so big and overwhelming. I loved the Picasso, Degas
ballerinas, Van Gogh, and this really amazing mini replica of the
opera house on display as well!
I (Esther) often had a hard time breathing today as I saw some of my
favorite pieces and painters work of all time! They had one of my
favorite painters of all time, Eduoard Manet, pieces slewn throughout
the rooms, and my absolute favorite of his on a special display with a
Picasso group of paintings based off of the piece as well! It was
overwhelming! (I definitly found a love for Picasso on this trip as
well!). The impressionist exhibit was also extremely overwhelming for
me, pierces i've read about, studied, have on my wall or as my desktop
background: are right in front of me! It was inspiring to study their
brush strokes and techniques, it was such a good day! The big names we
saw today: Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Rodin,
Morisot, Pissaro, Sisley, and Cezanne...that's all I can remember off
the top of my head, but I know we saw even more!
Anyway, tomorow we are off to Versaille with 2 new Aussie friends we
made: should be so fun!
Not missing home at all, having the best time! Send lots of love
though!

Another lovely day in Paris!

Sorry, no Alyssa in the picture today, we were so busy taking photos
with our regular cameras we forgot about the phone camera, so you just
have to look at me today at the cafe where they filmed Amelie in
Monmarte! We had coffee and deep conversation there in the early
evening, it was so wonderful!
After a fun night out, we slept in, as the earlier blog pointed out,
and then went off to visit the Moulin Rouge, walk around Monmarte, and
hit the Sacre de Cour for sunset! We shopped a bit in the area
afterwards and had a lonnnnng Parisian coffee at the famous cafe,
before heading back for a light dinner and drinks with our Aussie
friends from last night and some new Aussie friends too!
Off to bed now, tomorrow we have the musee de orsay (impressionist
collection!) and some more shopping at Chanel and H&M, before a picnic
in the Luxomburg Gardens.

Day 4 Chargers lose but we still saw great art...

Today we had a very relaxing morning. We got up for breakfast and
then decided to make it a restful day because it was Sunday and that's
what Parisians do on Sunday! In order to really take in Paris we
decided to follow this idea and went back to sleep, took our time to
get ready, looked out our window, and then finally decided to go to
the Musée de l'Orangerie. Someone may ask why it is called
organgerie?? Well Napolean loved a glass of orange juice with his
breakfast every morning and in the winter it was too cold for oranges
to grow but Napolean still wanted orange juice so they built the
organgerie so that he could always have a glass of orange juice with
his breakfast. Now it is a beautiful museum that hosts a great
collection of Renoir, Matisse, Modigliani, and 3 more impressionist
artists I had never heard of before and LOVED! Their big claim to fame
is the 8 HUGE Monet Waterlily panels displayed there! Monet donated
them himself! Neither of us were huge Monet fans until we saw all
these amazing panals, truely a master painter!
Behind us in the picture is one of the huge Monet paintings, so fun!
Then we strolled through the park and found a cute café that we
decided to eat at. They gave us a menu with food on it but when we
tried to order the food he said oh no we only serve drinks now (wierd)
but we just had some wine and were still able to see a glimpse of the
Effiel Tower in the background.
We headed back home and ate at our hostel because we knew they served
food there and what do you know the NFL playoffs were on! I couldn't
belive it (esther didn't care) but then I quickly asked the front desk
when the charger game was on. He told me within an hour so I was
excited. It was not long until we made friends with the people around
us and were all watching the game together. There were a couple
Americans and a ton of Austrailians. We were all screaming and
shouting and even Esther started to get into the game towards the end
haha. But the majority of the austrailians were cheering for the
steelers just because I was cheering for the chargers. It was great
fun watching American football in another country and we made lots of
friends along the way!
Today we rested and are now off to stroll Monmarte with a baguette and
hike up to Sacre de Cour for some breathtaking views of the city!
Tomorrow will be another restful morning and then we will be on our
way to the musee de orsay to see their beautiful, ginormous,
impressionist collection! So excited!

Day 3, A French Life

What's that big light behind us? Oh, just the phantom of the opera
chandelier!

Well today began like any other day, making vague plans over a long
breakfast of fresh baguettes and hot tea while overlooking the river.
Todays agenda was to tour the Paris Opera House which was built in
1669 for the King, so the arcitecture is absolutely beautiful (think
Versaille)! It's also what Phantom of the Opera is from: so the
chandelier, curtain, and even the underwater passages are all there
too! Plus, being performers ourselves, we were excited to see it!
Unfortunatly, when we arrived they said it was closed for tours
because the National Ballet of China was performing "Sylvia" in an
hour or so. Instead of being sad, we checked to see how much tickets
were! So for 10euro each we got to sit on the top of the packed opera
house and watch a beautiful ballet for 3 hours! The opera house was
sooooo beautiful! It took our breath away and we were all flooty
because it was just like Phantom! We kept singing "masquerade" from
Phantom while we walked around on our way to our seats:) Unfortunatly
the seats really were only worth 10euro and we couldn't see any of
stage right and only parts of the rest if we strained an kept moving
around. Also unfortunatly all of the key parts of the story happened
on stage right so we had no idea what was going on and started to get
really fussy by act three. But then act 3 was all finale dances and
solos and duets that were amazing and not on stage right! We still
didn't understand the story, but the dancing was so beautiful I even
teared up at one point and Alyssa was grabbing my arm and gasping
right along with me! Act 3 was totally worth the frustrating first 2
acts, we felt so so lucky!
After the beautiful ballet we strolled along the fancy shopping
district along with the rest of the city out for the national sales
everywhere! Chanel, Dior, Louis Vouttion, Cartier, and tons and tons
of other beautiful shops prime for window shopping! We made it to the
champs de élysées which was having an orchestra play beneath it so we
snapped some pictures and enjoyed the music before continuing toward
the Eiffel Tower to try and catch the light show which goes off every
hour.
The walk from the opera house to the Eiffel Tower is a beautiful but
long one, especially when it's 30 degrees and your heels are all
ripped up from your angry boots. Needless to say we stopped in for a
lovely dinner at a picturesque cafe along the way. Good food, good
wine, warm toes, and we were off to the tower to try and finish our day.
The tower light show is really cute and we had fun taking pictures and
finding creative ways to keep warm. We even shared a fresh chocolate
crepe from a stall while waiting for the show to start!
What tops eating fresh warm crepes by the Eiffel Tower?!
We love it here! Tomorrow will be another wonderful one! And it's
supposed to continue to get warmer as the week continues,(so the high
30s and maybe even 40!). But the cold really isn't that bad, just
night time...and by the river. Or a mix of both is just the worst!
Until tomorrow, au revior!

Day 2, another busy one!

A really awful picture of me, but a lovely one of Alyssa at the Notre
Dame today!
Our morning off was lovely, we were really tired and even slept more
after a quick breakfast before getting ready to head out for the
afternoon and evening of fun!
We spent the afternoon at the Notre Dame and it was so amazing! The
place is just beautiful with all the arches, columns, and statues,
then to throw in the stained glass everywhere, it was just
overwhelming! Plus, the
Place is freakin old! I totally forgot what a history the church has,
and of course the gargoyles Quazimoto swings around on are super cool
too;)
It just kept getting better with the beautiul river and park behind
the church covered in snow! It was so nice! Sadly the snow is melting
so it will probably be gone in a day or two, but were so glad we got
to see Paris with snow!
After Notre Dame we walked to my favorite place in the whole world,
Shakespeare Book & Co. It was just how the book I just finished about
it described it! but we didn't see our homeless backpacking friend
there...I recommended he stay there and we became friends kinda, but
he wasn't there so owell. I bought a neat old book about childrens art
(perfect right!) and we sat and warmed up while listening to a lovely
inhabitant play the old piano for us.
We had a quick bite to eat, then walked over to the Louvre for the
evening, along with all the other young people in the city for free
night! We got to see all the great pieces like the Mona Lisa and other
beautiful Da Vinci pieces, some Botocelli, Delacroix, and even a
special Picasso exhibit. We also stumbled upon some beautiful marble
statues, bronze work, and Louis XIV precious dining pieces, crowns,
sword, and all these really cool little boxes. We were the last to
leave at 10p, it was so wonderful!
Tomorrow were off for more fun around this beautiful (but cold) city!

Day 1

>
> We love it here! Were having the best time so far, and had such a
> great day today!
>
> We went on the free walking tour today which took us all around the
> main area of the city and gave us a great history of the entire
> place. We got to see Notre Dame, the Louvre, the tuleries gardens,
> walk along the Siene, Champs elysses, and the other major sites. Our
> guide was lovely and we made friends with a nice girl from Chicago,
> a homeless backpacker from Michigan, and a bunch of Austrailians.
>
> The tour lasted most of the day, but afterwards we ventured to the
> Eiffel tower and made it just in time for sunset!
>
> I have to say this has got to be the BEST time to travel here! We
> found out that not only hasn't it snowed in 6+ years here, but it
> usually melts just as quickly as it falls. If Paris is beautiful
> normally, (which it is!), then it's absolutey gorgeous with all this
> snow everywhere!!! The park around the Eiffel tower was so pretty
> some of our pictures should be postcards or something! And it is
> cold, but with boots and coat and everything it's really not that
> bad! It's actually quite refreshing to get out of our overheated
> hostel! Besides, with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky,
> who can complain?! And there's absolutely no one here! The summer is
> so so crowded it's miserable and you don't evn get a real feel for
> the city, but this is just wonderful!
>
> Tomorrow we will take the morning off to get some practical things
> done...like buying water...and showering (hehe). And we'll spend the
> afternoon at Notre Dame, Shakespeare Book & Co., and then walk along
> the Champs Elysees to get a closer look, before seeing the Eiffel
> Tower lit up, and then the Louvre in the evening when it's free for
> students and open late!
>
> Were trying to take at least one picture a day with my phone so we
> can post it on the blog, but the one of us by the tower is so awful
> I'm posting this one instead! It's the view from our window today at
> sunset. Were staying along the water with boats tied up....the
> little park is covered in snow and I love watching the Parisians
> walk their little dogs along there in the morning.
>
> PS sunset at the Eiffel tower should be seen by everyone at least
> once in their life! It was the most amazing part of our day!

We're off on our adventure!

Bonjour!
Well we're packed and ready to go on our big adventure tomorrow! And by "packed", I mean Alyssa has been packing for days and is all ready to go 1000%...meanwhile my stuff is kinda piled in different places around my room and laundry room...it'll get done eventually...teehee.

In other news, its absolutely freezing in Paris! and as much as we're trying to prepare ourselves, when i just saw the highs of 26F for the duration of our trip...I'm really beginning to worry. BUT theres no better place to be cold then traipsing around the Eiffel tower and the Louvre for 10 days- thank you!

Between the free wifi at the hostel and the computers in the lobby, we should be pretty good about updating this with all our travel fun! So stay tuned for some ridiculous adventures from the two of us, its sure to be interesting! hehe

much love!
Esther (and Alyssa in spirit;)

Versailles is waiting for us!