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Feb 3: Paris day 2

7:30

We just woke up in our hotel room and are now trying to organize what we're bringing today, and also go down to breakfast. It doesn't really feel like day 3 already since I left. Everything has just been happening around me the entire time with no breaks. Anyway, nothing has really happened yet today so I don't really know why I'm writing anything yet. 

8:15

Lots of bread at breakfast. If you were gluten free, the only things you could have would have been fruit salad, cereal and cheese and ham. Actually I suppose that's not too bad, but there was no guarantee that the cereal was wheat-free. The pastries were incredible. So fluffy. However, I should try not to indulge too much in the bread here. Also, I think you can just have crêpes with every meal. 

10:15

We are at Sacré coeur right now. It's this incredible church, completely white stone on the top of a huge hill. There are tons of tourists taking pictures (including me). Inside, where you're not allowed to take pictures, there are thousands more of intricate carvings and candles, and lots of ornate gold things. Including an immense mural on the dome of the church using gold paint or something. Also a great view of Paris from the top of the terraced gardens leading up to it, and atmospheric small alleyways all around. Now we get to go see the louvre with a 1 and a 1/2 hour guided tour. This, I'm really excited for, because last time I went to the louvre with my family we didn't actually go inside. 

13:00

We just finished the tour of the louvre. So many gold things. Did you know that a lot of the statues of Greek gods that we have are actually copies by the Romans? They needed the bronze so they melted down all the Greek statues that found. We saw one such copy of a statue of Artemis.  One of the only original Greek statues is of Aphrodite. It was discovered by a farmer in the ground and was then sold to the French government. My guess is the Romans never found it. What else is interesting is that it can now be proven that all (or almost all) Greek statues were painted over completely with vibrant colors, because of wax remnants (I think?) left on the statues. We also saw all the classics, you know, Mona Lisa etc. Personally, I enjoyed the less famous paintings more because there were less people standing around taking pictures, so I could actually see the painting. We only saw a fraction of the entire louvre though, because it is the biggest museum in the world. They still keep adding extensions, even now. The building was originally a fortified castle: the royal residence. You can still walk through the royal bedrooms and such. Only the ceilings are left, however, and they're pretty decorated, especially with pictures of Apollo (representing the Sun King Louis XIV). Then afterwards the king decided to move to Versailles, and the palace was given to the arts to be a museum. Since then extensions have been added so that it is as big as it is today. I gotta say, the louvre is impressive if only for the history if the building, not to mention the thousands of works exhibited there. 

It's amazing how efficient Paris has to be as a city to hold so many things and people all at once.  

We're having lunch at the louvre now, just a pretty average food court. Food from all over the world was available. Then we went shopping.  

17:00

We are heading back to the hotel now, after visiting the Champs Élylées. Not many interesting things to report. We mostly just walked around and looked at 2000€ handbags. There were lots of department stores, and little cafés. I'm starting to feel worn out again now, and my feet are really tired. Tomorrow morning we are leaving by plane or train to get to our host families. Dinner will probably be good again. 

18:20

Heading down for dinner in 40 min. K, no more today. I'm posting this right now.