Joie de vivre

Thursday morning we started the day by heading up to nearby Montmartre for breakfast. Our friend Ev recommended a cafe, Coquelicot there which served a mean egg and toast soldiers. It was delicious and amazingly cheap - 9.45 Euros for breakfast with coffees for both of us!

Sacre Coeur

Conveniently, the cafe was just down from Sacre Coeur, a massive Catholic church situated on the summit of the highest hill in Paris, which meant it also has amazing views.

Panoramic view from Sacre Coeur

We then headed back down the hill and it started to rain, so we headed straight back to our hotel to dry off and change clothes and get prepped for a possible wet day ahead. Little did we know the rain was short-lived, and soon the sun would come out for a 30 degree and impossibly humid day!

We made our way to the Louvre, and even though we hadn't pre-purchased tickets the line was moving surprisingly quickly and we were in there before we too long. Once we were in there it was a complete mad house. Swarming with people walking in every direction, and with no air-con, it was quite the zoo. I was amazed to see how many people seem to enjoy filming everything they see on their iphone as they walk briskly through the halls - especially one lady who filmed herself in a mirror for a good few minutes. Anyway, being more of a Van Gough/Picasso/Rosseau kind of girl, the art in the Louvre was impressive but at the same time also a little overwhelming and a bit same-same for me, and it was hot and there were too many people. But hey, Mona Lisa, tick.

How the Mona Lisa manages to follow everyone in the room with her eyes is quite impressive

After a couple of hours in the Louvre we had had enough fighting the throngs and so left to go and find some lunch. We walked to nearby Etienne Marcel and found a little cafe where we each ordered a salad to try and get our first dose of vegetables for the holiday, accompanied with some Chablis of course. I kept true to form and had a salad nicoise, while Ryan had some salad with smoked duck breast and toast topped with a slab of pate. Ryan assured me the surrounding leaves of lettuce was all the vitamins he needed and that it was a pretty darn good salad!

The glass pyramid courtesy of the Yanks - nicely complementing the rest of the  12th century architecture

After losing our body weight in sweat we headed back home for some showers and down time. After recharging our batteries we then headed back out into the heat (nothing is air-con here, but for some reason the Parisians didnt seem phased by the heat and humidity). So we headed back to Montmartre/Pigalle for a drink and then dinner - ended up in some Italian type place where I had a smoked salmon salad and Ryan had a creamy penne pasta with some type of jambon. We then stopped in at another bar for a drink as we watched the world go by, and then hopped on the metro down toward the Eiffel tower so we could see it lit up at night.  So finally, around 10:30pm when it finally was nearly dark we saw it, and it was absolutely beautiful. There were tonnes of people around, tourists and locals, all admiring it's beauty, and then at 11pm it started sparkling all over like twinkling stars and everyone gave a cheer. And then everyone went home (with Ryan stopping off for a burger and fried chicken near our hotel at Quality Burger coz he had barely eaten all day :P).

Happy in Paris