A Duck Walks Into a Pub: Day 5: Paris - Surviving the Louvre and Eiffel Tower

Our first night in Paris ended with an exquisite group dinner and endless carafes of wine. As one would imagine, this lead to a pretty rough Saturday morning in the heart of France. Despite some pretty vicious hangovers, we gathered in the bus at 9:00 am for a guided tour around the city.

Paris is a beautiful city, but it was even more enjoyable thanks to our local guide, Thierry. He was about 40 years old and exactly what we expected the French to be - dry, sarcastic and in love with his city. For example, he suggested one of our tour mates call the Guinness books when she was droning on about how much she had walked the day before. He explained the history of Paris, the basics of the European lifestyle (4 weeks paid vacation for everyone) and provided helpful advice for dealing with the French as tourists. Between teasing us about our pitiful sick state and poking fun at the Europeans in general, he kept us very engaged for such an early morning

The first stop was a massive marble viewing platform just beside the Eiffel Tower. It was a pretty picturesque moment and we took the chance to snap a few group photos. We moved on from there to Napoleon's army memorial, complete with a gold capped dome and a few famous gardens around the city. We saw the suite where Coco Chanel lived out her last days (you can rent it out for $10,000 a night) and ended in front of the Louvre. We were on our way out of the bus to thank Thierry for an amazing tour and throw a few euros his way, but he was already darting off into the crowd of thousands of Parisians. Typical.

After a quick lunch, we met up with our friend Hiya who is studying in Paris to tour the Louvre. I knew the museum was large, but the size is truly staggering. With more than 400,000 pieces on display, we knew we had to game plan and prioritize what we saw. The Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus were all in the Denon wing, so we started off there. I could write for hours about the pieces we were lucky enough to see, but instead I will just say they were breathtaking. Besides the big three, Josh and I were lucky enough to stumble into the crown jewels, the crowns of Henri IV and Charlemagne, and the old apartments of Napoleon III. In fact, even the building itself is a work of art - extensive arches and gold moldings were so impressive.

After the tour, we regrouped for a quick shower and caught the train back into the city for a tour of the Eiffel Tower. Mike scheduled a group ride to the top at 8 pm sharp, but we had miscalculated how much time we would need to get in to the city. The 10 of us on the train put on an entertaining show for the locals, sprinting through the streets of Paris. Thankfully we made it and the views from the top did not disappoint.

The night finished with a river tour on the Seine and a nice french coffee at a cafe near the train stop. We avoided some soccer hooligans on our way home, and stayed up way too late on our balcony watching a storm roll in. Day 5 was a very busy one, but it's the late coffee charged evenings like this that remind me we are in Europe. Espresso finally wore off around 4 am, just soon enough to take a nap before the next day.

Truly caffeinated,

Russell