
Next up was the Arch de Triomphe which was actually a little confusing to figure out because we didn't know that you had to take a tunnel under the the round-about that surrounds the Arch to actually get right up next to it (I'll put up a post of our jouney under the tunnel when we finally figured it out).
Right up the Champs-Elysées was our next destination, the Louvre. We didn't actually walk down the entire Champs-Elysées because that would have taken way too long, so we hopped on the metro and two stops later were there. Now you always hear people talk about how big the Louvre is, but it has to be said: it's really, really really really big. Faced with such a daunting building and only about 3 hours to give Chrisitine the most representative expereince of the Louvre you can have in that time span, we decided to pinpoint some of the major works in the museum--The Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. We then decided to go off the beaten path somewhat and visit the Middle-Eastern artifacts section of the museum which of course was also quite spectacular.
After dinner, our last stop of the day was the cathedral of Notre Dame. Ok, so here's how the story goes: We had heard that the Pope was going to be at the cathedral to celebrate vespers and then given an address to the people waiting outside, so we decided that we would stick around to see if that was true. Turns out he was actually there the day before and had since moved on to Lourdes down south, so we spent a few good hours outside the cathedral for no good reason--but hey, c'est la vie.
**To see a larger photo album of our excursion (minus photos of Notre Dame because my camera's battery died) go to http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035273&l=bcb5c&id=17703725).
Day 2 Christine decided that Paris isn't good enough for her anymore so she draged us all the way out to see the palace at Versaille, which is to the south-west of Paris. Pictures really work better than words here, so why don't you check out the album at http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035275&l=d8382&id=17703725?