Day two began very early. We had breakfast in the hotel's breakfast room, which was super cute, and Chelsea once more got to speak French. I was grateful for the coffee! We ate pretty fast to get to the Louvre early, before it got too crowded, and we definitely succeeded in that goal. The courtyard was nearly empty so we took a ton of pictures, and then went inside. Chelsea talked to the ticket lady, showed her our Edinburgh IDs, and managed to get us in for free, even though we weren't EU residents... she did a good job of talking to the lady, that is for sure. Pleased as punch, we decided to hit up the Mona Lisa first. This was a good choice, as we got to see it, and then like three seconds later a scary hoard of schoolchildren came in yelling and snapping cameraphone pictures. Hooligans. The Mona Lisa is also a little unimpressive. It's way smaller than you think it will be... but it was still cool anyway.
All in all, Chelsea and I spent a little over 6 hours in the Louvre. We saw everrrything. Highlights included Napoleon III's apartments (so swank) and the moat area... where there was a really weird art installation of like, two russian ladies chopping cabbage (what?). Also very cool: giant column things from an Assyrian(?) palace, and Hammurabi's code. And the awesome collection of Roman glass stuff. And erotic pottery. WOOO CNES classes for teaching me about that. We had tasty but overpriced noms in the museum cafe somewhere in the middle of our exploration of the ridiculously large museum.
After that, we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie, where they have 8 very large Monets. You go into the first room and it is just an oval with huuuuuge mural size Monets surrounding you. The second room is the same setup, different landscaping. They were just breathtaking, and beautiful, and gorgeous, and they make me wish I had a better descriptive vocabulary. I could have sat and looked for hours. We then discovered that the basement had a huuuge collection of other art, featuring a ton of Matisses, which was an especially good bonus. When we got done, we waited outside for a bit until my friend Hannah from the U, who was in Paris as part of her grand adventure across Europe, came to meet us. We went to a cafe and sipped on various coffee/tea/hotchocolate products for a bit, until Chelsea and I had to go back to our hotel to change for dinner. It was really fun to see Hannah, but I wish that we could have spent more time with her!
We put on our fancy clothes, and hopped the metro to Odeon, and then walked to the Rue Racine, where Boullion Racine was our final destination. It was a delightful Art Noveau themed restaurant. They pegged us for American quickly though, as they gave us English rather than French menus. Chelsea was upset, but I was okay with this, seeing that I do not speak any French. We took it as a good sign that nobody else in the whole restaurant was speaking English, and it was pretty crowded. We got a bottle of wine, escargot (because we had to try them!), and pumpkin chestnut soup as an appetizer. The escargot were pretty good, actually. I felt brave for trying them, but it was just like eating shellfish. You slather it in butter and garlic until you don't realize how slimy and gross what you are eating actually is. The soup was fantastic, and we both got duck confit, which was divine. I had a creme brulee for dessert, and it was so rich that I couldn't finish it. Chelsea had a very tasty hazelnut cake. We realized that 1) we were a little drunk after polishing off the bottle of wine and 2) we were by no means awake enough to go out on the town after dinner. So, Chelsea got a hold of her friend Sarah who was studying in France for the year, and we decided to meet at a cafe rather than going to a bar or club. I paid the bill (thanks Mom and Dad!), with a little scare when my card was rejected the first time I scanned it... but in the end it worked. Phew.
We found a cute little cafe (it felt sooo Parisian) and I got tea (the second cheapest menu item), while Chelsea got what turned out to literally be hot milk (the cheapest thing on the menu). Sarah was really fun, and we all sat around and talked until we had to go before the Metro stopped running for the night. We got home and pretty much fell asleep straightaway again. In the morning, we went shopping and bought sweater dresses from a boutique where the shop owner spoke not a lick of English. Chelsea was happy as a clam to have somebody who would talk to her in French without trying to switch to English at all. After that, we checked out of the hotel and took the metro to Trocadero, where there was a really nice view of the Eiffel Tower. We took some pictures, and then set off to find a reasonably priced cafe to wait for Sarah to meet us after her class was over. We found a tiny crepe place... i cannot remember the name, sadly, but it was wonderful. We should have gotten the house made cider, but we didn't. The crepes were enough! So, so tasty. Also, there was the cutest little boy, who walked in all by himself, and when his grandma came to meet him, they talked over tea? coffee? and then he paid the bill. SO CUTE. He could not have been more than 7.
Sarah, Chelsea and I had a delightful afternoon at the crepe place, until Chelsea and I decided we had better head to the Porte Maillot, where we would get the bus to the airport. We got there plenty early, and got on an earlier bus than we'd anticipated. Unfortunately, there is really nothing to do at the Beauvais airport for however many hours we were there before our flight. We also didn't realize that there wouldn't really be food for purchase past security. I bought a thing of crispy m&m's behind security when we finally got through, and they sealed them and said I couldn't open them 'til we landed. What the hell is the point of that??? I wanted food THEN not LATER. So, Chelsea and I waited and waited for an announcement that our flight was boarding. It was supposed to be leaving in like 3 minutes, when I realized that people were boarding our plane on the tarmac. The gate we were sitting at was not really a gate ,and the gate for our flight was hidden down a hallway through a secret door, so we dashed onto the plane, and like, ten minutes later we took off. Good thing I looked out the window!!
We were so exhausted and hungry that we pretty much slept the whole way back. We decided we'd go to Karen Wong's when we got back, but we had forgotten to account for the hour train from Prestwick into Glasgow to switch onto a train for Edinburgh. So, we made it back to Edinburgh a little too late to get the Karen Wong fix, so we stopped at Tesco and picked up readymade food. I fell asleep like four seconds after I got home and didn't wake up until late the next day, which I think brings us up to speed.
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