Today was free museum day! And also our last day in Paris :(

We knew that everything would be busy today so we woke up around 7:30am and had
our last morning breakfast of cereal, coffee and croissants... We packed up most
of our things last night but threw all of our last minute things in our packs
and then headed off.

The Louvre opened at 9:30am and that was the first one on the list. We took the
metro there and got there about 9:20am. It was raining this morning but
fortunately for us, the metro station entrance into the Museum was unground so
we did not have to wait outside. The line was already huge! But because they
didn't have ticket sales it moved steadily and we got in within 20 mins. We
really only wanted to see the Mona Lisa, so we followed the signs (and the
crowd) there. It was quite a hike too!

The Mona Lisa was a little disappointing because it was so small and you had to
stay like 100 feet away. But never the less, I saw it :) It was kinda amusing
because there were only like two paintings in the entire gallery where the Monda
Lisa was held. There was the Mona Lisa, which stands about 2 feet tall that was
JAMMED PACK! And at the other end, there was a painting that was honestly about
the size of a billboard, that NO ONE was admiring.

Meredith and I continued to wander around the museum, but on our bike tour
Louise told us that you needed to spend three weeks to make it through all the
halls admiring each piece of work. Meredith and I definitely didn't have that
amount of time OR attention span. So we decided to leave and head to the Musee
D'Orsay. Which was actually right down the road.

Musee D'Orsay, was actually an old train station, now renovated into a museum.
It was absolutely gorgeous on the inside. We had to wait probabaly about an
hour in line, but it was definitely worth it. This was the museum that Meredith
really wanted to visit, because she is a big VanGogh and Monet fan. Both in
which are on display at Musee D'Orsay. It was especially nice seeing the Monet
paintings, because just yesterday we were visiting the gardens and it was nice
to see the inspiration! Which I totally could see in the paintings now.

After Musee D'Orsay, we decided to head towards Centre Pompido, or the Museam of
Modern Art. It was about lunch time, and being our last day in London we had to
get the crepes! I got mine with Nutella, and Meredith got hers with strawberry
jam. We both agreed that crepes with Nutella was the best.

We knew the general direction of Centre Pompidou, so that was the way we headed.
Our game plan was basically to get to Notre Dame and then go from there. Which
is what we did, but for some reason we could not find the museum. We were
walking down little backstreets but could not seem to follow the signs
correctly. Finally we caught a glimpse of it a few blocks down an ally. There
was no lines, which was really nice. And we got right in.

It reminded me a lot of London's Tate Modern. We took the escalators, that are
outside of the building in hamster type tubes, to the third floor. We really
just wanted to check out the inside and didn't have any specific exhibit in
mind. We ended up in these feminist exhibits. That some studied the female
body in motion from the 1970s and some were symbolic of women's rights.
Honestly, they were just weird. There was one of a women hula hopping naked
with barbed wire... I just don't see the art in that.

But overall the museum was nice inside. It was really interesting to see all
the different eras of art. From the Renaissance in the Louvre to the modern
"art." We decided to call it a wrap on our day of Museums. But I think overall
we saved about 30 Euros each for going on the first Sunday of the month!

After Centre Pompidou, we headed to the near test metro and took that to our
hostel. We had left our luggage in storage lockers for the day so that we
didn't have to lug them around the city. We were also planning on picking up
some groceries for our overnight train but all of our grocery stores were closed
on Sunday afternoons!

We had to just pick up some fruit at a stand. But luckily we still had some
bread and peanut butter left, so we were not going to go hungry!

We picked up our bags and then headed towards Paris-Bercy, where we would catch
an overnight train to Florence Italy. Paris - Bercy was only about a 10 minute
train ride away from our hostel, which was nice, but put us there about 3 hours
before our train was schedules to leave. Meredith and I were so exhausted from
walking through all the different museums that we just took a seat and relaxed
before our train.

More and more people started to arrive, including a high school group from
Minnesota. We talked to them a little bit. Their trip was through their school
but only about 10 days. That seems so short to me now!

We were hoping that the train station would be like London and have some
restaurants to eat at. But it was not at all! It was basically the platforms,
the ticket office, and a seating area. There was a small cafe, that had some
baguettes and muffins but that was all. I opted for a cappuccino out of a
vending machine and some sour gummy worms.

We boarded the train at about 6:20pm and we were in for a rude awakening! So
far we had been pretty pampered on our trip. Staying with Dawn and then having
our own room and bathroom. We were in Coach 89, and I was couchette 45. Which
was the very top bunk out of three. At first I did not want to be on the very
top, but in the long run I was glad I was!

We first got in there and there was an older woman and man with what seemed to
be there daughter shoveling their luggage into the room. They had at least 6
bags all together, and some of them were huge! I was thankful for our packs that
we easily tossed up top. The other three only spoke french so it was very
difficult communicating at first. The man and the younger woman left and I
assumed to get something to eat or something...

Then came another guy for our coach. He was probably about 24 years old, and
was extremely quiet. He never said hi and spoke about 6 words in French to the
older woman. Then the train left... but the man and younger woman never came
back! So that older woman had AT LEAST 6 bags all to herself! But I was
thankful for only having 4 people in a six person coach because it allowed for a
little breathing room.

Unfortunately it would not stay like that for long. We were about 2 hours into
our journey when we stopped at another station to pick up some passengers. A
man and his wife (both probably in their 50s) joined us. They also only spoke
French, and there was absolutely no room for their luggage because the one women
had taken it all. So they had to sit with their luggage in the 6 inches of leg
space they had. I felt absolutely horrible for them! But it was not like
Meredith or I had any space to share.

I passed my time listening to my iPod (which no longer holds a long charge due
to using it in my car 24/7) ... and I also played some Sudoku on my iPad. Which
next stop I think I am going to add some more games or something to my iPad to
pass these travel days. All of our trips so far have been relatively close, and
only 2 hours or so (besides this train ride) ... so we have just slept. But I
know Budapest and Munich are much longer trains.... So we'll see what I can
download :)

Meredith and I were talking about how tired we were, so I eventually just went
up to bed (I was the very top bunk) ... Meredith was a middle bunk so she had to
wait until everyone else decided to make the beds. Haha. I eventually fell
asleep ... which wasn't much of a sleep because first off I had to use the
restroom but I didn't know where it was, and I didn't want to climb down the
ladder at 3am... so that was going to wait. And there is something creepy about
sleeping in a small space with four complete strangers.

-brooke.