Europe Day 7 Part 2

Thinking about it, this really was a long day. How did we do so much? After we left the Louvre, we walked through the Tuileries garden on our way to the Musee de l'Orangerie, which houses some of Monet's water lilies paintings. It's an awesome building, the way the paintings are displayed makes you feel like you're out in nature among them. Next, we headed back to our hotel for a little rest time before heading to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées. A couple of funny stories about this last trip. First, Annie forgot her metro ticket, so she decided to just buy another ticket. That would have worked except Trisha and I had already gone through and come back out, so our tickets were now void. We ended up walking back to the hotel, getting Annie's ticket and going to a completely different station so our tickets would work. I guess it was a good thing, because we made it to the Arc just as the sun was setting - the perfect time to see Paris and all it's lights. Second, we were walking along the Champs and were getting hungry. We walked past the nicest, most upscale McDonald's probably on the planet, but passed it by. We kept passing cafes, but they were expensive. We passed another McDonald's - not quite as nice as the other - but the girls wanted to keep looking. We finally ended up in this shady French fast food place. I lost my appetite as soon as we walked in, but Annie and Trisha were willing to risk it. And risk it they did. Annie said it was the absolute worst fast food she'd ever tasted, and it showed on her face when she pulled what we think was a brown piece of slimy lettuce off of her sandwich. It was one of those times that I wish I had taken a picture. I didn't know such faces of disgust existed :) On a more serious note, this was one of the days that I really regretted not bringing my SLR camera. I kept thinking, "Oh, if only I had it I could do..." It's really heavy and I was smart to leave it home, since I can't afford to replace it, but oh how I missed having manual control.

The Tuileries garden

Annie and Jess eating yummy ice cream in the Tuileries garden

The so-called "kissing bridge." You're supposed to walk across it
with your significant other and kiss at every lamp. I don't know
what that's supposed to do for you other than the joy, or lack thereof,
of kissing someone so many times, but that's what you're supposed to do.

A closeup of the columns at the end of the "kissing bridge."

Jess outside the sushi restaurant on the way back to our hotel...

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

Me at the top of the Arc de Triomphe. For some
reason my camera liked to make me blurry...

The Eiffel Tower "twinking" as seen from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

A view from the top of the stairs that you have to climb to get to
the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We counted approximately 200.
3 words: Buns of Steel!