Paris Hold the Key to Your Heart: Day One

The movies aren't lying: Paris is awesome. 

Let's be honest- yes, the Metro is dirty- yes, it smells like pee and feet, but once you get past that its pretty freaking magical. 

My favorite book, movie, doll, and cassette tapes were about Madeline. My favorite Disney (and one non-Disney but equally as awesome) movies were at least partially set in Paris (The Aristocats, Anastasia, etc., etc.). Come on---How could it not be my life's goal to visit Paris at least once?

Well, seven year old Kaity would be very happy because not only did I go to Paris last weekend but it was better than I ever could have imagined. 

Day One:  Notre Dame and The Louvre 

Our train to Paris left at the crack of dawn on Friday morning- and yes, I do mean the crack of dawn. My alarm went off at 4am... I wanted to die but I was also obviously extremely excited. We were (surprisingly) successfully out of the flat by 5am and on time to the train station. 

Some of us came highly prepared for the journey... (well done, Mary. You rock that neck pillow girl). 

I was far too excited to sleep so I spent the two hours listening to the soundtracks from Phantom, Les Mis, and Anastasia. 

Once we arrived in Paris we quickly dropped our stuff off at the hostel and then went on a glorious walk led by none other than Bill Sheasgreen. It was pouring rain the entire time, but it was still amazing. On his walk we went to that bridge with all of the locks on it, Notre Dame, and we stopped outside of the Louvre. 

The candle I lit in Notre Dame

Bill in action

**I'm only putting up a few pictures here, there are a ton more on my Facebook page if you are interested!**

Notre Dame was amazing. It's magnificence cannot be captured in a few photos. Everything about it was fantastic, even though the gargoyles did not start singing to me. 

After the walk was over my friends and I decided to have a little down time in the hostel before dinner and the trip to the Louvre. The hostel was pretty awesome, our beds had curtains so it was like being in your own little cave. 

After a quick rest we went to the Louvre to explore. OBVIOUSLY the first thing I did was head straight for the Mona Lisa. Let me set the record straight here, it is small, but not nearly as small as I was anticipating. Some of the pictures make her look tiny but really that's just because the railing is so far back from the wall. Once we found her I couldn't pass up taking the ultimate selfie...

And once we got that out the way we explored (got lost) in other parts of the Louvre. 

After walking around for hours and feeling like we were all going to collapse we decided to go back to the hostel to hang out until we fell asleep. The hostel was having a huge party that night but we just stayed in our room eating snacks and singing along to the music that was blasting downstairs (and also creeping on our friends who we could see across the courtyard.).

Day Two is going to have to wait until tomorrow. I'm tired and I need snacks. 

xoxo, 

Kaity