Day 4: A full day to explore Paris

Giant art - Marriage at Cana
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An early morning wake-up for our full day in Paris.  Matty dropped us off at the Louvre and we used the backdoor entrance to bypass the general admittance lines.  With only 1 full day in Paris to explore as much as we could, we ended up only spending about 1.5 hours checking out some of the more famous works of art that the Louvre has to offer: the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory (the headless statue) and of course the Mona Lisa.  Like a lot of people before me, I was more impressed with the painting across from it, the Marriage at Cana by Veronese.  It dwarfs the Mona Lisa and dominates the room in a good way, imho.  But as there is a lot left to do in the city of love, I sped off with Trek and Eric from the US and Haley from Australia to check things out.

Me with Eric and Haley in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral
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Since a lot of the major attractions in Paris are within walking distance of each other, we headed off to check out the Notre Dame Cathedral.  It was our first of many churches that we would see on tour.  It's always amazing to see how much intricate detail the architects put into each of the churches of Europe.  You can see how the priorities of the people were much different back in the day.  We then headed over to the Musée d'Orsay, where my highlight was seeing Starry Night Over the Rhone by Van Gogh.

Just relaxing and watching the world go by...
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After the cathedral and the museum, we took the advice of Todd and found a streetside cafe where we could spend a leisurely time just enjoying lunch, some wine and watching the world go by.  I got adventurous and ordered some cheese I had never heard of.  I struck out on my choice as it was pretty rancid for someone used to only cheddar and mozzarella.  I think I finished about half of it but I couldn't even get any of my friends to even try a second bite - one was enough!

Our final stop on our walking tour was the Arc de Triomphe, where taking some awesome photos of Paris is an easy task to do.  We made the trek up the 236 stairs and just took in the sweet view of the 12 streets radiating out from the Arc.  Our viewing was cut a little short by one of only a few times during the entire tour where it rained.  We hightailed it back to the Louvre to meet the bus as we were going to the Nouvelle Eve show that evening.

Talk about Vertigo as we climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe
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Maybe around half of the tour ended up going to the cabaret show that evening.  It's one of the more expensive optionals but I think it was well worth it as I enjoyed both the show, the meal, and the company.  When we were in line for the show, we finally ended up running into John, who had stuck around the city when the bus went back to the hotel for us to get ready for the evening.  We shared most of a bottle of wine as we waited and it wouldn't be the first time that we would drink wine out of plastic cups on the trip ;-)  At the show, I sat with Eric, Trek and John and had a blast, especially with our wine and the extra bottle that we somehow ended up with.  Aussie Ty ended up doing the tour proud by getting on stage and dancing away with one of the performers.  We did our best to get him the award for loudest applause but the older gentleman he was competing against pulled out the close victory.  The bus ride was just as fun, as I made the mistake of stumbling into the Booth Of Truth (capital letters required!).  Let me explain:  As a rule, anyone that stepped down the stairs by the back entrance while the bus was moving had to go to the front of the bus on the microphone and answer any questions honestly.  I can't remember my questions exactly, but one of them was to sing a song.  For some reason, I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred seemed appropriate, so I sang a few bars while Todd unbuttoned my shirt.  Good times!

A view down of one of the 12 streets that radiates from the Arc de Triomphe
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Paris Impression - What an amazing city!  On looking back after the whole tour was done, Paris was my favourite place to visit.  It's worth the visit just to go up the Eiffel Tower at sunset.  It's definitely a place I want to return to see again as there is still so much to see and do.