Nothing was scheduled with the class today, so Allyson and I checked out of the hotel and went to Rue Mouffetard, a supposedly great market street. Well, we got there and didn’t really see anything that great. It was mainly produce. We did go into what we were told was the best chocolate shop – Nicolsen. I just tried one of the pieces I bought there earlier, and it is amazing! We also went to Leonidas, another chocolate shop, and bought some more yummy chocolate! It’s all just so good! We walked around Mouffetard for a while, looking for this ice cream store, Berthillion, which was highly recommended to us. Well, it was nowhere near where we thought it was, but luckily some French pharmacists were nice enough to help us find where we needed to go. I am surprised by how friendly the French are. I was told they were quite the opposite, and disliked Americans. My interactions with French people have been great, everyone is very nice. Perhaps the men stare too much, but everyone is very amiable.
We took the metro over to Notre Dame and found our ice cream store! It is a chain, but we went to the founding store on Isle de St. Louis. Oh my gosh! I have never had such good ice cream before. Seriously! It was the best ice cream I have ever had! Better than any gelato in Italy. I got two scoops – caramel and chocolate. The caramel was simply glorious. The best ice cream ever! It had caramelized sugar crunchy things in it (like crème brulee topping). Mouth watering! The chocolate was so rich! It was almost too rich, but there is no such thing as too much! Allyson got vanilla and chocolate. Her vanilla was so good! It was pure vanilla goodness. Best vanilla I had ever had, and I don’t even like vanilla very much. I cannot wait to go back to Paris and take my mom there! Amazing!
After enjoying our ice cream on a bridge over the Seine, we went to the Louvre. We were worried that we wouldn’t have enough time, so we powered through it and saw everything we wanted to – Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Liberty Leading The People (Coldplay’s Viva La Vida cover), Winged Victory, and tons of mythological paintings for our mythology class. The Louvre is massive! Very impressive. Definitely would have loved to spend more time there, but our feet were killing us, so we didn’t stay too long. Surprisingly I didn’t feel overwhelmed by the Louvre. I think it’s because it is very spacious. The museum is huge, but all of the art and artifacts are not cramped together, and ceilings are very high. We skipped most of the Egyptian and Oriental wings, because we can see similar artifacts in the British Museum, and we wanted to focus on other works. Had a great time at the Louvre. I Louvre Paris!
After the Louvre we walked across the Seine to the Musee D’Orsay. We didn’t have very much time to spend there, but we saw many paintings by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Renoir, and Degas. As we were leaving, we grabbed lunch. We got paninis again. I got another tuna one. I love the paninis here. They are so good! All of the food I have had here has been awesome!
We headed back to the hotel (first stopping to get some Ferrero Duplo chocolate bars at a grocery store. They are my new favorite chocolate! They are like Bueno Bars, only better!
Haha still can’t wait to get back to the Centre, because I am exhausted!
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