Arc di Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame | Paris Day 2 (10/24/15)

I am so far behind on these posts- so I will be making them a little more concise because since I've come back from Italy and France I've had adventures in Dublin, Cork, and Amsterdam, and am still going to Edinburgh next weekend and London with my family after that- and I want to be more caught up.

So, back to Paris:

This was our first (and only) full day in Paris, and we did a lot.  We started off by going to the Arc di Triomphe, and then walked to the Eiffel Tower.  Just before we got to the Eiffel Tower, we stopped to get fresh, homemade crepes.  I never thought I liked crepes because I had only had savory ones that weren't so good- but this crepe changed my whole outlook.  It was filled with nutella and bananas, and covered in chantilly cream on the top.  So amazing.  We then spent some time taking pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower, because you can't go to the Eiffel Tower and not take a million pictures.  I did not know the Eiffel Tower was brown- also, it was a lot more industrial looking than I would've thought.

Arc di Triomphe

One of my first views of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River

Artsy photo of the Eiffel Tower

Me with my amazing crepe in front of the Eiffel Tower

And me in front of the Eiffel Tower- it may not look that crowded in this picture, 

but I had to do a lot of cropping with this one

After that, we walked to the Love Lock bridge- now, of course, there are only locks on the fences on the banks of the river, not the bridge itself, but it was still cool.  We then stopped by the Louve to see how it looked during the day.  Next, we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral.  It was free to enter- always a plus.  And it was so beautiful inside; the stained glass in particular was breathtaking.

Some of the remaining locks

Exterior of the Notre Dame Cathdral

This picture doesn't even begin to do the inside justice.

We then found a (relatively) inexpensive place to eat lunch: a glass of wine, a quiche, a side salad, and a cheese platter for only about €13.  Also, the serving staff was actually nice to us- not rude at all (the staffs at every other restaurant in Paris I ate at were super rude).

We then went to Maisons de Victor Hugo, Victor Hugo's house for 16 years (from 1832-1848), which is now a museum dedicated to him.  As many people know, I love Les Misérables, so it was really amazing to see the place where Victor Hugo lived.  I didn't think I would be able to see this on this trip, so I was really happy.

"Who am I? / I'm Jean Valjean!" - This is a painting of the trial in Les Mis

We then tried to find the Bastille.  Turns out basically none of it is around anymore, but we were in that general area.  We got macarons- they were super tasty, as usual.

By this time it was getting dark out, so we made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up.  It was definitely an amazing sight to see during the day, but at night, it is simply gorgeous.
And I could see why it was so iconic, especially when it suddenly started twinkling (apparently it does that for 5 minutes every hour on the hour, but we didn't know that).   So we took like a million more photos.  You always see the Eiffel Tower in movies, tv, ads, so it was surreal to actually see it in person.  I still can't believe how lucky I am that I was able to take this trip.

Eiffel Tower lit up at night and twinkling.  What a sight!

Anyway- we weren't that hungry, but it was getting cold and we needed to kill some time before heading back to the airbnb, so we went to a restaurant for dessert.  Keep in mind, this was 10 pm.  However, in France they eat dinner really late, so the staff at the restaurant was annoyed we were only ordering dessert.  I really dislike how they are able to be so rude to us and it's completely accepted.  Just differences in culture, I guess.

We then made our way back to our airbnb and rested up for our last day in Paris and the last day of my 10 day trip!