Paris Day 2 and 3: Biking, Pastries, and Mona Lisa

Salut! We are wrapping up day 3 here in Paris. We have certainly managed to fill our time to the brim here and have enjoyed it so much. Yesterday we started off the day at one of the neighborhood cafe's to sample some French Quiche....tres bon! :) One thing that has been very interesting here is that no matter how chilly it might be outside every single cafe and restaurant has outside seating...and it's usually packed! After breakfast we headed over to the Louvre. As we stood in line outside we looked around the courtyard asking ourselves if this HUGE structure truly was all the Louvre and sure enough it was. We spent many hours there yesterday and had the pleasure of seeing incredible art such as the Mona Lisa and Venus de'milo. We later learned that if you spent 30 seconds at each piece of art you would be there for 6 days!

After the Louvre we walked down the Avenue des Champs Elysees. At the end of this street is the Arc de Triomphe. This street is lined with many shops and restaurants that we walked through. Both Adam and I decided we may not have packed enough warm clothing so I took off on a sweater hunt and was able to find that here! One thing that is nice is that you can't buy more than you can fit in your backpack so it's also good on the budget. haha We also managed to run into a huge rugby celebration event. We weren't sure if it was that France had just won or if they were just showing a game but either way it was really cool to see the extreme passion the French have for the sport and their country.

Finally after we grabbed some dinner last night we went for our first crepe dessert since we have been here. As my mom would say it was definitely a little slice of heaven. Adam had banana and nutella and I had banana and cinnamon sugar. We also met a really nice couple from Colorado that we spent some time chatting with.

Today we started off by walking over to the Notre Dame (of course grabbing pastries on our way) for a Bike Tour we had scheduled. Adam and I both are foodies and love sampling the delicious local cuisine however I'm pretty sure my only saving grace for hopefully not gaining 25 pounds on this trip is the fact that we are walking a TON. :) The Bike tour was so much fun. We were with about 15 other Americans all varying in age and our tour guide took us all around the city but more of the off the beaten path type places. It was definitely one of our favorite things we did here and an incredible way to see the city! People are definitely fearless here, whether riding or driving. We rode our bikes down plenty of very small very packed roads in between cafes but it didn't seem to bother anyone at all.

Tonight we are headed out to a French Restaurant that our guide recommended for great mussels, frites, and beer. I'm sure some french bread too. :) We are meeting our new friend Evan tonight for dinner; she was on the bike trip as well. She is canadian and lives in New York City.

Alright I believe that's all for now. Tomorrow morning we will head to the airport to catch our Flight to Madrid so time to switch over to Spanish!

Au Revoir!
Shelby and Adam