After getting up dark and early (it was too early to say bright and early), we got on the Eurostar from St. Pancras International in London.
Getting to Paris on the Eurostar is just a 2 hour 20 minute journey, reaching a top speed of 186 miles per hour. It is incredibly smooth and when you do reach top speed, you hardly notice it (except where the track parallels the road, where you just zip by cars). The speed is limited in the Chunnel, but only to 99 mph, so you spend about 20 minutes in the Chunnel.After arriving in Paris and leaving our bags at the hostel, we headed to our first stop of the day, the Arc de Triomphe, the world's largest triumphal arch. It is big, but not that impressive since we couldn't get right up to the base.
Then we walked down the Champs-Elysees, which was impressive, but I was expecting it to be just that, so it wasn't all that overwhelming. We also spotted 2 McDonalds on the Champs-Elysees, but ended up having lunch at a little cafe on a side street.
Next stop on our walk was the Place de la Concorde, which was a bit more impressive than the Champs Elysees.
We then walked through the Tuileries Gardens on our way to the Louvre.
We then arrived at the Louvre, which is massive. We were there for a good 3-4 hours and probably saw less than half of the museum. We mainly saw the Greek & Roman Galleries (Terry's interest), the Mona Lisa (like everyone who comes to the Louvre), and 19th century French paintings (I was looking for paintings by Jaques-Louis David).I'll post a few highlights here:
1) Front of the building
2) Mona Lisa
3) Venus de Milo
4) Winged Victory of Samothrace
5) Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix
6) Da Vinci Code Location
After the Louvre, it was time to head back to our hostel and formally check in before heading out for dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from the hostel, which was right in the heart of Montmartre:
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