Musée du Louvre

So Sunday after church I got to go to the Louvre!! I must say that navigating the Paris metro is a tad more difficult than London because they didn't have little helpful tube maps laying around everywhere and obviously the language barrier. In addition my handy dandy iPhone was not being of any use to me because I still haven't figured out how to make it work in France. In London I was able to use this awesome little app that I told where I was at and where I wanted to go and it told me exactly which tube to get on and all the connections I needed to make (if any). I may or may not have taken the most direct route from Gare du Nord to the Louvre but I got there and for that I was immensely proud of myself. :)

The Louvre was just as amazing and overwhelming as everyone says it is. My plan was to follow the advice of a new friend here and just see the Egyptian exhibit and then walk to the Champs-Élysées because it was an absolutely magnificent day. I did wander through the Egyptian exhibits and somehow took the wrong door and ended up in the paintings. My priority was not to see the Mona Lisa since I've never been in the fan club but I noticed a sign pointing down a hall for it so I thought well gosh it would be silly of me to be here and so close and NOT see it, so I went to find it. Well just because there was a sign DIDN'T mean I was close to it but I did finally find the room packed with silly tourists snapping photos of the relatively underwhelming Mona Lisa in a room with quite a few MUCH bigger and to me more impressive paintings. Oh well, I can say I was there in the room and I saw it. :P Whatever that is worth...

After that I walked down to the Seine and down a bit thinking I was headed towards Champs-Élysées but I actually went the wrong way and ended up back at the other end of the Louvre. I bought a few souvenirs at a shop close that had some really cute stuff I hadn't seen anywhere else yet and strolled through the tuilleries and enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous weather.

Since I had taken awhile to get where I was and wasn't sure that I would be able to just go back the same way as I was closer to a different metro station I opted to go ahead and try to make my way back to Gare du Nord so I would have plenty of time and not miss the train back to Chantilly. Thankfully it didn't take nearly as long to figure my way back as I was starting to get the hang of it. I had plenty of time so I opted to get a sandwich from one of the restaurants in the station and also got an ice cream. Like a very naughty girl I ate my ice cream first because I didn't want it to melt. :) I also stopped at the vending machine and got a bag of peanut M&Ms, not as big as the one I bought in the States but it was bigger than your normal snack size. Unfortunately I've already eaten about half of it. :P I was able to get all the way home without further incident and was quite pleased with myself for now having successfully navigated the world's second busiest metro system in another language no less. :) Yay me!! I'm really grown up now, yes Mommy?

Fall seems to be upon us today and I know that is hard to imagine for my peoples back in Texas. It was very cool and rainy today and I felt like curling up in bed with some coffee or tea, soft fuzzy socks and a book. It also just smells like fall. Looking at the forecast (I think I finally have the right Aprémont in my weather!) it appears we might be in for more of the same the next few days. No exciting plans this week that I can think of besides school. I do ask that you pray for me as I'm a bit homesick hearing that my Granny is not doing well this week. I really hate not being at home with the family. :(

Since I have no plans I don't know when the next blog post will come unless you want to hear all the juicy details about my day. :) "Oh today I ironed and folded clothes, and made Audrey laugh, and played playdough, helped make dinner, and helped clean up..." It just gets old if I repeat the same things every day. I did put up a few pictures from the Louvre on my Picasa/Facebook so be sure to check that out. Au revoir until next time, whenever that may be!