Beautiful Paris day 3 and the train to Rome!

Paris! Day 3!

After the miles and miles of walking and late nights - it was hard to get out of my cozy bed today! My twin bed. ha. All of our rooms came equipped with 2 twin beds about an inch apart. That's fairly standard for European hotels and I feel like maybe I love twin beds now? I might have been hypnotized by the joy of being in Europe.

Started the day by desperately hunting and eventually finding a famous patisserie where I had a croissant (my 1000th of this trip) and chaussons aux pomme (french apple turnovers/basically flaky butter with apples/heaven, and OF COURSE cafe au lait. Which is definitely my boyfriend at this point.
 *Quick French lesson - I am not qualified for a french lesson, but I digress - Patisserie = bakery for pastries and sweets. Boulangerie = bakery for breads. They say a bakery that does both breads and pastries isn't doing either one well.

A stunning building with lovely architecture. (Sephora)

Even the walk to find the patisserie was glorious. Beautiful weather, cobblestone paths, interesting stores, beautiful people (oh the beautiful people), beautiful clothes, unbelievable history and detailed architecture as far as the eye can see. Beautiful people sitting on beautiful patios in the beautiful weather eating beautiful pastries while drinking beautiful beautiful coffee au lait. Oh, Paris. <3

Around every corner is something that makes you sigh with joy.

I saved half a croissant (and a tiny jar of nutella because Europe) to take me with me into The Louvre. That was cute of me. You know I ate it while waiting in the stupid long loooong long lineSSS. Yes. Lines. Also, everything was confusing, as is the theme of any trip where you don’t speak the native language. Here is my personal suggestion for getting into The Louvre as we did tons of research and blindly followed other people's stupid and terribly wrong advice (just kidding, take it easy). BUY YOUR TICKETS AHEAD OF TIME. There are 3 crazy long lines - 1 for tickets and 1 for folks who already have their ticket. SO...pre buy your ticket, skip the crazy long ticket buying line and go straight into the “if you have a ticket” line. Then onto the “security line”. Our fun experience is that we finally got our tickets, went to the next line - then security started panicking and putting up tape everywhere and not allowing anyone to get in that line. “security concern!” I'll be honest... I wasn't even MAD. I’ll just be over here. *sprints in opposite direction of threat.

The Louvre is MASSIVE. This is just one part that we walked through to reveal an even more massive part!

Finally seeing the famous glass pyramid! 

Well, we finally got into The Louvre and it was a madhouse. I’m not going to lie, by this point in the trip, I was a little fried and I wanted to spend a day in a Parisian spa more than I wanted to see the Mona Lisa. Unfortunately, due to being completely spent from going hard the first 2 days, we only spent about 3 hours in The Lourve before calling it a day. I only took about 12 pictures this day. I'm always torn between making permanent memories with my camera or making mental memories with my mind.

We saw such incredibly beautiful and moving works of art and the (dare I say?) underwhelming Mona Lisa. Statues that stir your soul with unbelievable backstories. Paintings that changed the course of the world. Art is so incredible.

Tom Hanks wuz here. Da Vinci Code jokes!

The history in the Lourve is so amazing and the building itself is mind blowing and like nothing I've ever seen/experienced.

Great Sphinx of Tanis 2600 BC! Incredible.

Aphrodite "Venus De Milo" 

This is a picture of my grouchy Aunt Melva, circa 1964.

Outside of the Lourve is (smartly) about a million souvenir shops. Heck yes I bought my kid a beret in Paris. Mini Eiffel Towers, too. What do you think this is? Know how? I have no idea what that means, but my Grandpa used to say it and it sounded like he meant business.

Eating a croissant that I heroically brought back without eating. I love her.

After that it was time to go to the train station for our night train to Rome. I had no idea what to expect, but this ended up being pretty cool and highly recommended. The train station itself was big and completely packed. It was an interesting experience and although I try to avoid being a paranoid traveler - I found myself wishing for metal detectors or some sort of a security situation in the train station. Not to be. 

It was tough to adjust to the movement of the train and also to the sounds and screeeeeching of the train breaks. Despite the fact that I was suspended in the air 3 feet above my sleeping husband in a *surprisingly comfortable* pull out from the wall bunk bed, I eventually found a version of sleep. Everything in Europe is a little higher quality. The beds are comfortable, the blankets are soft and fluffy, there are little extras everywhere that America doesn’t offer. Seems like these countries like making their people happy. Interesting concept. 

Run to the rectangle and grab the electric wand! Good luck.

Our adorable little cabin! 

Switched from our overnight train to a speed train from Rome to Milan. While staring out the windows, I took it all in and wrote this:
Beautiful countryside, vineyards, rolling green fields, old homes that look exactly the way you think they should: dilapidated ancient rooftops and colorfully painted walls. Chipping paint and old old stone. Does every home in the countryside have its own vineyard?? I’d like to think that’s how it is, but I enjoy thinking of things in the most fantastical way. 

Brace yourself for a real time reaction of disbelief in 3..2...1..Seriously people, are you seeing this? (This particular train is full of business travelers on their way to work. So, no. They are NOT seeing this.) When I look around this train, I wonder if these people have any idea of the amazing beauty they see every day. I am reminded of one of the Uber drivers we met in Paris. As he drove us around, he said “Look at this beautiful bridge! It is the most beautiful bridge in all of Paris!” He was right. Golden angel statues and golden details all along the bridge crossing La Seine. It seems as though the locals respect the beauty and culture as much as the tourists - which is SO different from the typical American. 

Finally made it from our train to our Uber driver - have I recommended this enough yet? If your Italian is bad (I studied opera back in the day, so I could serenade them a love song and that's about it) download the Uber app and please...use it. It was so helpful for us this trip!

After a night of sleep that wasn't exactly ideal, I was so happy to walk into this INSANELY gorgeous hotel in Rome! Our hotel, Hotel Artemide, was more than welcoming and definitely lux.

That wraps up day 3 and finally seeing Italy for the first time!

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