A FULL DAY OF PARIS: Early in the morning to late at night

Unless I say otherwise, assume we woke early... this time off to the Musee D'orsay, an old train station turned museum. We skipped the long line (our first of two today) and went right in with the Paris Pass, snagged an audioguide, skipped the backpack check-in (not trying to lose anything at the hands of careless museum workers..) and got to work surrounded on all sides by great artists like Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Cezan, and many more. We got a few views of the Sacre Couer from the top floors, watched a parade of soldiers on horseback go by in the street below, and watched a lady paint a copy of a painting hanging in the museum right there in front of our eyes!

After the museum was braved the cold rainy drizzle and gypsies to put one of our extra locks on the bridge and shredded the combination! (Bridges all over Europe especially but other places today as well are covered in padlocks, sometimes intialed, dated, and even engraved. According to one of our hostel roomates in Paris, the tradition started in Venice when padlocks were first invented. Couples would lock their padlock onto the bridge and throw the key into the body of water below to symbolize their eternal love- so Ashley and I aren't a couple in the traditional sense but we will love each other forever :).. that counts in my book!) We went home to change into dry clothes and headed to the Eiffel Tower for our ascent to the top! We skipped a huge line of at least 150 people and walked casually straight to the front of the line and were on the lift within 10 minutes. The beauty of pre-ordering tickets. We got to the tippy top, took some pictures, and headed back down. We walked around a bit, stumbled upon a cute little market and pedestrian area on Rue Cler, then back to the Eiffel Tower that night at 10pm sharp to see it lit up and sparkling. AMAZING!