We got to the Louvre just after opening, which is a perfect time to get there. We barely had to wait in line and inside was not crowed at all. First, we went straight to the Mona Lisa, it was quite a bit smaller than I expected but very cool to see. After we walked through the Italian paintings, and then through the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts. Next, we walked through the French paintings, and downstairs to see the sphinx and Aphrodite. After seeing those, we headed over to see Napoleon's coronation painting which is amazing. Something I found really interesting was: he crowned himself, and at first it showed this in the painting, but Napoleon did not like it this way so he got it changed to make it look like someone else is crowning him. If you look very closely you can still see the outline of where his face was first painted. By now it was about 12:00 and getting very busy and crowded so we decided to leave to go see the Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame was also a fantastic building to be able to see in person. The entire building was very Gothic, and finely detailed. We decided not to go inside, although I'm sure the inside would be just as incredible.
As we walked back to the metro we crossed a bridge, this bridge is covered in locks locked onto the short, chain link walls of the bridge. These are locks that lovers write their initials on, and then lock it to the bridge, and throw the key into the water below.
After taking the metro to Place de Clichy we walked to Montmartre. Here, we weaved through a cramped market to a very large hill. At the top of this hill is Basilique du Sacre Coeur, a beautiful domed building built in 1873 from contributions pledged by Parisian Catholics as an act of remorse after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871. Right in front of the Basilique du Sacre Coeur were some incredible street performers doing dance routines, this was fun to watch!
After a nap and a shower at our hostel we went to see a show at the Moulin Rouge! It was definitely a different type of show than what I was expecting to see, but either way still amazing. The costumes, dancing, and singing were all incredible; but, I did not expect to see so much nudity! I guess it makes sense since it used to be a strip club, so we saw the type of show that would've been put on when it first opened, just not what Clerissa and I were expecting.
Although it wasn't what we expected, this was still a very good show and a great way to spend our last night in Paris!
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