Paris.... Amazing!!

We arrived in our brand new hostel yesterday, and it is SUCH an improvement from our last one. No bugs in the beds or kitchens, smaller rooms with comfier beds AND the neighbourhood is absolutely wonderful. We are located on Rue Mouffetard near the metro station 'Place Monge'. The street we are on is lined with bakeries, fromageries, and crepe and ice cream places! Brendan and I got put in separate rooms this time. The first night I ended up having the whole room to myself! Definitely a nice change from being in a 10 person dorm. Tonight, I have two girls from Montreal here, but they are currently out so I once again have some peace and quiet!

Today we got up nice and early, leaving the hostel at 8:30 after a breakfast of croissants, jam, cereal and hot chocolate (all included). We headed on the metro over to Musee D'orsay, a really nice art museum. We bought a museum pass that allows us to enter all the museums in Paris at no cost AND we get to skip the line! We bought the unlimited 4 day pass for 52 euros! Brendan said this museum was his favourite part of the day. We got to see lots of statues and some of Van Gogh's work was there which was very cool to see. Next, we headed over to the Louvre (once again skipping the entire line). Walking past all those suckers in the long line in the hot sun made me feel like a celebrity entering a VIP club.
We took some pretty touristy photos here as well:

(Close enough)

The Mona Lisa: We got up right in front of the line which was a cool experience!

My personal favourite part of Louvre: This evil baby from a painting.

After the Louvre we took a walk over to the park to rest our aching feet:

After our lovely park break we walked down the champs elysees and over to the arc de triomphe. Once again, we got to head right to the front of the line and up about a thousand steps. I was happy that I hit the stairmaster hard the week before we left!

View from the top:

Finally, after a long day we headed to the grocery store so we could get some ingredients for a lovely pasta and salad dinner. We also headed out onto our block to get some yummy french pastry desserts. Now to bed because we are visiting 4 more museums tomorrow: Saint Chapelle (a gothic church), La Conciergerie (an old prison), The Crypt (historical ruins) and Notre Dame (Quasimodo).