I just remembered that I can use my photos to remember the sequence of events. I'm so smart.

So late Monday night, Mike and I met up with Meghann to go see the Eiffel Tower. We caught the last elevator up, at around 11.45pm, I think, and UP we went. I'm pretty sure I've been up the Tower before, but I definitely forgot how freakin' tall the thing actually is. The night view was gorgeous, but unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries before I could take a satisfying photo. Oh, and by the way, if you ever wondered what the temperature is at the top of the Eiffel Tower at midnight, it's approximately HELLA cold. It hurt.

On Tuesday Chanel, Marija, and Mike spent the day in Versailles. I opted not to go because I didn't want to use up a whole day and Meghann had the day free. We met up and metro'd to Sacré-Coeur and took the elevator thingy up the hill. The only thing I remembered about Sacré-Coeur from years before was that my parents and I got separated and I sat on the stairs in front of the basilica [way to plant, Lauren] and waited for them to find me while I watched all these figures in religious garb walk in and out of the cathedral like it was totally normal and acceptable to spend one's days in such costumes. [By the way, my parents did actually find me. I was a little nervous that they ditched me and I would have to move in with the nuns and shit, which I think for me was a scarier thought than my parents just peacing out. I was like 7 or something - what the hell was I going to talk to a priest about? More on that later, actually...] Anywho, they are very serious about their basilica, and you weren't allowed to take pictures, answer your phone, talk, or breathe audibly inside the thing. All these rules were pissing Meghann and me off, so we decided to rebel. They have those candles in all the cathedrals, you know, where they ask you to donate 10euro for this POS candle that they probably paid some starving person in China 2 cents to make. Well, last time Meghann was at Sacré-Coeur she stole a candle and I was jealous, so she was thoughtful enough to nab me one, too. And then since we felt a little sac religious [not really though] we decided to actually light one of the 2euro tealights - for Britney Spears. Hey - someone's gotta pray for the poor girl. Oh, and I took three pictures. Take THAT, Catholic church! Muahahaha!
After that we decided to walk down Martyr's mountain [Montmartre] into the seedy part of Paris where the Moulin Rouge is. For some reason my parents decided not to make that a destination when they came to Paris with their 7-year-old child. I have no idea why. We giggled at the names of the sex shops and erotica stores [yes I know those are the same thing] and randomly enough ended up eating dinner there, in a Chinese restaurant of all places. It wasn't great, but it was nice to get some protein into our systems. We decided to get out of that neighborhood because it was getting dark, so we bussed back to Meghann's, where Mike joined us a few hours later after his return from Versailles. The three of us went out for dessert at this cafe near Meg's apartment, which was absolutely and ridiculously delicious [read: chocolate cake with hot melty chocolate ganache inside and vanilla bean gelato. Hells yes.] and made friends with our disgruntled waiter who had a remarkably large Hello Kitty tattoo on his arm. The word beuf was definitely used, as well [gonna have to double check with Meghann on the spelling for that one].

Wednesday I took it easy and went back to sleep after breakfast while my three traveling buddies went to Musée d'Orsay. I met up with Meghann at the Arc De Triomphe and we walked down the Champs-Élysées, half-heartedly shopping and whole-heartedly enjoying ourselves. I met up with my people and we got some foodstuffs [French pastries - SO good] and went to Il Musée de l'Orangerie, which I remembered well and loved the second time. I actually regretted not going to Orsay again. Oh well, maybe in May. While in the two Monet rooms in l'Orangerie, I started watching the people who were watching the art, and I made a little project for myself of photographing the art-watchers. I enjoyed myself, and oddly enough the people I took pictures of always seemed to match the painting they were near. You can check out the whole collection on my Flickr page. It's nothing artsy, just amusement.
After we were done in the Museum, I bought myself a sweet lil pill case in the gift shop, to replace the one Meghann bought me a few years ago when she went to Paris, but I lost it somehow. Whoops. We were all supposed to go out clubbing Wednesday night but I was getting sick and Meghann fell asleep way early by accident, so it never happened.

Thursday Mike and I set out determinedly to go see Sainte Chappelle. We were a bit late because we let ourselves sleep in, but we made it in time and used our friend the museum pass to get in. I love that chapel. I remember it pretty vividly from my first Paris visit, however many years ago, but I do remember it being much larger than it actually is. I guess when you're much smaller, that happens. Anyway, I'm totally enchanted by it; I feel like I'm in some mythical fairytale setting, and I like to pretend that the incredible stained glass makes out scenes from tales of yore, you know, knights and dragons and stuff instead of saints and baptisms. I took about a billion pictures and Mike caught me staring in awe at my surroundings on his camera. We stayed in there essentially just sitting and looking until they closed.

Friday was our last day in Paris. We had our lovely breakfast and went back upstairs to pack up and check out at 11. Meghann offered to house our things for the rest of the day while we enjoyed our last few hours in the city, so we metro'd over to her apartment, stopped at a pastry shop to buy her a big box of coffee macaroons to thank her for all her trouble, dropped off our stuff, and decided to just explore her neighborhood some more. The most important goal of the day was buying ourselves some French pastries to take with us on the plane to Florence. That day was absolutely freezing, by the way; I'm pretty sure it was in the 30s midday. We found this delicious-looking pastry shop and bought ourselves plenty of macaroons, and got our last meal - what else but kebabs - and then followed up the huge bun of greasy chicken with dessert crepes. I have to shamefully admit that I was too full to finish my nutella and hazelnut crepe. I don't want to talk about it.

By the time we got to Firenze, Mike and I were pretty much over it and were ready to go back home. This feeling was intensified when we learned we would be sleeping on a tile floor. Chanel's friend, Kevin, who is studying in Firenze, offered to let us sleep at his apartment free of charge, which was really nice of him, but after one night on that floor Mike and I decided to switch our early morning Sunday train tickets to Saturday evening so we could sleep in our own beds in our Roma. We had a fun dinner Friday night and then Saturday we spent the day being touristy - seeing the Duomo and going to the Galleria dell'Accademia to see Michelangelo's David, and then Mike and I chilled in a bar and had ourselves some delicious 1euro cappuccinos before doing a little bit of shopping and then leaving for home.

[my photos are taking a while to upload so i'm just going to post this and add more later. ciao!]