Weekend Trip to Paris, France Part 2

Accommodation 
We have Klaudia to thank for finding us a nice cheap place to sleep for the one night we spent in Paris. She had a friend that had just visited the city recently and had stayed at the Polish Convent. They were very friendly and as accommodating as they could be...again for 10euro you can't expect all that much, but it was livable to say the least. (It probably just didn't help that they had no central heating system, and it was a little chilly that night...)






Public Transportation ~ Metro

Paris Metro Map

So far we have been very lucky in finding areas to visit with very good public transportation set up. The main way we got around Paris was with their Metro System. It was definitely worth the price; one day pass for zones 1-3 gets you to majority of the tourist stops and was only 3,55 euro.
It is good for unlimited uses for 24 hours, it was a steal!

Louvre Museum
After we left our accommodation, we had agreed to meet up with the rest of the group of us that came to Paris in front of the Musée du Louvre. Now many of you would believe that the museum is very expensive, especially if you want to see the permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions. However, the Polish girls surprised us when they told us that it was free, well, for us at least.
Yes. I got to see the Louvre for free, and I'm not talking about one of those virtual tours, we saw all the collections and exhibitions we wanted for FREE! Want to know why?? It's because we are European "Citizens" under 26, and for us that are not citizens our student IDs are proof of being residents, and they get admission to some museums for free or otherwise discounted. ;) I couldn't believe it, here I was planning on forking over like 30 euro to see some of the most famous artwork and instead it was free! It definitely made my day.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. (Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum). The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces. And on 10 August 1793, the museum opened with an exhibition of 537 paintings; today it has nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited on over 652,300 square feet.

Map of Museum

We spent close to 6 hours in the museum, making sure we saw all the more famous pieces including; (the medieval moat - remnants of the fortress), the Colossal Statue of Ramesses II, the statue of Aphrodite (aka "Venus de Milo"), The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I, Napoleon Apartments and Chandeliers, Gabrielle d' Estrees and Her Sister, "Self Portrait" A. Durer, The Virgin of Chancellor, and of course Leonardo de Vinci's Mona Lisa. 

Sacré Coeur Basilica

The Sacré Cœur Basilica, or The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Paris, France. It is a popular landmark being that the basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city. It is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the supposed excesses of the Second Empire and socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and a representation of conservative moral order.

Now I noticed it at the Eiffel Tower the night before, but it was here on the steps of the Basilica that I had another culture shock moment. There were these men selling (Heineken) beer on the steps not even 20 feet from the entrance to the church....huh??? I was a little shocked to see them doing, and more shocked when I noticed how many were sitting there drinking on the steps. They aren't kidding when they say there is public drinking in Europe, but maybe it's because they also don't have as big a problem with their alcoholism as Americans. I mean let's face it, having a drinking age at 21 and way too many drunk drivers and drinking related deaths and accidents is a big problem our country has compared to the rest. 

Moulin Rouge

Now it was getting late, but we figured we were only one stop away (in the opposite direction) of Moulin Rouge, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity of seeing it in person. So we got back on the metro and headed for it. 

Moulin Rouge, or Red Mill, opened in October of 1889 as a "new music temple." It is best known as the spiritual birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance. Originally introduced as a seductive dance by the courtesans who operated from the site, the can-can dance evolved into a form of entertainment of its own and led to the introduction of cabarets across Europe. Today, Moulin Rouge is a tourist attraction, offering musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. The club's decor still contains much of the romance of turn-of-the-20th-century France.

After doing some poses in front of it, we got back on the metro and decided it was late enough to start heading for the bus station...well, right after we had a French Dinner.
 **Can I just say that for most of the trip we did not have the itinerary or names or addresses of the accommodation or bus station, because we had split from the group that did. We did really well on managing to find everything alright, and feel pretty proud of ourselves for doing so. 
Dinner
We tried to find the nicest, "French-est," cheap restaurant we could, but had no luck. So instead we decided to eat at the little Cafe outside Jonathan and his girlfriend's hotel. Which turned out to have amazing French delicacies! (The wine choice for the evening was Muscadet-Sèvre et Maine.

Duck with a Honey Glaze

Crème brûlée

My giant water

A toast to our amazing
weekend in Paris, France

Shortly after we arrived at the station, so did the rest of our group and we were checking onto our bus and "checking out," because we literally had just seen (as much as we could of) Paris in 2 days and were very tired.

Overview of Costs

Transportation

Walk/Bike ride to Zwolle's train station:                          ---

Train from Zwolle to Amsterdam:                                   17,10€

Tram from Central Train Station to Bus station:                 2,70€

Bus from Amsterdam to Paris:                                          5,50€

Metro Ticket for Day 1:                                                   3,55€

Metro Ticket for Day 2:                                                   3,55€

Bus from Paris to Amsterdam:                                          5,50€

Tram from Bus station to Central Train Station:                 2,70€

Train from Amsterdam to Zwolle:                                   17,10€

Total Costs:                                                                 57,70€

*Very helpful Tourist Attractions site, briefly talks about all the top sites to see in Paris, France.

http://www.stadsverkenner.com/parijs/eiffeltoren

Here are just some random photos we took.

Sitting in front of Notre Dame

Random Mime 

in Place de la concorde

Street of tourist shops
in front of
Sacré Cœur