Day 2
On Friday, Christina and I struck out on our own. We enjoyed breakfast then headed straight to the Louvre. Once inside, we popped over to the Mona Lisa (obvious stop) then saw the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. We took some funny pictures then tried to get out to get some food- we followed "sorti" (exit) signs for EVER until we finally found our way back to the entrance. I spied the inverted pyramid that shows up at the end of The Da Vinci Code so I made Christina go look at it with me. We were starving so we were elated to find a food court just beyond it. I sat down and Christina promptly spilled her entire drink on my lunch! We got a replacement, but they didn't refill Christina's drink or give me a new lunch for free- those French fast food workers! After we downed our lunches, we decided to hit the streets and spend a little dough. I only got postcards though we were both searching the souvenir shops for "Paris" bags, but only Christina was successful. 
We decided to see the Eiffel Tower up close, since we had seen it in the distance earlier. Once we got there (it took a while!) we had a little nap in the grass at the base. It was very lovely, since the weather was great- no clouds! We had dinner at a little cafe that was right in the neighborhood over from La Tour Eiffel, and I had a view of it from my seat! We had some tuna quiche which was actually pretty good. We went back to the grass and laid in the sun with the intention of watching the tower light up and sparkle after dark, but we realized at about 8 that it was still very light out and that wasn't going to happen any time soon. At that point we decided to head back to the hotel and navigated our way successfully back, passing the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Élysées .Day 3
I felt very tired when I woke up but still managed to motivate myself to get to breakfast before it ended! (they had some good croissants!) Christina and I were on our own again and our first stop was Moulan Rouge! It was pretty anti-climactic; I don't know what I was expecting, but all there was was the giant windmill thing on the roof of one building. Christina thought there was some souvenir shop or something, so we tried asking the guy standing outside where (if any) it was, but he spoke no English and I forgot the French word for "shop" so we just kept on going. Sarcre Coeur was the closest famous thing, so that was our next stop. We snagged a baguette and a block of brie along with some fruit and finally managed to make it to the top! 
We had pretty much perfect timing-- lunch time, that is! We sat on the steps and had a very inexpensive, very yummy meal in the sun! One weird thing happened... some guy walked by us talking on his mobile and after he hung up, sat down pretty much on top of me. Christina and I thought he was going to ask for food or try to do something to us but thankfully all he did was ask us stupid questions ("Did you buy that food in Paris?" ...no, sir, we brought it with us from London) and then wished us 'bon appetite' and left us alone.After lunch we did some shopping and I bought my Paris bag (woohoo!) and we decided to drop our shopping stuff off at the hotel. We saw a little pastry shop a block or two before we got back, and decided we needed some dessert-like food. I saw this huge chocolate thing in the window and decided that was what I wanted, so I got it! It ended up being two big meringues pieces, frosted together like a giant cookie, then frosted all on the outside then rolled in chocolate pieces- It. Was. Amazing! This is me eating it:
After making a slight dent in my chocolate and sugar ball of delight (which lasted me ALL DAY), we decided that the Champs Élysées was where we wanted to go, so we did with the intention of spending some €€€. We held onto our money and did some window shopping instead and ended up walking along the river. At this point Christina was possessed with the desire to do a river cruise so we immediately jumped on a waiting boat and it left right away! It took a little over an hour and was very nice. We saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. Yup, it was a mini version!
pondering the river cruise
Once we go off, we made our way back to La Tour where we met two girls from Regents and ended up chatting until it lit up! It was pretty cool- it was like a giant sparkler! We took pictures of it for the whole 10 minutes it was lit up, then since there was a crepe stand right there, bought ourselves some crepes. I got jambon et fromage (ham and cheese) and it was mighty tasty. We took a few more pictures then went back to the hotel for the night.Day 4
After waking up at 9:30AM we panicked because we didn't know what time check out was but we soon found out it was at noon (whew!). After eating, we packed our stuff up and since we had about 7 hours or so until our train left, Christina and I headed back to the Eiffel Tower. We took a road that led us to an overlook point where we proceeded to take many ridiculous pictures:
We then headed down to the base and did 2 laps (on the inside) because apparently, as Christina related to me, if you do so you will find and marry your true love. Unfortunately, no rich, available, good-looking men bumped into/ proposed to us but I'm not sure how long we have to wait for the effect to kick in!
action shot while we did our Eiffel laps
