No Sleep Till Spain: Louvre at First Sight

Paris round 2 was an adventure. The game plan for this trip was to spend a weekend "backpacking" the northern coast (& not the south) of France. (There was no actual sleeping under the stars involved, but we did travel with backpacks on our backs - that must count for something, right?) While we didn't quite make it to all the destinations we had planned to, we did get to do a lot of traveling, which was part of plan. I flew into the city this past Friday morning & spent some quality time in the Tuileries. That afternoon I met up with 1 of our travel-tastic trio, Zoe (Kayton), & together we visited the tomb of Napolean Bonaparte. (Yay dead people!) I should also add that after our morbid fascination with dead Napolean ebbed we stopped for some ice cream & I had my first taste of ice cream-filled crepe - delicious. That night we met up with the third member of our trio, Jillian (Desrosier), & took a quick trip to the Louvre before a wonderful dinner at which we all ordered the same thing. (A common theme this trip.) Day 2 Jillian & I got ourselves up bright & early (not really), & picnicked in front of the Eiffel Tower before beginning our journey to the northern coast of France! (I don't want to say it all went down hill from here, because we all did have a pretty great weekend, but it all went down hill from here.) Getting from the Eiffel Tower to the train station we had intended to depart Paris from was a bit more difficult than we anticipated &, needless to say, we missed our train. (Unfortunate event numero uno.) Being the positive pollys that we are, we found another train & were on our way 2 hours later! (10 points team travel-tastic) We had to cross 1 town off of our list, Mont Saint-Michel, but you know, we needed to save something for next time anyway. Five hours & 3 connections later we stepped off of our train in Saint-Malo, a beautiful port city about 3 hours to the west of Normandy. There we stayed in a quaint little hostel that had been converted from an adorable little french house. Upon arrival, we found our host had left us a list of directions to get into our room not unlike a treasure map - pretty neat-o. We spent the evening eating gourmet burgers, sipping rich wine, & exploring! Day 3 is where the majority of the unfortunate events unfolded (unfortunately). We began our day with a delicious breakfast of crepes - I miss French food already - & then it was time for me to catch my train back to Paris. Me being me, I accidentally booked a train ticket for next Sunday, as opposed to yesterday. (Unfortunate event numero dos.) SO we arrive at the train station & immediately begin frantically searching for other trains. I was able to take a 5 hour train ride with 2 connections, but with no seat on the second train. (Unfortunate event numero tres.) At the time this struck me as odd, & I assumed this must be an error & of course I'd have a seat. My first train ride was no problem; it was packed, but I was able to sit. Upon entering my connecting train, I learned that our tickets contained our assigned seats, & that mine clearly stated I had none. I wound up standing & eventually sitting in the passageway of a rail car for a grueling 3 hours. (Unfortunate event numero cuatro.) While this trip really tried my optimism, it was wonderful seeing 2 of my very good friends a second weekend in a row in France & the northern coast of France wasn't half bad either.

Home of Napolean Bonaparte's Body - Oh Boy!