Paris is beautiful! It really is a romantic city, and I can see why people honeymoon here. There are a ton of things to see, and the stereotype of Parisians being rude is not true (at least not in my admittedly limited experience). I love it already, but it's the first city I've visited on my world tour that I don't think I'd want to live in. Too many people.

That being said, I have to relate my first Bad Travel Experience. As soon as my train entered the station last night, I went to the Metro map to figure out where I was going. A guy saw me looking at the map, showed me where I needed to go, and even bought my ticket for me with his bank card (he said English bank cards would get stuck in the machine, which should have given me an idea). I paid him back, which took most of the cash I had on me, and went happily on my way, assuming I'd gotten the five-day ticket I'd asked for. Until this morning, when I tried to use the ticket and was informed it was only a one-way pass. Oh well. I just laughed, and I've kept the ticket as a reminder not to trust random strangers too much.

After that little adventure, I bought the right ticket, went up to the Ile de la Cite, and browsed the flower market before getting some much-needed food. Suitably caffeinated and fed, I went back to the flower market, which on Sundays is actually a flower and pet market. I could have bought birds, guinea pigs, puppies, rabbits, or you-name-it, but I settled on two tiny fake mice for Maddy and Malcolm. Everyone deserves a souvenir.

Post-shopping, I went to visit the Sainte-Chapelle, which I had heard was amazing. It was. I am not worthy to write about it, and I don't mean that in any kind of humourous or sarcastic way. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life, not even Notre Dame, which I visited next, and which was frankly kind of a let-down after the Sainte-Chapelle. There was a mass going on at Notre Dame when I visited, though, which was kind of cool because now I can tell my grandparents I went to mass at Notre Dame.

I eventually made my way back to modern times via the Ile-St.-Louis, a residential island in the Seine that has some beautiful old houses and the world's best ice cream (Berthillon). When I say I went back to modern times, I really mean it... my next stop was the Pompidou Centre, home of the world's best collection of modern art. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, especially because Brancusi, one of my favourite sculptors, donated his workshop to the Pompidou when he died, so I got to see a few of his works in the museum plus his whole workshop. Most European museums are nice about letting you take pictures, too, so I managed to get some good ones that I'll blow up and hang on the wall. (I have to watch it with the photos, though. My memory card only holds so many, so if you guys want to see Milan and Venice, I either have to quit taking Paris pictures or find some way to upload while I'm here.)

I'm going to have a quiet evening in preparation for visiting the Louvre tomorrow, but I wanted to make one observation first. I was worried about visiting Paris alone, since this is my first time alone in a non-English speaking country, but I haven't had a problem at all. Not because everyone speaks English here, which is most decidedly not the case, but because I apparently speak more French than I thought. I guess four years reading the back of Canadian cereal boxes will do that to you.