Day 2: ♫ The Phantom of the Opera is here, inside our mind… ♫

The next morning started out bright and early. We went to see the Notre Dame (which was amazing) and then at 11am we went on a 4 hour walking tour of Paris which took us to all the main sites: Notre Dame, the Louvre, Arc de Triumph, walked past the Opera House, saw the Eiffel Tower from afar, etc. It was a long tour with lots of walking but we got to see where everything was so we had some idea of how to get places. The tour was definitely worth it and a great way to learn the abbreviated version of the who/what/where/when/why of Paris.

After the tour we spent some time by the Arc de Triumph, then saw the Opera House which was amazing (the one that was the inspiration for the opera house in Phantom of the Opera), then we went to the Eiffel Tower where we walked up to the second floor (422 steps) (while it was still light out, around 6pm) then took the elevator to the top, and while we were at the top day turned to night, so we got to see the city during the daytime and nighttime, which was pretty amazing.

We spent quite a lot of time at the top, and when we finally made our way down we decided we were hungry, but instead of going out to eat, we tried to find a grocery store nearby since we decided that we want to make crepes. It’s just our luck that the first 3 people we ask for directions were all Italians. When we finally found someone who could help us, she turned right and pointed about 20 feet in front of us to a small store that said “grocery” on it. Yes, we’re just that observant that we didn’t notice it till she pointed it out :P 

We made crepes (after an adventure of trying to figure out how to make them not burn-the frying pan that was in the apartment failed at not burning food), but they turned out well! It was a long day with a fun and relaxing night of making crepes and talking.

Notre Dame

If you jump in the middle, you're destined to come back to Paris. I hope that's true!

We stopped for a 15 minute coffee break during the tour:

Arc de Triumph

L'Opera Garnier (aka Phantom of the Opera)

The Grand Chandelier

The box on the right: Box #5

1,109 km from Rome

View from the top at night

A cute little bookstore by Notre Dame. I found The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Phantom of the Opera: since I haven't read Hunchback and I was in Paris, I just had to get the book.

Delicious crepes