Day 1

                I want to start out by saying that I just got home from a Canadian bar and am a few deep so there may be some grammar errors.  Anyway after taking a 3 hour nap my sister took us to Notre Dame and The Louvre since they are a short walk from her place in the 5^th district.  I just wanted to keep sleeping but decided to go check out the gargoyles.  We walked along the Seine on our way there and I was intrigued by the restaurant boats that were docked on the river.  As you can see in the photos below you just hope on board and can enjoy dinner or just a glass of wine if you prefer. 

            We crossed the Seine and arrived at Notre Dame.  It is an amazing architectural achievement that was completed in 1345.  It took almost 200 years just to construct it!  We explored the outside first and the gargoyles were smaller than I expected and not that intimidating.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my climbing gear so I was not able to put my Raider hat on top of one of the gargoyle’s head.  The inside of the church is humongous and was packed with tourists.  I was surprised to see that confessions were being heard while people were touring the church.  I have not attended confession in forever unfortunately, and decided to pass on the opportunity to attend here because the confessions were being held face-to-face and I prefer my priest to be behind a screen.   It is amazing the amount of detail that went into all of the paintings and sculptures in the church.  It really is a site to behold.

            We finished our tour of Notre Dame and decided to go to the Louvre, or should I say FIND the Louvre.  My sister has a terrible sense of direction and we were wandering around in circles before we eventually found it.  While looking for it we wandered past a park that had ping pong tables cemented into the ground.  I unfortunately did not have any beer, ping pongs, or solo cups so I could not take advantage of the situation. 

I also noticed that Apple is doing a great job of advertising their iPads over here.  

        We got to the Louvre too late to tour the inside and so we just walked around the outside.  The palace is massive and Napoleon really outdid himself with the construction of it.   I made sure to get a picture of the statue of Louis XIV that is located in the courtyard of the Louvre.  Louis XIV was hated on pretty hardcore in my English Legal History class and I don’t really understand why; the dude was just trying to convert everyone to Catholicism, what is so bad about that?  I guess his conversion methods weren’t ideal…

       The Louvre has a pyramid constructed in the middle of the courtyard that was completed in 1989.  To be honest it is quite weird seeing such a modern piece of architecture located in the center of such a majestic palace.  

I wasn’t a huge fan but others were as there was a long line to enter the pyramid (which turns out is how you enter the Louvre Museum).  

       After finishing up at the Louvre we headed home and stopped by a pizza place right outside my sister’s place.  Yes I know, pizza in France, but whatever they spoke French in the place and the menu was in French (although they gave us an English menu) so close enough for me.  The French seem to love eggs on their pizza as it seemed every pizza on the menu contained an egg in the center of the pizza.  I went with the margarita pizza and was surprised to see that they don’t slice it for you.  I guess this is another way that the French are battling the obesity epidemic because after I got halfway through with it I was tired of trying to cut it up with my knife and fork.  It was delicious but the pizza won the battle in the end.    I wish I had a picture but forgot to take one.  No worries as there are plenty of food pictures on the way so be on the look out! 
       Also want to give a shout out to my Mets for beating the Yankees and being just 5 games back of the Phillies. Pretty impressive after starting the season 5-13. That is all for this blog update. I'm getting ready to see what the Paris Clubs have to offer so Raider Nation is signing out!