Bonjour!

I've arrived in Europe! After an upgraded flight in business class filled with amazing food, drinks, sleeper chairs, a bag of toiletries, and a friendly Scottish seat mate, I arrived in the afternoon to Paris. First things first: getting out of the airport and into town. 

After a little trial and error, I got the tickets I needed and boarded a train. I sorta knew where my hostel was. I just ended up taking the long walk to get there in the Montmartre neighborhood. It's very nice, up on a hill, near the metro, close to the Sacre Coeur church. 

I must be in France, moldy cheese mmmm...

I walked a little around the hood, but decided to tuck in early and wait until the next day to explore the city. This morning after a lovely breakfast at the hostel (complete with croissants), I ventured into Paris. Now every first Sunday of the month the musuems are free- so I knew what I was doing today! The first musuem I stopped at was the d'Orlay. The line was LoNG! Probably because admission is free. But it was worth the wait. The building is beautiful! It is an old rail depot.

It's full of paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Frida Kahlo, sculptures, and Eninem (part of the naked man in art special exhibit). Here's a blub about my favorite artists the impressionists: 

Sadly they wouldn't let me take more photos, no matter how sneaky I was. But here's a photo of the clock inside. 

Next up was the Pompidou, the modern art musuem. The building is turned inside out: escalators, lifts, air ducts are all outside. Inside the art is housed: surrealism, cubism, fauvism, and the plain weird. Here are some photos.

The building from the outside:

Inside:

Andy Warhol:

Famous sculpture:

Cool light exhibit:

Yes, those are blank canvases. They are real and probably very expensive.

Another large room filled with only the things you see:

And that's basically the modern art musuem. Glad it was free. The coolest thing was probably the escalators. The rest of the day was spent frolicking about browsing shops, eating falafel and gelato (not very French, I know), visiting parks, and enjoying the city life.

And so here I am at the end of the day sitting at a cafe, having some French Onion Soup (haha - in France) and drinking a glass of wine.

Tomorrow I take the train through Paris to St. Jean Pied de Port in the Pyrenees where I'll start walking the Camino de Santiago through Spain....