It's been a crazy couple of days so I'll be as brief as possible and fill you all in.

The hostel is great and there are a ton of Americans here. Staying in my room right now are 7 American guys and 1 Australian girl. Everyone is really cool and we get along great. I've done some hardcore sightseeing the last 2 days and my feet are killing me. It was pretty much 10 hours of walking, 2 days in a row. So here's what I did:

Day 1:
Arrived
Evening at Sacre Coure and Montmarte

Day 2:
Notre Dame
Ile St. Louis
Saint Chapelle
Latin Quarter
Lunch in Touileries Garden
Louvre

Day 3:
Orsay Museum
Orangerie Museum
Napoleons Tomb
Lunch on Rue Cler
Versailles
Saw Wolverine the movie with hostel roommates (terrible movie!)

I pretty much started in the center and worked outward. I didn't spend much time in the Louvre because I was so tired but I saw the things I actually cared about seeing. I definitely thought the Orsay Museum was way better. It was packed with paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas and van Gogh. So pretty much all my favorites. Here's a few of the pics. I'm averaging about 100 a day at this point.


Front of Notre Dame

Behind the altar at Notre Dame

Across from Notre Dame

Inside of Saint-Chapelle (absolutely incredible)


Place Saint-Michel in Latin Quarter

Winged Victory of Samothrace in Louvre (the only thing I really cared about seeing and it was amazing)

View of the Louvre from the beginning of the Tuileries Garden

Me and Vinny in Musee D'Orsay (1 of at least 10 van Goghs on display)

One of 2 oval shaped rooms in the Orangerie Museum that held 8 wall size Monet paintings. Pretty incredible.


Place De La Concorde (Former home of the Guillotine)

The only bum I have given money to. He asked if I spoke english and when I said yes he continued to speak in French. Either way, hands down coolest bum in Paris.

Napoleons Tomb. The man knew how to go out in style. This place was insane. It was a former Louis XIV built church that was drenched in gold leaf and Napoleon had the center dug out, covered in marble and made it his crypt. Very cool.

Delicious French lunch on rue Cler. Tartare de Beoufe. Basically a raw hamburger but 100 times better. Only the French could throw a lump of raw meat on a plate and make it delicious.

Front of Versailles. This place is too big but the crazy thing is the tour only covers a fraction of the place.

Louis' private church in the house.

Hall of Mirrors. Crazy to think about all the history that happened in this room.

The backyard of Versailles. It goes on for miles.

I rented a bike at Versailles and explored. It was really cool. I want a mini Versailles of my own someday.