Good news: I managed to stay on the bed last night. This morning we were heading to a local market in Paris. After a quick shower, (in the smallest shower known to man) we headed downstairs and across the street to grab fresh pastries before boarding the metro. By the time we stepped off of the metro, it was raining. Welcome to Paris. Despite the rain, the market was in full swing, so we pressed onward, hoods up and umbrellas out. The streets were lined with dozens of tents, ranging in foods from fresh fruits to fresh seafood. And by fresh seafood, I mean a dead fish on ice. Head and all. I picked up some delicious blueberries, bananas (to help with the calf cramps), and some cheese and bread. With the weather quickly worsening, we decided to make our way to the Orsay museum earlier than planned. Get me out of the cold and rain.The Orsay museum houses mostly oil on canvas paintings with a few sculptures scattered about. Some of the artists' work here include Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas, and Rousseau. I'm not a huge fan of paintings, I much prefer sculptures, but it was very cool to see some of these famous artists' paintings in person after studying them in my art history class. Apparently, I go through museums really fast because I finished an hour before the rest of my group. Oops. While killing time in the gift shop, I spotted a Rubix Cube with Claude Monet paintings on it and decided that that would be my "prize" from Paris. I know how to solve the regular Rubix Cube so I figured that this one would be just as easy to solve. False. Unbeknownst to me, the pictures actually change all of the patterns and techniques to solve the Rubix Cube, so instead of it making me feel smart I just got really frustrated for a couple of hours. I have still yet to solve it.
After the museum, although it was still raining, we headed towards the Champs Elysee. Our motto for the day became, "It's okay that it's raining, because it's Paris rain." The Champs Elysee is the most expensive road in Paris. It is lined with hundreds of designer stores and expensive restaurants. I didn't purchase anything, but we had fun playing around in the stores trying on hats and just being goofy. It was a nice break from the awful weather outside and provided some laughter. The Champs Elysee ends right in front of the Arc de Triomphe, or in English pronunciation "Arch de Triumph". Even in the rain, it was a sight to behold. It looks so much bigger in person. I feel like that's my reaction to everything I've seen in Europe so far, but to me it's just amazing how people could build such large structures so long ago that are still standing today. Crazy. While standing under the Arch de Triomphe, we witnessed some sort of military funeral or military service. Couldn't quite understand what was being said (at all), but from having family members in the military, I mostly knew what was going on. 
We had originally planned to go to Notre Dame today as well, but we were exhausted and decided just to head to dinner. Jenn's friend had given her the name of a restaurant in the Latin quarter, so we hopped on the dry metro and headed that way. We did have some difficulty finding the restaurant, but eventually found it. It was called La Citrouille, which means "The Pumpkin". It was a very quaint restaurant, which I loved. We each ordered a three course menu for 14 euro. My meal consisted of: an asparagus and mussel sandwich thing (there's some French term for it I can't remember), sirloin with fries, and a homemade apple tart with vanilla ice cream. It was DELICIOUS. Easily my favorite meal thus far. With the sun starting to go down (it was 10:30 at night), we made our way back to the hostel, all eager to take a warm shower and put on dry clothes. Hopefully tomorrow would be better weather, we still had a lot to get done on our last day in Paris.
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