Day 7- The Louvre and Overnight Train

On the 7th day of our trip, our last day in Paris, we had a guided tour of the Louvre. We met at the basement level of the museum and were told we would see the "key points" of the Louvre. We were given the option after our tour to stay and explore on our own. Our guide told us that to see all the exhibits in the Louvre, it would take at least 2 or 3 weeks. Well... we only had a few more hours left in Paris, so that wasn't an option. But what we did see was great! We were shown a wide variety of art from sculptures to paintings and even just the simple design of the Louvre was art in itself. Of course, when people think of the Louvre, you think of the Mona Lisa. What amazed me was how little the painting actually is. The room she is displayed in is a square room filled with paintings all around the perimeter wall. Then Mona hangs on a wall all alone in the center of the room like a pilar. She is the only painting in the room protected by a large rope and she is behind a glass wall. All the other paintings could easily be touched (if you dare...) but the Mona Lisa was very much protected. We saw a sculpture of a women standing for "victory." She stook tall and proud at the front of a boat. Her head was missising but by the way her body stood you know she was the symbol of power and victory.

After the Louvre, we grabbed some lunch and walked around the shops near the Louvre. We hopped on the Metro and went to shop a few more places before we needed to return to the hotel for our overnight train ride to Barcelona. We packed up our bags and met everyone at the hotel to checkout. I had bought a few postcards and was able to send those out before we left. We got to the train station and got a quick bite to eat to bring aboard the train.

The train. hmmm, well it was interesting to say the least. Being a first time european traveler, I didn't pack lightly. And neither did the three girls I was rooming with. So when we were shown our sleeper room, we were a little overwhelmed by the lack of space in our sleeper room. To give you a little bit of an idea, we had to give up two of our four seats to our suitcases which left the four of us girls to squish together to sit for the first couple of hours on the train. When it was time for bed, our dear friend Brandon was such a gentleman and came to help us rearrange the room and took out one suitcase to put in his room so we would have room to put the beds down so we could catch some sleep. Once it was all organized and we each had a bed, our stress level started to fall and we were actually able to sleep for a few hours. We were woken up by the train attendent letting us know we were about an hour out from the beautiful city of Barcelona...