A continuation of pictures from my Louvre experience yesterday.

I left my hotel this morning and have since moved on to a hostel in the 20e arrondissement of Paris. I walked into the lobby this morning and realized that this is the same hostel that I (didn't) stay in on my first night in Paris, two years ago! The reason I say "didn't" is that I checked in after flying from London, went to the Eiffel Tower, and woke up on the grass there the next morning. Let's just say that my trip to Paris this time is starting off very differently than last time...

I'm bubbling with excitement to go see Rachel in Rome, which won't be until Tuesday morning, but my fury of travel begins tomorrow night when I'll share a sleeping cabin with 5 other people on the night train, and will be staying with Rachel in a hostel right behind the Vatican, also bunking with 4 other people.

Today, it's the Centre Pompidou, the famous Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore back in zee kar-tee-yay lah-ten, and perhaps a visit to La Cimitiere du Pere Lachaise where one can pay homage to Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Moliere, Proust, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde, to name a few.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I went to the reception of my hotel and spoke with the concierge for about an hour - in FRENCH! It really is amazing to me that I can hold a conversation, make jokes, and for the most part not butcher the beautiful language that I've been trying to learn all these years. The concierge, Cederic, just happens to be from Limoges, not far from where I'll be living for the year and he told me that I'll be bored to tears and that a weekend is more than enough time to spend there. He also told me that he thought that the population of Gueret was 50,000, and not 15,000 like I've found. I'm going to prove him wrong at least on the former because, hey, it's me, I can dig up some fun anywhere right? On verra...