Day 61: All the different views of Paris

Today we all got up to head to go see the Palace of Versailles. We were all a little slower moving because of our fun night out on the bar crawl, but Ari was feeling especially under the weather, so she didn't join us for our morning adventures. The rest of us took the metro to Versailles and Sheley, Amanda, and myself broke one of my big rules and ate at McDonalds before going in. I swore I wouldn't eat American fast food here, but it was way too cheap and convenient to pass up. Once we finished, we headed to the Palace which was absolutely breathtaking. Out of all the things we have done so far in Paris, this had topped them all. Just the outside was absolutely stunning, and then when we got inside, it became even better. We each got a free audio guide and made our way through, and then headed to the gardens to relax for a bit.
 While there, we found the rest of the group and left with them to go get macaroons at Laduree and eat them after climbing to the top of the Arc de Trioumph. I had heard good things about the view from the Arc, however I had not intended to be so blown away. We've seen so many amazing views of the cities we have visited, but it was almost unreal to see the city of Paris with the Eiffel Tower and so many other things all at once. It was definitely one of "those moments" for me. We also met up with Ari at the Arc and then headed back to the street near Notre Dame from the day before to grab food. This time I got a chicken, mushroom, egg and cheese crepe which was aaaamazing. Sheley and I took our food and sat by the river near Notre Dame, while the other group headed towards the Eiffel Tower because they had tickets to go up it.
Sheley and I had planned to get a baguette and bottle of wine and head to the Eiffel Tower once it got dark, but unfortunately most stores were closed and so we just hung out at the hostel for a bit, and then headed there to see it twinkle. On the way, though, we experienced some interesting things on the metro. At one stop, a man was stumbling around with blood gushing from his face and later I witnessed what I'm almost positive was a pickpocket situation. But aside from all those things, going and seeing the Eiffel Tower twinkle and then to just be lit up was absolutely magnificent. Once we got back, we packed up some of our stuff to get ready to leave the next day and headed to bed.