Famous Paintings Are Always Smaller than You Think - Paris Part 2

Read Paris Part 1 here.

Our next stop was the Pompidou Center where they were hosting the Dalí exhibit. This exhibit is usually on display in Madrid, but it has been in Paris for the past couple of months. My friend is a huge Dalí fan and went to the museum in Madrid specifically to see these Dalí paintings. You can imagine her disappointment when she found out that the exhibit was actually in Paris.

Naturally, one of our stops in Paris had to be the Pompidou Center. The line was a bit long so we debated about it for a while, but when we found out that the exhibit was going back to Madrid the next day it was essential we saw it. Even if the line was outside. In the cold.

The line didn't move. People who had bought tickets online were given priority, and by priority I mean their line was the only one that moved. Every once in a while our line would move forward, but these changes were always few and far between. After about 30 minutes we debated whether or not we should just give up, but we were all ready halfway to the door and we decided to wait.

After waiting for an hour, we had finally made it to the front of the line. We went inside the museum and straight to the ticket counter. As EU students, the museum was free for us, but we still needed a ticket.

It turns out that even though the museum is free, the Dalí exhibit cost extra. However, we had all ready waited an hour and we weren't going to let 10€ stand between us and Dalí, so we paid it. We then asked where the exhibit was and were led to a new line - estimated waiting time: 45 minutes.

But was is 45 minutes when you've all ready waited an hour?

The 45 minute line led us up some stairs and into a new line - estimated waiting time: 30 minutes.

At this point it might have been smarter to just ditch the whole idea, but we had invested 10€ and two and a half hours of time, so we waited the extra 30 minutes.

We finally made it into the exhibit. I got to see the clock painting, which is all I remember from a semester of studying Spanish artists my senior year. It was surprisingly small for such a famous work of art.

After the exhibit, we also stepped foot in the actual museum, but when we saw it was all modern art (read: weird art) we stepped right back out.

By now it was about 3:30 and the bread from the morning had worn off. We managed to find the cutest, reasonably priced restaurant in all of Paris (probably). We got a delicious 3 course meal for 12€. However, one thing we couldn't get was the check. Even after asking for it, the waitress came back five minutes later to ask if we still wanted the check. Eventually we did pay and made it out of the restaurant.

Our next stop was at the most delicious gelato store in all of Paris - Amorino Gelati. It did not disappoint.

With two hours before we needed to start making our way back to the bus we decided to visit the Eiffel Tower. What could possibly go wrong?

Continue our adventure here.