Paris

Grapes growing at one of the farms at Versailles.
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August 12 I was so excited to finally come to Paris that I was looking everywhere when we came into the city. I finally spotted the Eiffel Tower peeking over the tops of the trees. It's huge! Of course we got lost again trying to find our hotel. I swear on this trip we have to do everything a second or third time before we get it right! We finally found it and hurried inside. It's so nice but I feel really out of place with all these rich people. On the road where our hotel is you can see brand names like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and Hugo Boss. Steph and I waited in the hotel while my parents dropped off our rental car. When they got back it had started to spit so we waited a bit before going out. It seemed to have stopped so we headed out to the Eiffel Tower. As soon as we got to the bridge over the Seine River it started pouring like crazy. Luckily we had umbrellas, but we ran inside a little cafe to take cover. We got some food and by the time we were done the rain seemed to have stopped so we started out for the tower again. We made it this time and it is gigantic! There were big lines to go up and people everywhere snapping pictures. The gardens nearby were a good place to take pictures so we went there and then walked by the Military School. Steph wanted to go to Napoleon's tomb and it was nearby so we went there to check it out. It's this huge church-type thing that had a big gold dome. We went inside where there was the big tomb and a military museum. The military museum was closing so we didn't really get to go through it. Instead we went for dinner before going back to the Eiffel Tower so we could climb it. By the time we got back the lineups were gigantic. There are four places to climb up and one was closed because of the rain. The lines were slow so we decided to do it another day and went to the Art museum's balcony to look around. Steph and I had alot of fun taking different pictures with the Eiffel Tower and we are going back to do more another day. Since we have to get up early tomorrow we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

The city of Paris.
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August 13 Today we went to Versailles to see the palace. It is where all the French royalty used to live. We took the train out there and of course got lost once or twice, but we finally made it! It is the biggest thing I've ever seen. Not only is the building huge but the gardens are vast. We have museum passes so we got to skip the line and go straight in. We got audio guides and toured around the palace. Wow I so wish I lived there! Everything is edged with gold and there are paintings everywhere. It's beautiful. Especially the opera that's inside the building. I would love to see an opera there. Finally we had gone through the palace that is open to the public and went out to the gardens. The were so big. They go on for as far as the eye can see and they are absolutely beautiful. Flowers and trees everywhere and lots of statues. I certainly would like to have that as my backyard. You could run away and no one would be able to find you for days. We explored the gardens and went to Petit and Grand Trianon which are like seperate little palaces, and Hameau de la Reine which is a farm village that Queen Marie Antoinette built on the grounds. She would go there for amusement and pretend to be a peasent which greatly annoyed many people. This is the place I would like to live. It's quaint and has a pond and many flowers. Of course it started raining like mad again when we get the farthest away from the palace that you could possibly be! It stopped fairly quickly though and we were able to look around the Hameau. It started to rain again on our walk back and it took quite awhile to get to the edge of the grounds. Of course we got lost in the town when we got out of the gates becuase we didn't come out anywhere near where we came in. By the time we found the train station I was wet, cold, and cranky. I also have a cold and this rain wasn't making anything better! The transit police got on our train, but we were okay. Then we had to walk from the Metro to find a restaurant. We ate pretty quickly then went back to our hotel. I took at hot bath and now I'm preparing to go to bed since we are waking up early tomorrow to go to the Louvre.

I was so excited to finally come to Paris that I was looking everywhere when we came into the city

Our hotel room in the Prince De Gaulles Hotel.
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Erin: I keep thinking of french kiss and how much I look like a tourist and then i get disgusted with myself haha. I wish I was as fashionable as these people!

Martha: There's condom dispensers on the corners just incase you feel the mood. Made me think of you ;)

August 14 It stopped raining today! I was so happy because we had a full day of stuff planned. We got up really early to beat the crowds at the Louvre. We went and the saw the Mona Lisa and the Madonna on the Rocks. Also we walked down the Grand Gallerie and looked at all the paintings. There were too many Japanese tour groups, so we moved on to a sculpture exhibit. The Japanese were all over here too being extremely pushy so we left and went outside to take pictures. After the Louvre we went back to the hotel to drop off Mom because she got sick. Then Dad, Steph, and I got lunch and went to the Arc de Triomphe. Its so big and we had to climb 284 stairs to get to the top. The staircase was spiral and very narrow but we made it up to the top. Here you could see the entire city stretching out for miles. It's a very big city! We could spot the Eiffel Tower and the dome from Napoleon's tomb. We also thought that we saw the Louvre. Going down the stairs wasn't as bad as going up but you had to be careful not to fall. We got on the train to go to the Bastille afterwards. According to Steph it used to be an old prison and it was where the French Revolution started. She didn't realize that it had been torn down though, and was quite disappointed when we only found a monument in it's place. We walked around the neighbourhood for a bit and I got a crepe. The one's we made in home ec were better! Then we got back on the train and went to the Opera Garnier. This is the Opera House where the Phantom began. It is still used and many people were there to look around. Steph and I were really disappointed because they had nothing on the Phantom, and we didn't have access to Box Five. Box Five is the box they used to reserve for the Phantom, and if you tap on the pillar outside you'll find that it is hollow. This is where he would stand and throw his voice to make everyone believe there was a ghost. It was a very pretty operahouse though and we had fun exploring it. There was a shopping district nearby, so we decided to check it out. All the stores were really expensive so we didn't buy anything. I had fun trying perfume on though. We got back on the Metro to get Mom and go for dinner. We took three different trains to get to the restaurant that Dad wanted to go to, but then we ended up getting lost. We were by the river and Notre Dame, and we caught a procession for the Feast of the Assumption. We weren't really sure where they were going so we decided to continue looking for the restaurant. Turns out we had passed by the street we were looking for. After dinner we went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up. It was a gorgeous night so we sat on the steps at the museum just watching everything. I didn't really want to leave, but everyone was tired. On our walk back we looked back at the tower and it was sparkling! I was mad we missed it but we might go back tonight. We got back to the hotel and went to bed.

The Eiffel Tower and the Seine River.
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August 15 So today I woke up early because I was coughing, which was unfortunate because today we were sleeping in. I lounged around the room for awhile before we got going later in the morning. We stopped for a quick lunch before we went to the Tuleries. The Tuleries is a big park near the Louvre. They are filled with flower gardens, fountains, and statues. It was really sunny out today so there were many people sitting on chairs around the fountains. We wandered around for a bit then decided to take a look at Notre Dame. It took a really long time to walk there and there was a big line to get inside. The line went really fast though so we looked around the inside which was very pretty. There were many candles lit all around. I lit one and then we continued on. We stopped at Haagen Daaz for some ice cream, then got on the Metro to go to the flea market. This flea market according to Frommer's is the biggest in all of Europe. We couldn't find it though (unless we just didn't look hard enough) so we came back to the hotel. Tomorrow we are heading to Milan really early in the morning so we're not doing anything tonight. We spend a day each in Milan, Florence, and Rome before we get on the cruise! I'm so excited!