Paris

Paris: 

July 14th- Day 14- City 10

When we got to Paris it was about ten o'clock at night, which happened to be the same day as the celebration of French revolution, anyway we were like little white sheep in a crowd of all black sheep and I'm pretty sure all four of us thought we were gonna get stabbed. We didn't go back out that night just stayed in our two separate rooms and tried to sleep. If you can't tell I'm hinting at I preferred all the hostels to the sketchy part of town.


July 15- Day 15-City 10
We woke up and had breakfast of crescents and hot chocolate then made our way to Notre Dame. It was Sunday so we got there during mass and we were able to walk around the the sides of the church during the celebration. That was pretty cool though i would have been super distracted by the tourists had I been participating in the mass. We then went to wait in line to climb up to the top of the bell tower. Paris is full of lines so we have gotten creative on how to pass the time. In the line up to the bell tower we named every Disney movie that takes place in the countries we went to on our trips. We then climbed the spiral stair case up to the top and saw the city, lots of gargoyles and a fancy bell. By then it was lunch time and we found a bakery with "french bread hot dogs", a must to attempt to recreate, ate our lunch by the river.

We were about half way through when a rain storm came from no where. We grabbed our food and ran for shelter where we decided going to grab more rain gear and use free restrooms in the hotel was a great idea before heading to the Eiffel Tower.  We found that if you wanted to take the lift all the way to the top up you had to wait in line for about 4 hours and pay a lot more than we were willing. Climbing the stairs of the first two levels was a much better choice we were only in line for about 30 minutes playing spy. After climbing the first two levels we took the lift up all the way to the top. By the time we got down it was snack time and we ate binets in the park. We then went to find out information on the Louver and Napoleons Tomb but both were closed for the evening. Instead we hopped on a bus in search for dinner and internet. In the end we found a restaurant that sold dinner crepes and decided to order. They lost our ticket and we ended up waiting for our food for a really long time but it gave us enough time for the sun to go down so we could see the Eiffel tower at night.

July 16-Day 16-City 10
We woke up early in hopes to avoid long lines at the entrance to the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa and many of Davincis' other works as well as Egyptian and Roman relics. We didn't have enough time to see the entire museum but we saw a lot for the time we had. We then went to Napoleons Tomb and the Hotel de Invalides. We walked through the arms museum, the largest one in the world, first which involved everything from suits of armor and swords to cannons and world war uniforms and footage. It was really cool!

Some where between the museum and the tomb I lost my ticket so I got stuck outside though Abbey Reyes and Taylor were all ahead of me and didn't realize it. After a minor scare that I wandered off without them they came outside and figured out what had happened. Taylor gave me his ticket and I went in really fast before heading to find lunch. After lunch we went to Champ Se Eylsee and the Arc de Triumph which is a street similar to fifth ave New York and a famous arch in which military troops have matched through in victory all throughout history. We saw the original Louis Vuitton with a line around the building to prove it and a line for the Abercrombie, which was really this mansion looking building with two rather good looking models standing outside to greet you, was almost as long.  At that point we decided it was a much needed nap time. We all slept for about 3 hours!

When we were all recovered we headed to Sac re Cour to see it at sun set and watch the city of lights come alive. The area around was so full of life and young people and the stairs leading up to the church were filled with people eating and drinking while listening to live music (I'm sure thats excatly what the church would have wanted ;) ). I'm so glad we stumbled over that way at night to see the lively city and to find all of our souvenirs we needed and some dessert crepes that Taylor was so excited for till he woke up with either food poisoning or a flu bug. He ended up spending all night throwing up in the bathroom.

July 17-Day 17-City 10
We woke up to find out Taylor still in the bathroom unable to keep water down and decide he needs some alone time and was in no shape to do anything so we left him behind and headed to Versailles.

It was the most complicated route to get there since many of the metro stations were closed. When we finally got to the palace massive lines were already forming. Lines worse than the ones at the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Apparently all the tourist come out of the wood-work in Paris on Tuesdays.  We waited for about an hour to get tickets then waited about two hours to get into the palace after that. All the lines were terribly labeled and many people stood for hours in the wrong line only to find out their costly mistake. Reyes and I went to find sandwiches while Abbey waited in line. The inside of the palace was really cool but also extremely crowded. Who would have thought the biggest palace in Europe would be so popular I assumed it would be a well kept secret.

We had an audio guide but in the end i decided I need to do a lot more research about the French revolution or watch Marie Antoinette again. We toured our way around the palace and it took about two hours, I can't imagine how much time it would have taken if we had bought the tour of the gardens and the living quarters. At the metro station we found our passes didn't work to get us home so we had to buy new tickets after standing in yet another line to find out they didn't work and a line at the machines to find they didn't read our cards.  We rode home to check on Taylor and find an Internet cafe so we could get our plane information printed out. We checked on Taylor and took some pictures of his poor state to show the change in his love of banana and nutella crepes. Cruel I know.

Then we girls went out for a night in the Latin quarters where we found a three course meal for €10 and a hilarious and impressive b-boy performance. One of the guys dancing scared Reyes so bad Abbey and I about died with laughter.  I have found it so interesting the ability to communicate through language barriers, though most people speak English, we all still have so much in common. We got back to the hotel and found a sleeping Taylor, thank goodness, who seemed to kick most of the bug out of his system.