July 19th: off to London!

Sunday morning we got up to take the train to London. We had to leave around 10:30. A bus took us and our luggage to the train station, and then we had to go through two sets of border control: one to leave France, and one to enter the UK. Leaving France wasn’t too bad, but entering the UK was a little intimidating. While they were looking at our passports, they interrogated us on why we were going there, where we were staying, how long we were staying, how many people were with us, etc., etc. The guy that was questioning me was really soft spoken, so I couldn’t really hear what he was saying and I had to keep asking him to repeat the questions. Also, we weren’t allowed to tell them that we were in a study abroad group, because most study abroad trips are through a sister university that is in the country you’re going to, and they send you special documents. Our trip isn’t connected to another university, so we don’t have those documents, so we just had to tell them that we were traveling with a large group of friends. I’m pretty sure the guy could tell that I was intimidated, but he was really polite and let me through without a problem. On the other transfers that we’ve had, we’ve all sat next to each other on the trains, but that wasn’t the case with this one. We were all spread out across different cars. Luckily, I was seated next to Jenna instead of somebody I don’t know. We talked for a few minutes, and then, of course, I fell asleep for the rest of the train ride. I’m kind of sad that I missed going through the Chunnel, but I’m sure it was just dark. I didn’t wake up until a few minutes after we got into London. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a bus or anything to take us to our flats, so we had to haul our luggage through the metro system, referred to as ‘the tube’ here. It actually went a lot better than I would have expected, except all of blocking the stairs by hauling our luggage up and down them. When we got to our flats (not a hotel anymore, they’re actual student housing like dorm rooms), we couldn’t get in right away, so we sat around outside. Then, as it does the first day of any city we go to, it started to rain. The resident life supervisor was really great and let us come in and bring our luggage inside and hang out in the common room until we got our keys. We did our little orientation meeting to learn all of the rules and everything, then got our keys and headed up to our flats. We’re 3 or 4 flights of stairs up (I didn’t count, it made me feel better), and there are no elevators, so we hauled our luggage up some more stairs. When we made it up, we were all so excited about our flats. They’re so nice. We have 4 bedrooms that just have beds and closets, 3 bathrooms all with showers, a fully stocked kitchen, and a common living area with a TV. They’re so great. Julia, Amanda, Kylee and I all share a bedroom, and so far it’s been a lot of fun.
After getting in, we took an hour to rest and freshen up then went grocery shopping. The four of us that are rooming together got groceries together, and it was only about 80 pounds for all four of us, which was about 130 dollars (stupid conversion rates!). But we should be ok for most of the 2 weeks here, and 20 pounds a piece is way cheaper than it would be to eat out every night. The grocery store was closing 45 minutes after we got there, so we had to rush through like crazy, but we got almost everything we needed. Unfortunately, we had to carry all of our groceries home. It’s only a few blocks though. We stopped at a movie rental store on the way home to rent Harry Potter 5 to prepare to see the new one. When we got back to the flats, we quickly put our groceries away and headed back downstairs to meet Darrin for our walking tour of London. We got on the metro and went to Leicester Square, which is kind of like the Times Square of London. There are a few movie theatres surrounding the square, and those are the movie theatres that London movie premiers are done in. We walked around other parts of London and saw the Parliament building, Big Ben, and some other smaller sites. We got to see a couple of the Queen’s guards, which was pretty cool. After walking around London, we came back to the flats and just worked on homework and got settled in.

July 18th

Saturday was our last day in Paris. We were free until 2 pm, but I just stayed in the hotel and worked on some homework. At 2, we all met to catch a bus out to Fontainebleau. I have no idea how long the bus ride was because I fell asleep. . . I can’t seem to stay awake on any form up transportation except the airplane. But anyway, when we got there, it was amazing. I had never realized how large Fontainebleau actually was. It is arranged in a similar U layout of Versailles, with a symmetrical staircase right in the front that comes out in a half circle from each side. There is a long walkway leading up to the front entrance that is lined with potted trees on each side. Although it wasn’t completely symmetrical on the sides of the U shape, I think that Fontainebleau looked a lot more cohesive that Versailles. I felt like the sides of Versailles looked like a bunch of different buildings, whereas Fontainebleau looks like different parts of the same building. Fontainebleau was a predecessor of Versailles, serving as a home for the royal family. In all, over 30 royals, from Louis VI to Napoleon III spent time there. The inside of the building was gorgeous. There were aspects of many different styles, due to so many renovations by different rulers, but it still came together really well. One of the coolest features was the fireplaces. Almost all of the rooms had a fireplace, and many of them were elaborately decorated. Some had decorative mirrors or sculptures above them. Also, the chandeliers throughout the different rooms were incredible. While some were quite large, most of them were a fairly modest size and there was usually more than 1 in a room. The chapel inside of the palace is also incredibly beautiful. We also got to see one of the most famous rooms, the library. The public is not allowed to walk through it, but the front of it is open so you can see into the entire room. Standing at the front of it, it seems like such a long room. Books fill the walls on both sides, and near the viewing point, in the middle of the room is a massive globe. Also, we got to see the throne of Napoleon, which is the only surviving original throne in France. It’s obviously in the Napoleon style, draped in blue and yellow fabric covered with little wasps (Napoleon’s signature image), and a large N at the top of the canopy. Most of the building had fallen into bad shape during the Revolution, but Napoleon Bonaparte restored it so that he could live there instead of at Versailles, which had been kept in better shape throughout the war. Fontainebleau is arranged around a series of courtyards, so we sort of walked through those as well. We didn’t walk through them as extensively as the gardens at Versailles, but we did go through the one in the back. They had a little sorbet stand set up in the back that Darrin said was really good, so we got some sorbet and ate it on the edge of the pond. I didn’t think the sorbet was really that great, but the setting was nice!
From there, we got back on the bus and headed to Vaux le Vicomte. On the way, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up food for a picnic for dinner, because we were supposed to stay at Vaux until midnight. A bunch of us shopped together, and got stuff for sandwiches, fruit, chips. . .stuff like that. When we got to Vaux we went into the picnic area, which seemed like camping. Vaux is basically set in the forest, and the picnic area is just the little clearing off the side of the parking lot where benches and tables are set up. We made our dinners, and it was so nice to just eat normal food instead of restaurant food. We took about an hour for dinner, and then we headed into Vaux. Vaux is the palace that Nicolas Fouquet lived in until Louis XIV had him arrested and sentenced to life in prison. It’s much smaller than Fontainebleau or Versailles, but in all honesty I like it the best. It’s just one straight building rather than being in a U layout. Vaux is also going through restoration, and half of the roof has been restored so far. We were at Vaux so late in the day because we were doing a candlelight tour. So there were candles lit on all of the window seals and all around the building, inside and out. It was so extraordinary. It made you feel like you were actually walking through the house in the 17th century. It was so much better than doing a normal tour. Also, they had figures set up in scenes throughout the house. They used projection screens to make them appear to have facial movement, and speakers with conversations coming through. It was really interesting. They had scenes of business meetings, Nicolas doing personal work, and even one of a ball happening in one of the rooms. That one was really cool because they just had a few figures up in front and then a projection screen into an archway, making it look like it opened up into another room where people were dancing. The way all of this was presented really brought the house to life. We also got to walk through the dungeon/basement under the building. Written on plaques on the walls was the entire story of Nicolas’ arrest and trial, and some of his life in prison. It was really interesting to be able to read the story as you walked through the dreary part of the building. After the basement, we were able to go into the gardens. Again, they weren’t as extravagant as Versailles, but they were still impressive. The goal was to continue the candlelight tour through the gardens, but it had started raining so they didn’t light the candles. There were still some regular lights though, so we could actually see it rather than just walking through in the dark. The gardens have decoratively cut shrubbery arranged in rectangular areas on each side, with a pond in the middle of the back. On the other side of the pond is a bridge, and a grassy hill continues up from there with a large statue on top. We only went as far as the front of the pond though. It was really pretty to face the house from the pond and see it with all the candles and lights. We didn’t linger in the gardens too long, due to the rain. We headed into the gift shop for a while to pass some time, and then headed back out to the bus around 11:00. Vaux le Vicomte was my favorite of the three, and it was such a good experience to go through in a unique way at night.

17th: Versailles

Friday morning, we got up and caught a train out to Versailles. Versailles started out as a royal hunting ground for Louis XIII. He built a small hunting lodge there so that he could stay overnight when he went hunting. He would usually take his son, Louis XIV with him, who later turned the lodge into the royal palace, and moved the royal family from Paris, the capital, to Versailles. It is widely believed that a large part of the reason Louis XIV had Versailles built was out of jealousy of Nicolas Fouquet and his chateau, Vaux le Vicomte. Louis claimed that the Nicolas, who was the financial minister, could not have built this chateau unless he had been embezzling money from the crown. So, Fouquet was arrested, given a “trial” (it was really just for show), and sentenced to banishment from France. Louis wasn’t happy with this sentence, so he changed it to life in prison. After Nicolas was out of the way, Louis employed the same architect and landscaper that had done Vaux to build Versailles. The royal family only lived at Versailles for a few generations, from Louis XIV to Louis XVI. During Louis XVI’s reign, the Parisian citizens became more and more angry with Louis, and especially his wife, Marie Antoinette. Near the beginnings of the French Revolution, mobs swarmed Versailles and removed the royal family by force. Both Louis and Marie Antoinette were later sentenced to death, and Versailles was no longer used as a palace. However, it was kept in decent shape throughout the Revolution and the years after, allowing it to become the popular tourist attraction that it is today.
When we got out to the palace, we met up with our tour guide, Sid. He was quite an eccentric man with a braided rat tail. He was a pretty good guide though. When we finally entered the palace, it was incredible. There is so much attention to every little detail. It was beautiful. Our tour guide walked us through the rooms, giving us a brief history of each. The royal apartments were really interesting. Sid showed us the door in Marie Antoinette’s bedroom that she used to escape when the palace was stormed. Actually, almost all of the bedrooms had doors that were painted or covered in some way to blend in with the wall. I had never realized that before, but I guess it was a pretty common thing. We also learned that in the royal chapel, when services were happening, everyone in attendance had to stand facing away from the priest because the King sat on a higher level in the back, and everyone had to face the King when he was in the room. So when services were happening, the only people facing the front of the chapel would be the royal family. It was really fortunate that we got to go to Versailles right now, because they’re working on restorations, so we got to see how the palace looks now, and a little bit of how it will look in a few years. Most of the restorations that were completed were redoing the gold leafing on the roof, and redoing the whole front gate. The goal is to make the palace look the way it did before the Revolution. I’d like to come back in a few years to see how it looks.
After walking through the palace, which actually seems much smaller on the inside, we went out to the gardens. When you walk out the back doors and see the gardens, they seem to extend forever. There are flowers and carefully cut trees and shrubberies everywhere. There are a ton of fountains! Unfortunately they weren’t operating, because they only operate on Saturdays and Sundays to cut back on water usage and cost. They were still really pretty though. We walked down through the main gardens, then stopped for lunch near a part called ‘Little Venice’. It’s a big pond referred to as the canal, and you can rent boats to row around on it like riding through Venice. We only had about 45 minutes for lunch, so we just picked a spot on the grass and started eating. We had all packed stuff so that we didn’t have to spend a bunch of money on the food at Versailles. It was a really good experience to sit down and enjoy lunch in the gardens of one of the most famous palaces in the world.
After lunch, Sid walked us out to the rest of the grounds, which include all of the little houses (some of them really aren’t that little) that had been built for the queens and kings to use for privacy (and occasional affairs). The farthest he walked us out was to Marie Antoinette’s little village outside of the gardens. She had been from the countryside and didn’t really enjoy the socialite life at Versailles, so she requested a small country like village be built for her personal use. It literally looked like a fairy tale. None of the buildings are fit for touring, so you can’t go in them, but just looking at them was incredible. It felt like you were in a little princess Barbie land. It was amazing. Sid left us there, and we all went our own ways. After taking some pictures, I started walking back to the palace (about a mile) with Caroline, Nancy, and Michelle. I wasn’t feeling too well, so I didn’t want to linger very long. Caroline and Nancy stopped halfway to meet with Darrin, and Michelle and I continued on to the palace and the train station. When we were almost back to the palace, it started to rain a little bit, so we tried to hurry to the train station. We used Darrin’s directions and were able to get ourselves back to Paris. When we got there, we walked by the bakery near our hotel to see if they had any sandwiches, but they didn’t so we just continued home. Michelle was going shopping, so we split at the corner, and I went to the hotel. It kind of sucked, because I spent the rest of the day in bed, but Versailles made for a really great half-day!

July 16th: From Villa Savoye to Eiffel Tower!

On the morning of the 16th, we caught a train out to Villa Savoye, designed by Corbusier. I slept on the whole train ride, which was pretty great. When we got there, it was in a really weird setting. Everything that we had done up to that point had been in a very developed urban area. Villa Savoye was different. It was in a more residential area, and it was set back away from the road in a little open space of its own surrounded by trees. It was one of those things that while you were looking at it, you kind of forgot what it was because it’s not possible to really be at Villa Savoye. It was unreal. We got to walk through the entire house, including the roof gardens, and of course the famous bathroom with the unique tub design. One thing I learned that I hadn’t realized before is that you can get anywhere in the house except for the basement by using a ramp. It was designed to not have to use the stairs. The bathroom was everything it’s ever been made out to be. It was so beautiful. After touring through the house, we sat outside for a while and sketched the house. It was a really hard thing to do, because I know that any sketch I could do would not do the building justice. Also, it was really difficult to get the proportions right on the bottom part of the building and on the columns. I feel like I did a pretty decent job though, compared to a lot of my other sketches.
After Villa Savoye we took the train back into Paris and went to a restaurant called Kong for lunch. The restaurant is significant because it was designed by Phillipe Stark. He also designed the Ghost chair, and that’s what we got to sit on at the restaurant. The restaurant was in the upper level of a high rise building, and the walls were lined with the windows so you could look down around you. The whole place was really cool. There was a lamp made out of a tutu, which was pretty interesting. And the food wasn’t half bad either. I had a club sandwich, which I thought would be pretty American, but that wasn’t really the case. The only similarities were meat, lettuce, and tomato. The bread was a different style, there was a weird sauce on it, and there was a fried egg on top of the sandwich. It was different, but it was probably some of the best food I’ve had in Europe. I want to start ordering my club sandwiches with a fried egg when I get back home.
From Kong, the group split in half, and half of us went to Notre Dame and the other half to the Musee d’Orsay. I was in the Notre Dame group because I hadn’t seen it yet. It really does deserve all of the fame that it has. It was an amazing church. It’s incredible to see the differences between Italian and French churches. The Italian churches were covered in mosaics and were usually longer. In France, the mosaics are replaced by stained glass, and the churches get so tall on the inside. The ceilings just seem to be expanding farther and farther up. It’s also really interesting to see the different arch styles because we spent so much time studying them in history. Seeing it in person brings on a whole new understanding. We tried to climb up to the top level of the church, but that part of it had closed about 15 minutes before we tried to do it so we had to skip it. When we were walking out the front of the church, there was a group of people surrounding a circular tile set into the cement, and Susie explained to us that the circle was the true center of Paris and that everything went out from that point. So of course we had to get pictures and especially a foot picture because it was a cool thing on the ground. We had no choice, right?
After Notre Dame, we went to the Musee d’O rsay. It was probably my favorite classical museum. It had a lot of the big movement and influential artists, such as Renoir, Van Gogh, Manet, and Monet. They had an entire room dedicated to Van Gogh, which was really cool. Unfortunately though, his most famous work, Starry Night, is not kept at this museum. But they did have his self portrait, which is probably the next best thing. They had Manet’s famous painting, Le dejeuner sur l’herbe, where the 3 people are eating, and the woman in front is naked and looking towards the viewer. They also had a great art nouveau collection, containing one of the original Paris metro signs by Hector Guimard. I liked this museum a lot because I felt like it had enough interesting things, but it wasn’t overwhelming. It only took us about 2 hours to get it done, which is much better than 5!
We also really wanted to climb the Eiffel tower that night, since we hadn’t been able to the previous nights. So at 8:15 we left the museum and rushed towards the Eiffel tower. We got a little delayed in the metro system because we got on at the wrong stop, but after a couple line transfers we figured it out. When we got to the tower, we realized that our rushing hadn’t been necessary because the top was actually open until 10:30, not 9. So we had plenty of time. We got in line to buy our tickets, and when we finally got through the line we took the elevator to the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor contains an overlook area, the official gift shop, and it’s also where you wait in line to go to the very top. It was so breathtaking to look out over the city at night. Paris is massive. It was also a bonus because there was a storm happening out around the edges of Paris, and we got to watch the lightening from the second floor. After taking pictures for about 5 minutes we got in line for the elevator to the top. We had been standing in line for about 5 minutes when it started to rain a little bit. Most of the 2nd floor is covered so it wasn’t really that big of a deal. . .until it started to downpour. The wind picked up a lot, and was blowing the rain straight in at us. Everyone in the line got down on their hands and knees to try to get protection, and it wasn’t really working very well. As many people as could fit crowded into the gift shop, and others crowded into doorways and under awnings. It was absolutely crazy. People were soaking wet within a few minutes. Although it was pretty fun, it was a little scary. It was a large group of people in a mild panic trapped on the middle of a tower. And there were some people being a little unreasonable. Everything turned out ok though, and the rain started to slow down, so we got back in line. Unfortunately, because of the storm they had closed off the top, because with winds that hard the top of the tower actually sways and it can be dangerous to be up there. So we got back in the elevator to go down, and it was broken. The storm had knocked it off level a little bit, so the doors wouldn’t close and the car couldn’t operate. We were stuck with about 20 people crowded into an elevator for a good 15 to 20 minutes. They couldn’t even let us out to go down the stairs because they had closed the stairs to protect people from slipping on them. It kind of sucked. And people were starting to get really pissed off, and the poor elevator attendant couldn’t do anything about the situation, but she still had to deal with the people. When the elevator was finally operational, we got down to the ground level and started walking home. It was not quite the Eiffel tower experience we were expecting; instead it was a whole new kind of tourist experience.

Wednesday July 15th

Wednesday morning, we started out the day by going to St. Chapelle. It’s a beautiful church in Paris. There are stained glass windows everywhere, and incredible patterns. The church is built in the Gothic style, built by Louis IX. The stained glass around the windows depicts many biblical figures. The entire roof and most of the walls were extravagantly patterned. It was one of the prettiest churches we’ve seen so far. We didn’t spend too much time at St. Chapelle because we had to hit the Pompidou and the Louvre museums in the same day. The Louvre is open later, so we went to the Pompidou first. It was by far my favorite museum of the trip so far. It was so fantastic. I could’ve stayed in there for hours. They had a small Mark Rothko collection, and he’s one of my favorites. I was a little disappointed though because they didn’t have my favorite piece by him, but it was still really cool to see. They also had collections of Jackson Pollock and Piet Mondrian, both of whom I like a lot as well. I also found some new artists that I really like, such as Simon Hantai. There were also collections of Matisse, Delaunay, and Picasso. There were furniture collections by Corbusier and Van de Rohe. It really was a great museum. Even the layout and architecture of the building itself is really unique and interesting. It was definitely one of my favorite places that we’ve visited.
After going through the Pompidou, we got a quick lunch at a crepery. I had a banana and sugar crepe and it was really good, but not really what I was expecting. I didn’t really like the flavor of the batter itself, and it was a little sweet for lunch, but I guess there were other kinds of more substance such as ham and cheese, which I tried a bite of and it was the best ham and cheese combination I’ve ever tasted. After lunch it was off to the Louvre. At the time, that seemed really exciting. That was before we walked around the Louvre for over 5 hours. It was really cool when we got there though. The pyramid was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve seen countless photos of it and even seen it in movies, but the photos don’t even come close to doing the structure justice. You walk through an archway that is the main entrance, and the pyramid builds up in front of you as you walk forward. When you can see the whole thing, it’s quite the scene. There are fountains surrounding it, and it looks really interesting because the fountains reflect in the glass of the structure, and the structure reflects in the water from the fountains. It was a really unique effect to see. My camera died right after the Pyramid, so I was only able to turn it on long enough to take a photo of the Mona Lisa. I didn’t get any other pictures in the Louvre, which is kind of depressing, but I’m sure I can copy them from someone else. Despite its length, it really was unbelievable to see some of the things in there. I’ve heard about them all my life, and again seen numerous photos and videos that show the pieces, but it’s such a different experience to actually see them in person. The first major thing that we saw was the Venus de Milo. It was actually really funny, because I was just looking around at other things, and then everyone stopped in front of me to gather in a group, and I couldn’t figure out why. It took a minute until I looked up and saw the statue in the center of the group. I guess I was missing the forest through the trees. I did finally notice her though and she was so incredible. I never realized that the statue was called Venus de Milo (Venus of Milo) because of the island she was found on. I thought that was just what the artist had named the statue, but I guess that wasn’t the case. The statue is believed to be the work of Alexandros, but it’s not known for sure. After seeing those two things, we made our way around the rest of the museum. We went through the Napoleon apartments, all the different time periods, different areas such as Mesopotamia and Greece. I really liked the Napoleon apartment. The entire museum was great, but I have to admit it was a little bit overwhelming. Walking the whole thing covers about 14 miles, and I feel like we did that. We spent over 5 hours in the Louvre. It kicked my butt. It was so exhausting…but still really amazing. After the Louvre, we went to a crepery that Megan had been to before. It was a really cool setup; you sat down in tables that were arranged around a center grill where they made all the food in front of you. Kylee and I shared a mushroom omelet. I didn’t understand though, that here when it’s called a ‘mushroom omelet’, that includes only eggs and mushrooms. No cheese. That was really weird to me. But it was pretty good anyway. We also shared a double chocolate dessert crepe that was sooo good! It was really rich though, so we couldn’t finish it. It had chocolate pieces and white chocolate ice cream and they both spread and melted together, so it was a little bit too much to handle.
After the long adventure at the Louvre and dinner, we still weren’t even close to done with our plans for the day. From dinner, we headed over to the Arc de Triumph. We climbed up all of the stairs to get to the top, and it hurt like hell. It was a miserable climb, but very worth it when we got to the top. The sun was starting to set, so we sat up there for about 15 minutes and watch most of the sunset over the entire city. It was super pretty. And it was really nice to just sit up there for a few minutes and relax. After a little while, we hiked back down the steps, and started to make our way over to the Eiffel Tower. It turned out to be a wasted effort. Our whole intention was to go up to the top, but we didn’t realize that they close off the top earlier than the rest of the tower, so when we got there, it was too late to go all the way up, so we just decided to cut it and try later. It was a really great day overall, but it definitely was a little bit overwhelming.

July 14th....Bastillle Day!!!

Bastille Day in Paris!!! Bastille Day is France’s national holiday, and there is a huge celebration at the Eiffel Tower at night, and other celebrations throughout the city during the day. We started the day by getting up late…oops. Our intentions were to make it to the Bastille Day parade, which started at 10:30. While we did make it, we didn’t make it earlier enough to get close to the street to actually see the parade, so all we got was hearing it and a little behind the scenes view of where the military boys gathered before and after marching. The crowds were absolutely insane…we walked back to the hotel (about 40 minutes) because they had closed down all of the metros surrounding the parade, which in all honesty was probably a good idea…large groups of people in very tight spaces usually does not work out very well. It was still pretty cool to be there though, regardless of really seeing the parade or not. The whole day was also our free day, so we just planned on going back to the hotel and catching up on homework. When we actually got back to the hotel…our plans fell through a little bit. Kylee and I both got on our computers, and actually checked on some things…then we decided to lay down for an hour…which turned into 4 hours. Oops again. We got absolutely nothing done, but the nap was nice!
When we woke up, it was time to go get some dinner and find a spot to watch the fireworks. It was only about 6 pm, and the fireworks didn’t start until 10pm, but the small amount of space in front of the Eiffel tower fills up quickly with all of the Parisian citizens and hundreds of tourists. We didn’t really do too much for dinner; we just grabbed sandwiches at a shop that was set up on the street. All my sandwich had on it was ham and butter (strange combo I know) but it was substance so it met our requirements. We got to the Eiffel tower with about 3 hours left to wait, but it was worth it because we got a super good spot with Beccah, Whitney, Malory and Jenna. They were more prepared than us and had brought a blanket to sit on, but for Kylee, Michelle, Megan, Susie, Amanda, Julia and I…we got asphalt. It was a little rough to sit on for 4 hours. They had music playing, a guy named Johnny Hallyday, and apparently he’s really big here. Everyone had t-shirts and was shouting his name. It was weird, he was pretty old (he looked about 55ish) and was wearing a black sequin shirt…Kylee compared him to Neil Diamond. Oh…and he sang in French, obviously, so we couldn’t understand anything he was saying. There were a lot of English speaking tourists there though, and plenty of Americans, so he and the others performers did play a couple of American songs. While we were sitting, I started talking with a married couple next to me. They were not American, they were actually from Vancouver, but at least we spoke the same language. We talked about their travels, where they had been and where they were going, my travels, their lives in college, how they met, how long they’d been married, just a lot of small talk stuff. We actually talked for a couple of hours, and I never even got their names. It’s ok though, the conversation was good and it’s always fun to meet different people. It was a lot of fun to talk with them, and it made the waiting time go by much faster. When the fireworks started, it was so incredible. The Eiffel tower lit up, and they did projected images onto it to make it look like it was moving and dancing, they projected pictures up of the different wars throughout French history and little cartoon battles. They shot lights up the tower to make it different colors and put different patterns all over it. It was amazing. And, of course, they had a huge firework show around it. Some fireworks were coming from the bottom, some from the 1st and 2nd levels, and some from the top. It was way better than any other firework show I’ve ever seen…except for the fact that all of the announcements were in French. Overall, it was one of the best things I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. It was just so incredible. While the fireworks were going, these very very drunk French boys were in front of us, and we started chatting with them a little (as much as possible with the language barrier). When we said we were American, they started jumping around declaring how much they loved America. It was really hilarious. When the fireworks ended, we tried to start leaving quickly to beat the masses, but with no such luck. It’s hard to beat the masses when they surround you from all sides, including in front of you. It was literally so smashed that we all held hands in a single file line and waddled through with a group of moving people. If your feet weren’t moving, you would be pushed down. There had to have been hundreds of thousands of people moving through the street. All of the roads were shut down and blocked off, and police were trying to direct the pedestrian traffic. It was crazy. We got separated about half way through, and Susie, Megan, Amanda and Julia ended up behind the rest of us. When we broke free of the crowd that was moving as one, we were just walking with smaller crowds back to our hotel. There was a man that appeared to be following our group, so we walked quite a bit faster to try to lose him in the crowds, which we did. It was a little scary though. Darrin had warned us earlier in the day to not speak English on our way back to the hotel that night, because there have been some problems before with Americans being attacked verbally and sometimes physically on Bastille Day. So we were pretty much silent on the way back. When we got to the hotel, Darrin and our hotel concierge were waiting outside and counting members of the group as we went inside. I lingered around the lobby for a few minutes waiting for Amanda and Julia, because we didn’t know if they were with Susie and Megan or if they were by themselves. All four of them came back in a group though, so everything worked out ok. It was such a crazy night, and a little bit scary to be surrounded by that many French people, some of which really hate you for being American, but at the same time, the experience was so worth it.

July 13th: Arriving in Paris!

Monday July 13th:
Monday morning we woke up in our mobile sardine can (the train bunks) in Paris! A bus took us and our luggage (thank heavens for not having to haul it through town) to our hotel. Our hotel room is quite nice, with one major exception…we have no shower door or curtain…it’s gone. So, when we shower, we have to try to aim the water away from the rest of the bathroom, and we still end up with a pool of water outside the tub. It’s pretty awesome. But…there are no holes in the wall, and there are three mirrors…whoot whoot!! I’m not quite sure if we’re moving up or down in the world…but we’re moving somewhere. We took a few minutes to change out of our train clothes and then headed down to the lobby to meet Darrin for our first Parisian adventure, which consisted of walking to the Eiffel Tower and sketching it multiple times (which, by the way I did not accomplish very well). But what better introduction to Paris can you ask for than walking up to the Eiffel Tower? It was great. We then had a few hours to ourselves to do some stuff around the city. A few of us girls tried to go to the Catacombs, but because it was the day before Bastille Day (France’s national holiday), they were closed…but, of course, we didn’t find that out until AFTER we had walked for an hour and a half to get there. It was pretty annoying. By that time, we only had a couple hours left, so we just decided to skip the tourism and go to Hard Rock Café. It was a fun experience, but not so impressed with the food. I just got a hamburger and fries, but apparently the normal way to eat meat here is very rare, so even though I ordered my meat well done, it was still pink, which was really hard for me to choke down…but I was hungry so I did. Oh well, can’t have the best all the time.
After the Hard Rock, we went back to the hotel to meet the rest of the group for our nighttime boat tour of Paris (sounds great doesn’t it). On the way to the boat dock, we walked by Notre Dame and took a bunch of pictures outside. We did jumping pictures off of the wall in front of the lawn, and when I landed I fell forward a bit, landing on my hands and knees (softly, it didn’t hurt), and then Kylee rolled over me…it was pretty hilarious. We did some group shots and single shots, and just hung out for a while before we started our tour. When we got to the Seine river, we realized that we had lost Nancy, so Darrin and Caroline went back to look for her. Meanwhile, Susie bought tour tickets for us, but we bought tickets for the 10:30 pm ride (we got there about 9:40) so that the others would have time to get back before we got on. We never found Nancy (until we got back to the hotel), so we just got on our 10:30 tour anyway. It was amazing. The boat had stadium type seats with open sides and tops. We had a bilingual tour guide that explained the sites along the way, which looked so incredible at night since they were all lit up. I was surprised to find that some of the most famous architectural features in Paris are bridges rather than buildings. We went under the oldest bridge in Paris, the bridge that was a gift from Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and a bridge that has collapsed more than 10 times. We also passed the Louvre, a bunch of churches, the building where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned for the last days of her life, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. It was a unique and enjoyable way to get oriented with Paris. We didn’t get back to the hotel until after midnight, so we pretty much just crashed in the hotel. It was a fantastic first day in Paris!!!