Monday, October 18, 2010

PARIS


October 17, 2007
We drove to Paris today! It was a quick drive cause I slept almost the entire way. But we got to Paris and drove right to the Champs Elyses and checked into our hotel which is just down the street from the Arch de Triomphe.

We took the metro to Sacre Couer, a church at the top of TONS of stairs (I stopped counting long ago). On the way up we say Corbin Blue from High School Musical.


After touring the church we had some free time to shop around so of course we found some crepes and then watched some of the artists on the street.

Finally we got to take the metro to the Eiffel Tower! When I first saw it, it was unreal. I couldn’t believe that I was standing in front of the Eiffel Tower! We got to see it when the sparkly lights turned on and then we all took the elevator to the top!

October 18, 2007
So the Rugby World Cup is going on in Paris and the metro workers decided it would be the perfect time to go on strike. Consequently those who work at the Louvre and Musee D’Orsay don’t go to work either. We had free time ALL day - which would have been great and fun except the metro wasn’t running, museums/touristy locations were closed. But me and Amber did find some more crepes and a few souvenir shops. OH, I should mention that we walked ALL the way to the Louvre (approx. 1 hr. walk) this morning before learning it was closed. So it took a good 2 hours to walk back to our hotel after we walked even further to see Notre Dame (the only thing that was randomly open). The positive on the day is that we got to take a nap!

October 19, 2007
It was a crazy busy day today cause we had things planned PLUS we had to get in everything that we couldn’t do yesterday. First we drove to Versailles. I loved the palace! It’s huge and gorgeous! The Hall of Mirrors was my favorite. It was overcast so I don’t think we enjoyed the gardens as much as we would have on a sunny day. The gardens stretched on forever with fountains, etc.

After touring there, we went to the Musee D’Orsay. Most of the art there is weird and not too interesting to look at. The Musee D’Orsay used to be a train station so the building itself was unique.

Finally we got to go back to the Louvre. Bro. Sturm warned us that it was a little over-rated. Of course we all just wanted to see the Mona Lisa which is TINY compared to the other pieces there. I was surprised that it was in such a well lit room and that we were able to take pictures of it.

After the Louvre me, Bree and Amber went to the Hard Rock Cafe (again)!

A few details about our hotel in Paris...Wow!
-Two tiny, cot sized beds pushed together so it’s practically just one small bed
-Not so much walking room
-Smells like garlic/cigarette smoke
-Random tiny holes in the comforters (Erin swears she heard mice?!)
-Bathroom = closet sized. If my arms were stretched out at shoulder height I wouldn’t be able to turn in a circle without my arms hitting all four walls
-Shower = faucet coming out of wall with shower curtain dividing closet sized room in half = everything in the bathroom gets wet during the shower.
-Sink = tiny! Can’t fill up water bottles cause they don’t fit under the faucet.
-Toilet paper is located directly behind the toilet. What is that all about??
-Electricity went out three times this morning for about 3-5 minutes at a time...?!?

2 comments:

Amy said...

garlic/cigarette smoke.
sounds disgusting.
on the bright side, you were in paris :)

Amber said...

Paris made that trip memorable. But just think--it was Paris that made us BFF! ;)