Croissant overload

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Not that eating is the number one reason to travel, but I think if I had to guess, I ate about 2 dozen croissants this weekend and about just as many crepes. But in addition to Pastry heaven, Paris was wonderful. I saw pretty much every touristy thing possible...the Luxembourg palace, the Champs Elysees Avenue, the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Moulin Rouge, the Arc de Triumph, the mini model of the Statue of Liberty, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower (during the day, at night for the light show, and from the top inside).

My absolute favorite was the Notre Dame Cathedral. Coincidentally, we're studying gothic architecture in Art History right now, so it was an additional satisfaction to be able to point out all the gothic structures (..in spanish). I went twice. The first time I just walked through the outside, lit one of the candles, and bought a touristy big coin with the cathedral on it. The second time was much more memorable; I went to the French mass on Sunday. In the NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. Unforgettable (even though I couldn't really get a lot out of the sermon itself, seeing as how it was in French in everything).

There's a strike on the public transportation in France right now (costing their government 20 million euro a day, but I still maintain that the writer's strike in the U.S. is much more detrimental to society), so we walked absolutely EVERYWHERE, but that ended up being one of my other favorite parts. I felt like I was walking in a fairy tale (in negative degrees Celsius, but magical nonetheless.)

Sabine and Sofia: Remember our favorite movie of all time called Mr. Bean? Well guess what. I saw THE whistler's mother. And it was no poster.

Duncan: You don't read this, but if you did you'd find out that I left a message for you on the Eiffel tower when you visit in December.

Family: The combination of fall/winter weather and the nearing Christmas season and lots of ladies in fur coats (I swear I saw Farmor 4 times) made me extremely homesick and I hope you all have a lovely thanksgiving and make sure to eat extra pillsbury dough boy rolls for me because even if I tried to find them here they'd probably have ham in them.

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