delicious pastries = dirty paris

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when we got to paris it was warm, sunny, & perfect temp. so the next mornign we got dressed & ready for a warm sunny day. we had an unhappy surpise though when we stepped outside. it was chilly & wet! we continued on though figuring it would warm up...it never really did. but we did find a delicious pastry shop right across the street! it became our daily stop for breakfast & panini (bread.) the first day i got a delicious chocolate chip panini which was perfect & made the morning a little brighter. our first tourist stop of the day was the louvre. we decided to get there early to beat the crowds. it actually worked really well & we got in before all the crowds began. the louvre was so massive though much larger than any pictures could express! it seemed to just continue on no matter how many times we turned. we saw all the pieces that are "known" pieces and that everyone hits including the mona lisa. it was sooo small. it was on a huge wall with glass completely covering the wall & the painting and a huge area that was roped off. there were flashes going off like crazy and hundreds of people were pressing in on each other to see the painting. katie & i saw it but neither one of us really gets it. it didnt seem to be more impressive or important than all the other paintings in the room or the louvre. one of my favorite pieces though was the statue of a woman with angel wings. she belonged on the front of the boat. it was stunning & so many cracks & crevices. it was amazing that it could have so much detail & that the weight of the wings could hold up. and it was one of the only pieces that had english description which was great, because most of the descriptions for the other pieces were all in french so we mainly looked at what was displayed unless we caught a bit of an english tour that was being given at the time.

after the louvre we continued through the gardens & then walked along the river passing street vendors with art & french baroque houses. it was so different than anything i had seen. the only thing it resembled was lille france...but that was still in france so i am not really sure that counts. even in the rain & grey skies we continued on taking in as many sites as possible & began looking for food. we found a very quaint & petite place with delicious french onion soup...which i was craving, but it looked a little pricey so we continued on looking for a cheaper soup. finally we reached a place that looked like what we wanted! but it actually turned out to be a very disappointing meal. instead of the french onion soup we had legumes soup (vegetable) . we hadnt ordered that and didnt realize that it was the wrong thing thinking that was what true french onion soup looked like until we got the bill and it said legumes soup. the soup wasnt very good either for future reference. it was just green soup that had nothing in it ... pretty much broth. thankfully the french serve bread so we did have something delcious then it took them forever to wait on us, but i really wanted something good so i ordered creme brullee. absolutely amazing and almost made up for the green soup. it had the crusty top & just melted in my mouth. once again though no real service. finally we got the cehck but it was way mroe than what we thought it was going to be! it was def. not the best lunch we had. it was quickly forgotten though when we continued on to our next few stops. we saw a university & all of the french students gathered around. walked through some small french streets that had so much character! we also came across a tiny english bookstore taht was filled to the brim with books. they were just stacked on top of one another. then when you went upstairs it was old books that filled the space with the old book smell! there were long benches there so you could curl up and read the books because they were not allowed to be taken from the store. it was so wonderful especially on a rainy day.

just across the street was the notre dame cathedral which is a must in paris. we stood in line for a while but not for very long but long enough for a woman to come up to me asking if i spoke english. of course i said yes & she proceeded to hand me a piece of paper that asked for money. it was very strange & i felt awkard but declined. soon we were at the entrance. we walked through the huge wooden doors that were being worked on but had so much detail! it was all carved out. we had been to so many churches already but it was still astounding the size & detail of the cathedral. 2 things really caught my eye. one was the different styles of architecture there were. i knew from school that was the case because of how long it took to build, but the amount of change was still very dramatic yet it worked so well together. the second thing was that they were selling inside the church. not just guided tours or brochures but actually selling roseries, jewlry, & trinkets. it seemed so wrong but people were still flocking the stands & not even really looking at the church. right down the street & through the cathedral's garden a memorial to those who died during the holacost. the memorial was very similar & reflected what the prisoners would have felt while temporarily staying in paris before heading to the concentration camps. as we have gone to different cities there is so much history about teh jews & how countries were involved & effected. by teh end of the day we were exhausted & began our trek back home stopping on the way at a burial site that was a huge pantheon with a dome. when we got back to our hotel we stopped at a market to get food for the next day for our country excursion. i swear we spent an half an hour or more deciding what we could bring for the picnic. i finally decided a peach, apple, tuna, & bread. we still hadn't had dinner so we headed to the bakery to get a sandwhich of course we didnt get the sandwhich but decided to get some things for dinner and smuggle them to our hotel room for a picnic. so we went back to the same market and got some cheese, bread, & olives with a 2 dollar wine. we smuggled it back upstairs and laid out a blanket on our bed & had a feast. it was so much fun & relaxing and pretty much cost us nothing. we were both ready for bed but had to complete the night with our 5 minute shower for 2.50 euros. all the practice i had at national parks really helped. i was able to shower & shave in five minutes. i was so proud. we also decided that might be why europeans smell...not really. but the goal was accomplished and i hit the bed ready for our excursion to versailles!

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