Paris

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Arrived in Paris on May 3rd around 10 30 am. Found our way to our couch surfers house by taking the metro. We met Gaetan and his roommate Chattan who was leaving for the weekend. After dropping our bags off at their place we headed back into Paris with plans to see the Arch de triumphe and the eiffel tower. We ended up walking in the wrong direction and finding a couple of young travellers who looked lost aswell. They were two high school students one from Switzerland and one from Canada on an exchange. Since we were both lost and heading in the same direction we decided to stick together. Our first destination ws the Arch de triumphe, then the larger Arche France (the newer bigger version in line withthe Arch de Triumphe) While at the Arche France an older man in his late 60's asked me a question that I did not understand because it was in another language. This one question ended up turning into about a 45 minute explanation of Paris, the park we were in, the places to see, the line that runs from either arch that connects 19 countries and all the sculptures in the area. This man knew at least nine languages as we knew he fluently spoke french, english, german and swiss german as that is the languages we were able to understand.. the rest we just took his word. It was like having a free tour guide. After telling us many random facts thi sold man continued on his way home after buying groceris and we proceeded to the Eifffel tower where our two new friends left to catch a train and Sera and I waited inline to go up the tower. The view was beautiful and it was neat to see the spot where if you looked straight out of the windows you would be looking at Canada. When we got home Gaetan had a few friends over and cooked us a delicious french meal.

The next day we went to the louvre. While standing in line a girl asked if we wanted our picture taken with the pyramids in the backround, we said yes and thus met our new Canadian friend Beth. As it was the first Sunday of the month all museums in Paris were free so the line moved rather quickly. After looking around the Louvre, seeing the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and countless other works of art we got completely lost and decided we had seen all we needed to see of the Louvre. We went to another museum with more modern art of Van Goh, Monet and Degas. It was neat to actually see the original paitings and not another print as we are so accustomed to seeing. After going to the Louvre we bought a baggette and ate in the park of the eifel tower. As it was Seras Birthday we then went out for supper at a nice restaurant. By the time we went home it was 10 pm, the street we were staying on was not that safest and after almost being chased into the appartment building we decided a 8 pm curfew would be great.

The next morning we saw the Notre Dame, climbed the tower and viewed the beautiful Paris view from the NOrth tower. We walked along the river where we bought postcrads and in the evening we went to see scred heart church- the white church on the hill.

On the last day in Paris we walked around, did some shopping where I bought sunglasses as I had left mine on the plane, walked through a cute University area outside of the center of Paris and relaxed in the park. WE were supposed to leave for Venice that evening however our plans changed and Bern Switzerland was the new destination, we were to leave the next morning.

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