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Published: December 18th 2007
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J'aime Paris !
Our drive to Paris from Lucerne was a long one. And everyone was starting to realize that this was the end of the trip. It's really insane how close you get to some of the people and it was really strange to think that we all just met 3 weeks before. It felt like some of them had been my best friends forever. I guess when you are in the kind of situation we were in, spending time together 18 hours a day for 21 days straight, it's normal. But I didn't want to think about leaving, so I reminded myself I was in Paris!!! and to live it up. It was raining when we arrived, but we headed straight for the Eiffel Tower anyway. We waited in a pretty short line to ride the elevators to the 2nd level. Then we walked up to the top. By the time I got to the top it felt like it was pouring. I swear the raindrops were bigger up there. The view wasn't as great from the top since it was raining and dark, so we went back down to the second level to take some pictures (not
so great ones). It was nice, but cold and wet, so I headed back down because I wanted to get some pics in front of the tower. Since it was night the tower was all lit up and was really a pretty sight. Met up with the group at 11 p.m. to see the lights go off on the tower and that was really cool. Every hour at night thousands of bright white lights go off all over the
tower and it is really neat. It's really beautiful! We rode the metro home (I love realiable public trnasportation!!!) and called it a night. The next day we got up early and went to breakfast. It was actually really good. Croissants really are a lot better in France. I don't know what it is, but they must use a different kind of Parisian flour or something in those things. After breakfast we had a couple of drop off points in the city and Siobhan and I split from the group since we wanted to see the same things and the first place on our agenda was the Musee D'Orsay. It was a great choice. They have so many amazing paintings. Again,
I was thankful for my art history classes in Humanities. Lots of paintings and pastels by Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, etc. Completely amazing to see these pieces of art that I had only seen in a book, in real life. They aren't even behind glass. You could reach out and touch the painting that Van Gogh touched. Well, that is if there wasn't any security and you wanted to risk getting kicked out. But still, the experience is surreal. I could have spent hours in there- And I can't say that about many museums. But we had a lot to do and not a ton of time so we spent about an hour and a half there and then headed, on foot, to Notre Dame Cathedral- sight #2 on the agenda. The walk was A LOT longer than we expected. Apparently, the Seine River goes on forever! The time crunch continued and we really didn't have enough time to actually go into the Cathedral, but we did stop and take a few pics in front of it. After that, we were starving so we headed to lunch at a little cafe where we both ate quiche and onion soup
(it's not called french onion here!) and a glass of wine. It was very good! We really were running short on time now, but we still needed to make it to the Arc de Triomphe so we decided to tackle the metro. It was a piece of cake- and we were both pretty proud of ourselves for figuring it out so easily! We walked up the long, winding staircase to the top of the Arc and peered out along the Parisian horizon. The view here is said to be the best since it includes the Eiffel Tower and it didn't disappoint. I also spent some time watching the crazy traffic in the roundabout around the Arc. Man, I can imagine there is some bad road rage around there at times! I'm pretty sure I'll stick to the metro. After the Arc we walked down the Champs de Elysees where we stopped off in some stores where we couldn't afford a thing. Wishful thinking as we window shopped. We did a lot of walking and met up with the group back at the Musee D'Orsay to head back to the hotel to get ready for the Moulin Rouge.
We went to
the Moulin Rouge that night for dinner and a show. The dinner was good and so was the wine. The show was typical caberet, but not much, especially if you've been spoiled like me with things like the Cirque de Soleil. Still it was fun and nice thing to dress up and end our tour with. After the show, a bunch of us headed to a bar close by to hang out some more and savor in our new friendships while they were still around.
The next morning we booked it early to the Louve just to see the Mona Lisa and say we've been. I know that the the Mona Lisa was little, but I guess I didn't expect it to be so small. I still don't really know what the huge deal is about that painting... We really didn't stay long since we had to leave to get the the airport in time for some people who were flying out of Paris that day. We also said goodbye to Chad a little early since he had to fly to Greece to take over for another tour guide who was sick. The rest of us that were left made
our way with Jared back to London for the official end of our tour together. It was a fun ride. Really spent some time with people and wished I had had more time to spend with them after this. That night, back in London, I met up with some friends for dinner and a couple of beers. I was really sad this was over and I only had another day and a half to spend in London...
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sunayana
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Hi
We doing the same tour in Feb 09. Just wondewrign what time did you'll arrive back in London from Paris?