Paris

Well, I am back safe from Paris. We drove in a coach bus about 3 or 4 hours to Dover, where we ferried over to France. Then we drove for another few hours to Paris on Thursday night/Friday morning. We arrived at our hotel around 10am on Friday...early enough to get a full day's worth of adventuring done. We were located about a mile south-east of Basilique Du Sacre Coeur. In fact, I could see the incredible structure from my hotel window. Sweet! Then we took the metro down to see the Eiffel Tower...Incredible. We didn't even see it sparkle the first night and it was still outstanding. It is a structure you truly have to go see in person to realize how incredibly large it is. We then went on an hour long tour down the Seine River. It pointed out all of the main buildings and monuments, and also described the history of the numerous bridges crossing the Seine. We wandered around the city a bit, and ate dinner. We saw the Eiffel Tower lit up, but not sparkle. It was lit up blue with the stars on the front of it, like the EU flag. We thought this might be specifically for Christmas, but we weren't sure about that. Comment if you know why it was lit up blue! We crashed in our beds at 845 because we were so tired from being up all night.

The next day we woke up early and got to the Louvre right when it opened. I couldn't believe I saw the paintings I have only seen in text books. I don't care what anyone else says, the Mona Lisa in person is NOT overrated. It wasn't as small as I had expected it to be. It had an entire wall to itself, and you couldn't stand within 10 feet of it. But it was still insane to be in the presence of DaVinci's masterpiece, and yes, her eyes DO follow you wherever you go. Creepy. The Last Supper, unfortunately, isn't in the Louvre. If I thought the Mona Lisa was amazing, I can't imagine what I would have thought about the Last Supper.

After the Louvre, we walked down the street and across the river about a mile to Notre Dame. Fabulous. We'll leave it at that.

We then braved the cold weather, and waited in line for 45 minutes to go to the 3rd level (the very tip top) of the Eiffel Tower. The view from up at the top was nothing anyone can describe, but one you have to experience before you die. Crazy. I had no idea Paris was so HUGE. On all sides of the tower, the city continued as far as I could see. It was crazy windy and FREEZING up at the top, so we walked to get some hot chocolate.

We then walked back to the Eiffel Tower, and saw it light up and sparkle for 5 minutes. At 5 to every hour, it literally sparkles. You know at the World Series how there are constant bulb flashes from cameras? It was like that times a million. The background was lit up blue, and there were 12 stars on it, so we think it was for the EU. The sparkling Eiffel Tower was possibly my favorite part of the entire trip.

After the Eiffel Tower, we went to see the Arc de Triomphe. So cool. This is located in the center of the buisiest round-a-bout in Europe, on the Champs-Elysees-fun shopping area. 5 story Louis Vitton, Cartier, etc.

Here are a few highlight photos, more later