I'm a slacker... :(

PART 1

I'm sorry everyone that its taken me forever to get back on here and update you all on what we've been up to! Our time in Paris was soooo amazing!!! 10 days isn't enough to really enjoy it - and although we didn't do all the things we wanted to do we tried to soak up the city as much as possible by just walking the streets, browsing the shops, stopping at random food shops and sitting down to enjoy a crepe or tarte and people watch. Here are some of the things we did!

On the 8th we walked to Notre Dame...













even though we spent almost 2 hours just sitting in awe of all of the beauty around us, I didn't feel like it was enough time. It is so beautiful and overwhelming that it takes a while to really take it all in. When we first got there, there was a noon service going on, so we just sat down and listened. The majority of the service was in Latin, so we didn't really follow what was going on, and we were also sitting pretty far back - but the atmosphere wasn't lost in translation at all. I will definitely be going back there someday!

After that we headed on foot again to the Louvre, which isn't too far... but the weather was pretty cold and windy so that made it a bit more uncomfortable. Thankfully on the way we were able to find a sandwich stand! In their little stand they had no vegetarian options for me, so Charlie was able to tell the man that I didn't eat meat (and that included fish) he left and came back a few minutes later with these fabulous sandwiches - they even had string beans and beets in them (and I even liked the beets!) We ate and walked the rest of the way enjoying the small little streets filled with shops. When we got to the Louvre we discovered they were closed. :( So we enjoyed the area around, just looking at stuff and then headed back to our hotel.









Wednesday the 9th, we woke up early grabbed a yummy breakfast and walked to to our metro station



"Place Monge" and made our way to the Eiffel Tower :) the weather was so much better so we decided to get in the long long line to go to the top.







We were in line for about 3 1/2 hours just to get our tickets, but obviously it was totally worth it! We met two girls who were in front of us from Switzerland there in Paris for a few days on holiday. What amazed me is that they spoke German, French, and English - and one of them was learning Italian. sigh... they were our age. I'm pretty sure the US needs to focus more on providing languages earlier in the education system instead of waiting until high school to learn spanish. :\ Anyways... they were really interesting to talk to while we were in line - the family behind us liked to push - physically to make us move faster? haha Didn't work - sad for them... It was pretty hot though, so I got up the courage to go to an ice cream stand and order a cone for Charlie and one for myself. My french is lacking but I managed it ok, and just so you all know, the ice cream over here "glace" is MUCH better!
Once we got on the nifty elevator it didn't take very long at all to get to the 2nd floor.


(a fake guy, put there to "pretend" to work?? he freaked me out when I first saw him... haha)

We immediately had to get into a small line to get to the top of the tower, which wasn't bad at all. Once up there I didn't want to go back down... too bad they don't have beds, a kitchen or clean bathrooms - if they did, I would've moved in.



These flags are really cool, depending on which way you're facing when in the little enclosed part of the deck, they have the major cities and how far you are from them. So this wall is facing west and here is where most of you all are! :) I didn't think it was that far? We also found Reykjavik... which fascinated me. We walked out onto the deck and the view was spectacular!


(Champs de Mars)





(View of the tower, from the top)

After being up there for a while, we decided to go lay out on the grass in front of the tower for a while and just enjoy.

(ignore the grass)



The next day (the 10th) we walked around our hotel a bit and found a different crepe place that we decided to try out. I liked it much more for non-dessert crepes than the one right outside our hotel... When you walk in there is a little bar area to sit down and eat or stairs that go up to a loft - we went up there and really enjoyed the cozy feel of the place - there are posters everywhere for local bands and art shows that are going on.



(Yes, we drank Orangina for breakfast... it was good! lol)

(Fresh spinach, cheese, egg and mushrooms... mmmm)

(Charlie's - Ratatouille and egg, c'est yummy)

After breakfast we headed back to the Louvre to actually get to go inside this time! Its unbelievably HUGE and amazing!







(yep, its the real thing!!!)

(Victory at Samothrace)

(3 Muses)

(Venus de Milo)


All in all a pretty awesome day! :)