C'est La Vie

Last night we went to the Moulin Rouge, and I was pleasantly suprised. I don't really know what I was expecting, but the performers, acts, and dancers were amazing. Although it was kind of odd at first that the women were topless, I started to really appreciate how brave and liberated they must feel up there on stage. The only part I didnt like was this terrible snake in a tank act they did (With REAL Snakes) yuck.

Today we had a first full free day in the beautiful PARIS! We woke up early and bought all day subway passes to the Arch de Triumph (SP). It was beautiful and surreal to see something so perfect and beautiful that I've been seeing in movies my entire life.

After this, we had a little glitch. On the way out to a beautiful cathedral on the outside of the city, the metro system closed down. This turned a 10 minute metro ride into a 3 hour trek across Paris. We finally made it and hiked up the hill and walked into the Cathedral while a mass was going on. It made me think of my Grandma Lela, who passed away last year. The pope had recently visited this Cathedral and there were pictures of him everywhere. My Lela was a devout Catholic and a huge fan of the Pope and it made me smile and think of her when I saw all the people praying and being happy in that church.

The cathedral itself was amazing, but this was the first time I was really uncomfortable in Europe. There were many street vendors and men walking up to our group and trying to get us to buy knick-knacks or try things, and they are very pushy and sometimes hostile when we refused them. Luckily, we had a large group and we all looked after eachother and were fine. We did have something weird happen to us though-a news crew approached us and asked us in French if they could show us a magic trick. Alex stepped up while I looked on. (all the while being filmed for french tv) After the magic trick and our reactions were filmed, we found out that we will be on channel 4 news on July 14 in Paris...if anyone is interested. YIKES

After this, we went to Notre Dame again, and then we went on to explore THE LOURVE. I have always heard about the Lourve, and all the amazing works of art that are housed there. Did you know about 84% of France's collection of artwork has NO room to be displayed at the Lourve? This means we the general public only get to see a small fraction of all these amazing pieces. We were informed by our tour guide Herbie that an extension of the Lourve is being built, so a bit more of it will start becoming available to tourists and art enthusiasts alike. My favorite person in the whole word (Emily Northcutt!) came to Paris recently and told me the Lourve was a must see-so I was extra happy I did!

After that, we went to the Eiffel Tower with the intention of going to the 2nd or top level to take some pictures. When we finally got to the tower through the zillions of people, we found out that a crazy person was attempting to beat the world record of jumping off the tower in rollerblades onto some sort of ramp. Instead of going to the top, we watched a lunatic jump off the Eiffel Tower.. it was cold and rainy anyway so we were glad we didn't have to wait in a 3 hour line. It took a while for us to get home, but once we did, we ate some baguettes and cheese and took a showers.

I FLOODED OUR HOTEL ROOM. I was brushing my teeth and decided for some reason to leave the faucet running when I hopped into the shower. When I got out, there was literally 2 inches of water standing in the bathroom and flowing into the hotel room. Seven towels later and a minor panic attack, all is well and we are leaving in the morning for Amsterdam.

We have about 7 hours of travel time tomorrow on the bus, so Im hoping I can keep from getting motion sickness and enjoy the beautiful countryside.

I will have to update Paris pics when I get to Amsterdam with a better internet connection!

PS. Excuse my spelling whilst in Paris....my spell check is set to correct French words only...so every single word I have typed is spelled incorrectly.