Paris Trip Day 3

Paris at last! Our hotel was a little different in that there were three beds to a room, two regular ones, and one bunk one really close to the ceiling, kind of cool. So my roommate (not Sarah this time) took the top one and I got both the bottom ones. :)

Today was kind of exhausting. The bus and tour guides will do that to you. Especially tour guides with a lot of energy. This lady jumped on our bus upon our arrival at Versailles and started speaking French faster than I'd ever heard and I thought oh dear, it's a good thing I've been here before cause I'm not going to get a lot out of this. But luckily she had forgotten that the tour was supposed to be in English, she laughed at herself for quite a while about this. Off we went on our enthusiastic tour of Versaille with our extremely enthusiastic tour guide. I must say, it was quite a different tour of Versaille than the last time I went, and not just because of the excited guide. We were "lucky" enough to be at Versaille at the same time as a modern art exposition. I know, it sounds like an oxymoron or something, this historic, beautiful castle with modern art. Apparently, the French aren't too fond of modern art, so the only way to get them to see it is to kind of trick them and just throw it in random places that the French will go, like Versaille. Well, even us uncultured Americans thought it was just ridiculous and wrong. Lobsters, giant helium dog balloons, floaty toys to name a few (see pictures), not to metion the Michael Jackson look alike with a monkey on him. And if we thought it was bad, you should have heard the French comments! I recall hearing the word scandolous quite a few times, haha. It took a couple of hours, then we saw the gardens, and after a quick lunch break we hopped back on the bus and did a driving tour. With the same tour guide.

Included in our driving tour was a drive-by of the Champs Elysee, Le Arch de Triomphe, The mini statue of liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Seinne River, and two places were we got out- Les Invalides and Notre Dame. Les Invalides is where Napolean and a couple of other people, included his son, are buried. Kind of a cool place.

Afterwards, we stopped at Notre Dame, where we were obviously supposed to go inside. Unfortunetely, we didn't realize that the same time we were there, President Sarkozy was also there attending mass for a very well known nun that had recently died. So security was tight outside, and no one was allowed in. It was kind of cool thought to be able to say we were there at the same time as him. But I still took a lot of pictures outside (as you can see). I'm having fun with the fact that I don't have to worry about how much film I'm using and I get to mess with the color options.

After we finally deposited our tour guide on a street corner (literally), we headed up to my favorite spot in Paris, Montemartre. It's a very bohemian section of Paris, up on a hill, that just comes alive at night. I stayed there for a week the last time I was in Paris and absolutely fell in love. There are cafes everywhere, musicians playing on the streets, artists painting scenes of Paris or portraits of people, there is a gorgeous church on the hill- the Sacre Coeur, and the view of the city from the hill is absolutely amazing. So we walked around there for a while and found a cool thrift store which Sarah, who is really into vintage stuff, inside we stop in. So we stayed there for quite a while trying on ridiculous clothes before finally moving on. I showed them my favorite view point of Paris where we took a few evening pictures of the city and the tower, and then we met the group for dinner.

I must say, it was quite a dinner. It was just a little cafe in the middle of Montemartre where we all sat at one huge table. For the appetizer, they served us a very traditional Parisian dish that apparently goes back a long ways, French Onion Soup, and it was amazing. Not only was it good, free food, we also got some entertainment. A guy who worked for the restaurant started playing the piano and electric guitar and singing a few famous french songs and any english song he knew. Now, I say "guy" in a very loose sense; he was actually a cross dresser, make-up and everything. If you've ever seen The Wedding Singer, think of George and you can pretty much picture this guy. As the night went on and he drank more, things got a little more interesting. Just to give you an idea, he called a few of the girls, and Marvin, on stage with him and they sang a very animated version of "Dancing Queen" by Abba. Let's just say it was an interesting dinner.

After dinner we wandered the streets a bit, took some pictures of the Moulin Rouge, and then headed back to the hotel. It was kind of cool, actually this might sound kind of lame but I was talking to my teacher that had come with us on the way back to the hotel, and we had a really nice talk (in French). She is actually really cool, really easy to talk to, very young (I think 27), and just really fun. So it was good to practice my french, and I was happy because I felt like it was coming easier. And then I got really happy when she said something like, "you used to be so timid and weren't comfortable talking in class and now you talk all the time and it's so much better", so that was cool. Afterwards we just relaxed in the lobby of the hotel with some hot drinks before calling it a night.