Paris

We started out our adventure in Paris 7:30 AM when we arrived in the train station. From there we went out to find our hotel. The directions we had received were lacking, but with some help from the locals and a map, we located the Andre Gill hotel. They went ahead and let us check in and drop off all our stuff. After we had brushed out teeth, we headed out to explore Paris. We jumped on the metro and headed to the Eiffel Tower so we could see the city. It was a beautiful day, so we had an amazing view.

After that we headed to the Arc de Triumph and then onto the Champs Elysees. This is a popular street to shop for name brands such as Dolce and Gabana, and to our excitement The GAP. We grabbed a sandwich and a pastry, but then we ran into a problem. There are no trashcans on the Champs Elysees, so we had to carry our bags all the way to the end until we went down to the metro.

Next we headed over to the Pantheon, and took some pictures. At this point we were pretty exhausted from lack of sleep and running all over Paris for a day, we headed back to our hotel to take a breather. Here we found out about this great place to view the Eiffel Tower at night while it is all lit up. So we headed up to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur, but we were about 5 minutes late to see it “sparkle,” so instead of waiting another hour, we headed to dinner. The owner of the hotel’s wife had told us about an extremely good place to eat really close and cheap, so we took off in that direction. Claire, Jacob and Cody got a huge salad with potatoes on top, Kyle got chicken with avocado, and I got the best bowl of tomato basil soup, next to my moms! After dinner we headed up to a local crape maker and experienced our first, but not last, crape.

Then we headed back to the hotel and fell to sleep almost instantly. DAY 2 started out with a wonderful French breakfast consisting of fresh croissants, more bread, coffee, hot chocolate, and hot tea. We then made our way to the Louvre.

We were all so excited about going that we got there pretty quickly. We decided to go ahead and take a one and a half hour tour so that we wouldn’t get lost and our tour guide showed us most of the important stuff and then told us what else we needed to see before we left. We hung around there for a couple more hours and then headed over to the Notre Dame. This was the most beautiful church I have ever seen! The stain glass was astonishing; we just stood/sat there in awe for about 30 minutes taking everything in.

Near our hotel next to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur is where the local artists display their art, so we stopped by and checked it out. After that it was time to go to the Eiffel Tower that way we didn’t miss it “sparkle” again like the night before.

We got several pictures then we made our way over to the Moulin Rouge. Several interesting shops and people surrounded it, but the sight was definitely worth walking over to it.

Like the previous night, we made sure we had a crape before we headed back to the hotel. On DAY 3 we accomplished a lot! We began by going out to Versailles, which was about an hour away from Paris. It was filled with beautiful décor and paintings of past French royalty. We took lots of pictures including one of our reflections in the famous hall of mirrors.

After we got back to Paris, we headed over to the Opera House where the original Phantom of the Opera was performed. After a quick peek at the stage, we headed over to another shopping district.

We decided we weren’t in the mood to shop, so we went to several other landmarks we found on our map including the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise which was an old cemetery, and Eglise du dome. After all this we caught a night train back to Venice and to our home in Paderno!