Par-ee Holds the Key To Her Heart...

This is all anyone sang all week. We really needed a new song. Come on, people, some Cole Porter! I love Paris in the springtime... Anyway, I digress. This is quite long, so just skim if you don't have much time.

Monday began super-early so that
we could get to the Eurostar, which is the one through the Chunnel. I wish I could
awe you with my reflections of the Chunnel, but to be honest, I was asleep. Once
we got in, it was straight onto the bus to northern France. First, we stopped at
Chartres cathedral (which I did my paper on for the prep class) for a huge total
of 30 minutes. It was great, but I have no pictures because I accidentally locked
my camera under the bus. Oops! Then, it was a very very very long bus trip to Caen
(the city with an unpronounceable name) to the ugliest hotel ever. I complain about
Best Westerns, but this was far far worse. No pictures on the stucco-y white walls,
magenta metal bunk bed and tv trim, and bathroom the size of my closet in Heritage.
Andrea B. and I just sort of looked at it and laughed. Also, cruddy breakfast of
solely hot cocoa, orange drink (i.e. French Tang) and boring bread. Bleh. We decided
to explore the town, which is filled with old churches and a castle of William the
Conqueror that you can just walk all around. We all went to dinner together while
in Caen, which was lamb, pate, and yum-yum-yum chocolate cake that day.

So, moving on to Tuesday, which was a very heavy day. The day started off to see
the Bayeux Tapestry, which is essentially a really big piece of embroidered propaganda.
Impressive propaganda, but still, propaganda. It's much bigger than I had imagined.
Random Aside: I had my first croque-monsieur! It could probably go all the way around
the cultural hall. From then on out, it was all WWII. We went to Pointe du Hoc,
which is completely scarred by the bombs and the German artillery, and then to the
American Cemetary. You can walk to Omaha Beach from the Cemetary, which really
put things into a profound perspective for me. It's far bigger than you would ever
want it to be, and for a place that should be touristy and buzzing, its peaceful
and still. We went to this museum for peace in Caen, which was interesting. French
people definitely see things from a different persepective than we do globally,
especially in response to the Cold War.

Wednesday! Otherwise known as Bus Day. We did see Mont St. Michel, which is this
beautiful monastery on an island that is only connected to land at low tide. When
you see it in the morning, surrounded by mist, it looks more like something out
of a dream. Inside, it's a traditional monastery in a very touristy setting, but
I still really enjoyed it. It's on top of a bit of a hill, so this was the first
of the huge painful stairs. This was like a motif the whole trip. Then, we drove
for something like six hours (or at least it felt like it) back to Paris. This
hotel was still ugly, but there were 3 of us instead of 2 (Kelli, MJ and me), so
it was two single beds below rather than a double. We were too beat to see very
much, but a very large group decided to see the view from Sacre Coeur. This is
when we discovered that we lived in a seedy neighborhood. My little group didn't
see anything scarier than huge painful stairs #2, but other people saw police action
and drug deals. Sacre Coeur is a Taj-Mahal like cathedral on top of a huge hill
with a fantastic view of Paris.

And it's time for Thursday... The first real day in Paris! We went to the Louvre
first thing, which is unbelievably huge. I think that my favorite things were seeing
the Mona Lisa, Liberte Guidant le Peuple, the Napoleon III Apartments, Hammurabi's
Code, and the Islamic Art exhibit so close! It makes them seem very real. After
that, we were absolutely starving, so we found a little sidewalk cafe where I had
french onion soup and a limonade (not quite lemonade, but hard to explain). It was
still time for dessert though, so I had this awesome white chocolate raspberry tart
from a patisserie. Refreshed, we went to the d'Orsay, which is the Impressionist
museum. I love, love, love Impressionism, ever since French 4, so I was just sooo
happy. I was a little upset because a lot of my favorite pictures are on loan to
other museums, but one was on loan to the Tate Britain, so I can still see it!
This began the part where we wandered. A Long Time. All for an internet cafe. Meh.
I'm so glad I can wean myself from the internet for a while, and I don't take 300
pictures in 2 days. Notre Dame was next on the list. We climbed all the way to
the top (HPS #3) and got to see gargoyles and bells and all that jazz. For dinner,
one of the girls in our group was dead set on Hard Rock Cafe. It wouldn't have
been my first choice, but I really did enjoy having a cheeseburger after so long.
We walked around, and after a few false starts, found the opera house, which just
made me want to watch Phantom again. The last things we did were climb to the top
of the Arc de Triomphe (HPS #4) and down the Champs Elysees, which is a little touristy.

And then, Friday, which was a very long day. We started off the day on the slow
train to Versailles. Versailles, really, is an elaborately decorated ruse to keep
the nobles under Louis XIV's wing. I still think it was beautiful and the grounds
were great, but in perspective, it's not quite as fabulous as it could be. I had
a Nutella crepe, yum. We decided to go to the catacombs, where we accidentally met
up with a lot of our group. A long time ago, people were getting sick from cemetary
fumes, so they dug up all of the bones and put them in these tunnels. It was creepy
in the extreme. We were still hungry, so we went to a gourmet chocolatier and tried
two a piece. Next, we saw Sainte Chappelle, which has fabulous and amazing stained
glass. I loved it! For dinner, we went to this adorable little crepe place on the
rue Mouffetard, which is that combo of cobblestones, cafes, and shops that I've
always viewed as Paris. We also got gelato in the shape of a rose, which was amazing.
We had promised people that we would meet them at 8:30 at the Eiffel Tower, so we
ran to the Metro. It kept stopping,and three stops away, they made everyone get
off. Apparently, there was a bomb, so I got to see the bomb squad! We had no idea
where we were, but luckily, the Eiffel Tower is kind of hard to miss. Did you know
that the Eiffel Tower sparkles on the hour? The view from the top is amazing! Mary
Jane and I had so much fun spotting our favorite Paris places. The way back to
the hotel was scary, though. The stop we wanted to go to was closed off and surrounded
by Ministry of Defense trucks, and then creepy guys either yelled at us from moving
cars/invited us to the disco/stopped their cars in an intersection to hit on us.
I do not like that part of Paris.

Saturday! Aren't you glad I'm almost done? This will be faster, I promise. We
went to the flea market, which I did not enjoy because I like my goods neat and
new and clean and well-lit, and I don't like to barter. Icky icky icky. Next,
we went to Pere Lachaise cemetary, which also reminded me of Phantom of the Opera.
I think the whole trip reminded me of Phantom of the Opera. I need a better cultural
marker. We saw Oscar Wilde's tomb, which is covered in lipstick kisses, which I
sadly think are mostly from men. Ick. Really quick, we got more rose-shaped gelato,
which needs to make its way to Provo, pronto. We went into the Pantheon, which
has a Foucault pendulum featured on season one of the Amazing Race. I am so addicted!
The whole trip, I kept thinking either-1)Hey, this was on the Amazing Race! 2) I
feel like I'm on the Amazing Race 3) This would be great on the Amazing Race or
4) The Amazing Race starts this week and I'm missing it!!!!! So yeah, watch for
me. We also went to the Pompidou, which has the fountains from the modern version
of Sabrina. My verdict on the Pompidou: Fountains are great, modern art not so
much. Finally, after much metro and luggage lugging, we made our way to the Eurostar
and back to the London Center. However, this was slowed by the fact that there
was a body under the train on our line, so we took a creative way home. If you
have any more questions, feel free to ask, but I think I pretty much exhausted this.

I miss you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that Fall Semester is treating you well!