Paris: Day 1

We arrived in Paris around noon.  I never knew when I was underwater, by the way.  Mom just tapped me on the shoulder and said "my phone says we are in France!"  By the way, I'm a 6 hour time difference from y'all now.  Immediately we began planning the Metro routes and where we were going to go. We began walking from the hotel, which is in historical Paris.  We got to the river that showed the Notre Dame in the distance.  I thought to myself Wow this would be a lovely picture.  I take my camera out. BAM no memory card.....had to walk all the way back to the hotel.  Mom and Morgan were quite pleased with me I'd say.  So we decided to catch lunch by our hotel in this little court yard.  We said bonjour to our waiter who started to rattle off in French.  We giggled and played dumb cause we have no idea what he said.  Turns out he speaks English.  So we learned to just say "hello" first and see what happens.

I've only run into 2 really rude people today, which I think is great considering all the French personality horror stories I've heard.  One called me stupid, guess I'm a slow walker or something.  She made a hideous noise in my ear.  I found it quite ammusing though.  We decided to walk in the opposite direction then before since we are visiting Notre Dame later this week.  We walked toward the Bastille and saw a really interesting and beautiful monument (thats sarcasm...its green and tall).

We took the Metro from Bastille to the Arc d'Triumphe.  This thing is huge.  If you have seen it in a James Bond movie or on TV...its 3 times as big as you think.  So we took some picutres and then walked underground to end up under the arc.  You don't want to battle the biggest round-about in the world. 

Then we walked to the Eiffel Tower.  You'll find on my facebook later this week that I took an obscene amount of pictures.  But when will I ever go back, right?  We took the elevator all the way to the top.  I almost melted into jelly when I looked down.  It was so high up...I was clenching onto my camera like it was going to fly out of my hand, through the guard fence, and down 1000 feet.  But I managed to live.  My favorite, other than the view, was at the top where you could find your country's flag, and find out in what direction, and how far in that direction your home country is located.  I took pictures of Denmark and America and then took the elevator back down to the ground (thank goodness).  We got a french hotdog (suggested by a very good and cultured friend) and walk back to the Metro and then into a little hole-in-the-wall cafe by the hotel.

So that was our first day in Paris.  Not much, but it was relaxing.  It feels nice to not be pushed to do everything in one day like London and Liverpool.  Tomorrow we are going to Versailles which is an all day trip.  So be jealous :)