Notre Dame Cathedral

Our next stop was the infamous Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful as well. It was cool cuz there was actually a service being held inside when we walked through, so we got to witness it-we couldn't understand anything cuz it was in French-darn!

Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral

Our next free day was loaded with many stops...our first stop was the Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral. It is one of the oldest cathedrals in Europe built in 1242 & is known for having originally housed some of the relics of Christ-esp. the crown of thorns. The stained-glass here was very impressive. There was a whole wall of it!

Catacombs & Eiffel Tower

Yesterday was a free day, and it was quite the adventuresome one…It started with a group of us going to church again, which was an adventure in itself to find, but once we found it, it was a cool experience. Then we went to see the Catacombs! It was pretty creepy. There were so many skulls & bones! It was interesting to see how they organized the bones to make designs & patterns. We also went on a boat tour of Paris down the Seine River. This was a really neat way to find out the history of many of the buildings in Paris. We went at the perfect time too-at dusk & the weather was even warm still. It was awesome! Then after that, we went to the famous Eiffel Tower! The sight you’ve all been waiting to see! It is quite the spectacle in person. It puts the one in Vegas to shame. At night, it is not only lit up, but also sparkles on the hour. This is a really cool site to see! It looks like a sparkler. I tried to get some good pictures of it! Anyway that was our first free day here! I've also encluded some other pics of stuff we did during the day. In one of the pictures we are eating French ice-cream. It was amazing! Enjoy the pictures…

Vaux Le Vicomte

Our next stop that day was Vaux Le Vicomte. This residence, is not only known for the house itself & its grounds, but it’s also known for candle light. When it gets dark, this place is lit using nothing but candlelight- this includes all through the house and gardens! They also play classical music throughout the gardens to complement it. This was a beautiful & super romantic experience. It was like a fairytale. I have never seen anything like it! We took a tour through the house, & sketched & ventured through the acres of gardens that exist around it. This residence was basically just built and owned by an extremely wealthy man-not royalty believe it or not! This was the first place we’ve seen that actually had a mote around it! Pretty cool!

Fountaine Bleau

So one of our first stops now that we are in Paris was the Chateau, Fountaine Bleau. This was our first opportunity to see how the French Royalty lived. This place was gorgeous just like all the rest of the places we’ve been to! I have to say though that after seeing England’s royal residences, I prefer the French’s style a bit more. I noticed that the French use more pastel colors, whereas the English use more solid dark colors. It’s interesting seeing the similarities and differences between the two. This place was also apparently a popular wedding destination. We probably saw about 5 brides on the grounds while we were there. The stone staircase at this place was beautiful and different than any place that we’ve seen so far. I took some pictures inside as well so you can see the elaborate details and ornate decoration that is inside.

Welcome to Paris!

Well, we finally made it to Paris! This was the first sight we saw from the train station. We traveled by train to get there & while on the train ride we went through the Chunnel (basically under the ocean!) Sorta freaky… It took about 3 hours to get from London to Paris. Not bad. Anyway our bus never came to get us once in Paris, so we waited for a couple of hours with our stuff & then we finally ended up taking taxi cabs to our hotel-the Hotel Arley Tour Eiffel. The ride was quick & a bit crazy too. People drive crazy here. The good news however is that they drive on the normal side of the road so that is more normal than London. Waiting outside the train station turned out to be a good thing however because it sort of broke us in to the French culture-we had a good time people watching and basically just tried to take it all in. There was one definite observation that we all made, and that is-Everyone smokes here! It’s nuts! It was also interesting hearing everyone speaking French. We felt a bit intimidated & out of place at first, but that feeling started to fade after our first day here…for the most part people here are pretty friendly to us despite what we heard before we came. After we got to our hotel, we basically just moved in & found a nice pizza parlour to eat at that is right down the street from our hotel. That was all we did for the night. We were all very tired from the long day!

Last Chance London!

So before I left London I really wanted the classic little red phone booth picture, so the last day there I finally got one! I also did some last minute London shopping and got my sweet London jacket! Here we are sporting our jackets!

Wicked!

So last night we finally got to go to see the show/musical Wicked! We had to keep putting it off because it didn't work with our schedule, but finally it worked out. Seeing a show in London was amazing! People weren't kidding when they said how good it was! It was so good! The singers & actors were so talented, and the costumes were incredible! For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's the untold story of the witches of the Wizard of Oz. It was a thoroughly enjoyable night on the town! For those of you who haven't seen it & are into musicals, I would highly reccomend it!