Eiffel Tower and a bunch of sites.

Some tower that we found...supposedly it is famous...so we took some pictures




It's not as tall as it looks




Pompidou




Notre-Dame



Rosary window in Notre Dame


We had a free day on Monday and we went to that one famous tower we saw, the Eiffel Tower or something like that. he he he. It was really cool. Maryam, Winnie, and I sat there and sketched for a while. People kept looking over our shoulders to see our sketches. Two separate groups of Chinese people came over and they loved Maryam's and Winnie's sketches, because theirs were more like drawings than sketches, and they gave me a pity that's nice. The second group saw mine first and were like that's nice, ooh, and then they saw winnie's and got more excited, and then the saw Maryam's and got way excited and were oohing and ahhing. It made me laugh. The more funny part was that they took pictures of us sketching. And one lady video taped us sketching. So weird.

We then went to the Pompidu which has these covered escalators on the out side of the building. The Pompidu is an electronic library and museum and it has a cool industrial design. We then went to Sainte-Chapelle cathedral, it was small and kind of plain and kind of boring. Then we hit Notre Dame. The outside is amazing and I love the flying buttresses. Once we went inside though, it mostly looked like every other cathedral we've seen. I think it was mostly because we were starving because it was about 5:30 pm and we had only eaten breakfast.

We went to this restaurant and I got this quiche thing, but Maryam ordered a starter of Mussels and they were actually pretty good and Winnie and I helped her eat them. Then for the main course she ordered salmon which was good but Winnie ordered octopus. It was skewered and it was grilled in spices. I was brave enough to try one and I actually liked it! I had swore that I would never eat octopus but I did. I think if it would have been slimy I wouldn't have tried it. It was cooked really well and it was only a little chewy. The spices were way good.

Sunday = Markets and Catacombs

On Sunday we went to the largest flea markets in Paris. There were stands that had souvenirs, clothing, Cd's, leather jackets, antiques, and other random stuff. There were so many people and sometimes it was a little scary because so many people were pressing that you had to keep a tight grip on your purse. We ate at this Italian place that didn't like Americans very much and I ended up getting sick after eating there. We then went to the Catacombs which is under the streets of Paris. In the 1600's --1700's the graveyards were too full so they dug up the bones and put them under the streets, but not just in piles, in tunnels and patterns. It was so awesome! It was hard to take pictures because it was so dark and we didn't know we were coming exactly so no one had flash lights but it was so cool and I suck my finger in between the bones and grossed some people out so that was a plus.

Vaux le Vicomte

Cassie, Chance, Karri, and Winnie on a bench in Vaux


back view


Front view



back gardens


cool waterfall


me infront of a cool bridge


cool view

The house wasn't so amazing inside, but the grounds were awsome. They lit candles in the house to give you the feeling of what it would be like before electricity. They also lit candles in the garden. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long enough for it to get really dark because the bus couldn't stay that long, but it was still pretty.

Saturday in Fontainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte

Staircase of Fontainebleau


Me and Winnie in front of Fountainebleau


Fountainebleau Chandelier


Foutainebleau Chapel


Cool Picture

We were so excited to be able to take pictures of Fontainebleau

Getting to Paris

We left our hostel in London on Friday in groups to get on the metro. We then transferred once onto another line to get to the train station. The train ride to Paris was 3 hours long. You might be thinking that you cannot take a train from England to Paris because of a large body of water in between the two; however, that is what the Chunnel is for. It is underneath the English Channel and some people were nervous to go under, but I wasn't. It only took about 20 minutes to go through the chunnel. Once we got to Paris we waited outside for our bus. However, no bus! We waited outside standing for 5 hours for a bus that never arrived. Darrin made several phone calls during all this time trying to get the bus to come. It was raining, but luckily there was an awning. So we ended up taking taxis to our hotel. That was a crazy ride. At the intersections it is like a free for all not manner of rules at all. Lanes seem to be optional. Crazy. Unfortunately, not pictures.