Paris!

The train to Paris was fine though as soon as we got off we went straight to the office of tourism to book a hotel room. A one star Hotel Sophia! We had no idea where the hotel would be and what sights would be around it but luckily Paris has a fantastic subway and bus system that easily allowed to get everywhere. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived so we just checked in, dropped off our stuff and then went out for breakfast- omelets! We had trouble pronouncing stuff and ordering but we made due. I got jambon- delicious. We needed to kill some time so we decided to go to a church on the map which just happened to be the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmarte. Steeped in history this massive church is on a hill that oversees much of Paris. I lit a candle for mom as we walked around the inside. It was awesome and very moving. The view from the front steps was a great sight as you got to see the almost the whole city of Paris from the north.


After a few pictures and videos we went back to our room, took showers and did a little sink laundry. The nap we had was well deserved. After some pizza slices and a sandwich made from that meat spinning on a spike while it's cooked and cut, we walked down the street and just happened upon the Moulin Rouge theater. It was kind of dirty and in an area with a lot of Adult stores but I guess that's not a surprise. As I mentioned earlier the subway system in Paris is great and you don't need a car or taxi to get around. We easily found our route and were quickly on our way to the Arc de Triomphe.


Wow. When you get out of the subway station you walk up some stairs and there it is. It is really impressive and surprisingly unprotected. We didn't want to go on the tour to the top but I don't think we missed much. The Arc is at the elevated end of the Champs Elysees so we could see down the avenue. It was cool to be at the monument that you catch on TV while watching the Tour de France. My camera was running out of batteries so I had to be a little efficient with my photos but we did take quite few. We walked down the Champs Elysees which is kind of like the Magnificent Mile in Chicago but they have car manufacturers showing off new models and concept cars and formula one stuff. We didn't stop at any except for the Swatch watch store. They had a few Rolland Garros limited edition stuff (The French Open was finishing while we were there) and some red clay in a display that was cool. It's kind of a long walk and when we got to the end we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. We walked along the river and it was really pretty.

The Eiffel Tower is really big. Almost as big as the one in Las Vegas. There were quite a few people there and long lines to go to the top. We weren't really feeling it and it started to get cold so after a while it got dark and we decided to go back to the hotel. We did get to see the lighting of the tower and then at 10:00PM, when it wasn't really dark yet, it lights up again with sparkly strobes from the base to the tippy top. We have a full day ahead of us tomorrow. It's interesting how we didn't really go out to see the nightlife in any of the places. We ended up being too tired. Maybe that was a good thing because David really likes to get drunk and dance and stuff.