aujourd'hui, je suis à Paris...

Aujourd'hui je suis à Paris! We arrived at charles de Gaulle airport at 7 a.m.--midnight home time. Even though we were jet-lagged like you wouldn't believe, we decided to stay awake for the whole French day, then go to bed when we would normally go to bed to minimize our vertigo. Aftger checking into our hotel, we went on a short walking tour of the Latin Quarter, Jardin du Luxembourg, Boulevard St. Michel, and La Sorbonne. Though the day started out rainy, it cleared up by the time we started the tour, making for some great pictures :) In the Jardin du Luxembourg, we saw the original Statue of Liberty, which was recast, cut into 54 pieces, and sent to America as a condolence for the oppressive British government. See, the French are nice people! 

Right across the street from us is a pedestrian street, Rue Daguerre, where we ate lunch the first day. I shared some fresh paella with a girl from UNLV, and for dinner we ate at Café Daguerre and shared a bottle of wine. The second day we visited (deep breath) Notre-Dame, its Roman ruins, Ste. Chapelle, Pont Neuf, l'Opéra Garnier, Champs Elysées, Place Vendôme, Place de la Concorde, l'Arce de Triomphe, and La Défense. Phew. At our very first métro stop I ran into my friend Tarik from the last time I was in Paris! Luckily he had nothing but work planned for the day, so he went to all the museums with us and helped us out with our French all day. 

On the third day we visited la Tour Eiffel (though it was rainy, so our view from the top was just grey), Les Inval

ides (Napoleon's tomb), Musée Rodin (at which my camera battery died), and Tour Montparnasse (Tarik's idea--it has the best 360˚ view in Paris!) We also rode on a Bâteau-Mouche, a typical tourist-y thing to do, but by that time (again!) the rain had dried up and the sun came out, and we got to watch the sunset over the Seine behind Notre-Dame. It was pretty incredible. We took the Métro to Montmartre at night to see the city lit up from afar, which was awesome, but all our camera batteries had died! We did, however, get to see the Eiffel Tower light up, which is always great, and at every hour it glitters for 10 minutes! Also, since French is the temporary president of the EU, they've redone the tower to light up in blue lights only and have rigged a circle of yellow stars on it to represent the EU flag. It was absolutely breathtaking. 

Today, we went to la Bastille (well, what's left of it), le Quartier du Marais, Victor Hugo's house, Places des Vosges, the Jewish quarter, the Catacombs (which I've wanted to see for years! They were even more awesome than I expected, and far more heartbreaking), and then we took the Métro into the heart of Paris to explore. Tonight we're going out for a group dinner--one last HURRAH! before we leave for Versailles. After that, I'll be at school! Classes don't start until the 11th, though, which gives me plenty of time to adjust to my new family. I'm having a great time, and I'm really really excited about the rest of the semester! Bon soir, et à bientôt!