I Could Live in Paris

Bonjour mes amis! I've been going non-stop since Friday. Paris has been busy. But it's perfect.

Friday morning we took a bus an hourish away to the Palace of Versailles. I've never seen so much gold plating in my life. The palace itself was interesting, but the gardens were gorgeous. Possibly a little too manicured, but unbelievable. After our morning visit to Versaille, we got on the bus again for another hour or so and saw the Chartres cathedral. It was pretty enough I suppose, cute little town with a massive gothic cathedral. It definitely wasn't my favorite stop though. We had this awful tour guide who was probably 70 and spoke broken english at a pace of about 10 words a minute. I think we sat and listened to her talk about one stained glass window for 25 minutes. It was long, hot, and tiring. I wish we could have spent more time at Versaille instead. Friday night was awesome though. After we got home five of us took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe to see sunset. It was absolutely beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen a prettier sunset in my life. I think it was 254 stairs to the top?.. killer, but totally worth it. The pictures are amazing. It sounds cliche and touristy but the Arc and the Eiffel Tower are without a doubt the the two best places to go and things to see in Paris.

Saturday was packed as well. We spent the morning at the Musee D'Orsay. I've fallen in love with Impressionists. The Degas' and Monet's.. it sounds crazy, but seeing them in person is a totally unique experience. From the Musee D'Orsay we took an hour and a half bus ride to Giverny to visit Monet's house and gardens. It was beautiful. Not hard to see why he was so inspired. We ended yesterday with a huge 3-course dinner and all-you-can-drink wine at a restaurant in the Latin quarter. I'm pretty sure almost all 47 of us went. It was a good start to an "American" evening. After dinner we took pictures in front of the Notre Dame cathedral and found a patriotic American bar somewhere off the 10 line. Our tour director pointed it out and everyone loved it. All the bartenderes spoke English, they had American college flags up, there were other American students there, they decorated with red, white, and blue balloons, and they had the Yankees game on. (I've been so sportscenter deprived, I don't know what to do with myself.. I may have stood in silence in front of the TV reading headlines for a good 15 minutes while in the bar..) While I love the Parisian culture, it was definitely nice to have something that seemed like a little American haven on the 4th of July.

Today we had passes to the Louvre. We were allowed to go whenever and stay as long as we liked. I'm not going to lie, visiting that museum may have been the worst experience of my life. It was packed. I couldn't take a step without bumping into someone. And it was freaking massive. It probably took us 30 minutes to figure out how to get into the actual galleries and impossible to find our way around once inside. The coolest thing we saw was Hammurabi's Code.. and we saw that in the first 10 mintues. The Mona Lisa is not all it's cracked up to be and nothing else was really worthwhile, unfortunately. After the Louvre, I finally had time to rest. I've basically just watched the Wimbledon finals (un-freaking-believable) on my computer and repacked my stuff, etc. all day. I needed a day to wind down before the 7 hour bus ride to Lucerne early tomorrow morning.

Love you all. Au Revoir! (proud of my French?. haha)