DAY 4: PARIS

Saturday, July 29^th, 2006

Today was a great day of walking, shopping, and seeing the sights. After breakfast, we were dropped off at the Place de Clichy square and headed over to the Louvre! The outside was absolutely beautiful! Once inside, we saw the famous Mona Lisa painting (where you can’t take pictures) and the Venus de Milo sculpture.

Our Tour Manager had told us it would take someone full days to walk through the whole Louvre at a leisurely pace, but we managed to be in n’ out in about 10 minutes.

Our group wasn’t very interested in art history, and kept taking obnoxious pictures in front of the statues (not me of course). One of the men working there told our group, “This ain’t no Disneyland!” Hahaha. They told us to leave since someone in our group had touched an art platform accidentally, so we kindly pranced out of there. It was pretty fun being followed out.

Next to see was Notre Dame. The line was not too long, but we decided we didn’t want to wait an hour so we went in through the exit in groups of two. No one pointed us out (why doesn’t everyone just go in the exit?? Haha). Inside, it looked like a glamorous church with huge statues of Jesus on the cross and gigantic stained glass windows.

LUNCH! We were all starving and found a little place on a corner of the street that served crepes. Let me tell you, chocolat crepes are AMAZING! Wow…I won’t go into further detail, but they were just that good. We all sat in front of the Notre Dame on this great sunny day, and talked until we were done eating.

We walked down the famous street called Champs de Elysees and went into a lot of the shops. We are shopping in Paris! The clothes were quite different than that of the U.S., but it was interesting to see the styles here. Now, I think of all these shops when a TV show or movie refers to when they fly to Paris just to go shopping for the day. I can imagine Oprah flying there in her private jet and shopping there. I didn’t see anyone famous there, though. The street had mostly clothing and shoe stores.

We walked up about a million stairs up to the Arc de Triomphe, but it was worth it. Next time, I will listen to my Tour Manager and wear tennis shoes instead of flip flops while walking all day! The views of Paris were beautiful, including the Eiffel Tower.

A few of the girls wanted to go in the Louis Vuitton store, so we went there and discovered the excellent service. They had tons of employees, all dressed up professionally, wanting to help customers. All the products were displayed in glass cases. I looked at a small wallet with the LV leather on it and saw the price, inscribed on a metal pin, of 350 euro (about $440). Personally, I would never buy any purse or wallet over $30. That’s just me though! (I’m pretty cheap.) Also, I think the LV store was one of the only stores that had an escalator going up and down.

While walking back to our hotel from the Metro, the only guy accompanying us 5 girls suspected a guy to be following us. He told us to stop and look at a shop window to see if he would pass. The weird guy kept staring at us as he walked by us, and then stopped at a bar in front of us. Conveniently, the police were near us and we tried to tell them we suspected a guy who might pickpocket us (since they are everywhere in Paris). But, with our luck, none of us knew how to tell them in French and none of them spoke English. So we basically took off running past the bar and ran most of the way to our hotel while almost getting run over running through the street. Yea…we are a smart group. But these are the kinds of things that make trips interesting!

At dinner, we had unbelievably yummy food and wine. This was the first time I drank on the trip. It was even better because I am legal in Europe! I tasted this wine, not red or white, but pink wine called Kir. SO GOOD! I drank a glass and a half and was already really buzzed. Describing the feeling is pretty easy; I felt really relaxed and didn’t really care what anyone thought about me (typical buzz feeling). So I had a great time! J

Next, the big event, the Moulin Rouge!!! For those of you that don’t know, the Moulin Rouge is a cabaret show where you sit down at tables, drink champagne, and watch topless dancers dance and sing. The show was really great, especially with the alcohol, which made everything seem two times better. With the added two glasses of champagne, I was feeling in a daze, like everything I saw was slanting from side to side, kinda like a strobe light view. I still felt good though!