PARIS DAY 6

Today was our last day in France, which was bittersweet because I have had so much fun here but I am so ready to get to London. Anyways… today was another action packed day. We had some time before we went to Fontainebleau and Vaux so Megan, Susie, and I tried for the Catacombs. We got there and to our dismay there was a line that wrapped from the front door around the corner and down a couple of blocks. We had some others from our group tell us that while the catacombs were way cool if we had somewhere else we wanted to see we should go there because it wasn’t really worth the waste of time. So… we went to the Paris Opera House. I don’t know about Megan and Susie, but I had Phantom of the Opera playing in my head the whole time. The Opera house is so beautiful but it wasn’t as big as I pictured it to be in my head. Regardless I was happy to see it.

We made it back to our hotel with minutes to spare because we were headed to Fontainebleau at 2 pm. The bus ride there was long and I’m not going to lie it kind of made me car sick, but it was well worth it because Fontainebleau is awesome. Napoleon Bonaparte’s stamp is everywhere and although its not as grand and opulent as Versailles, it still is grand. The decoration inside is masculine but still beautiful and while there aren’t as many gardens as there were at Versailles there was a big courtyard and lake out back were we bought sorbet and enjoyed.

After Fontainebleau we went to a grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner before we went to Vaux Le Vicomte. I really wanted water and the super market didn’t have any cold ones so I had to make due with a coke and hope that there was cold water in the gift shop at Vaux. I wasn’t feeling well after the bus ride so I didn’t want to eat dinner but after I had a sandwich I felt much better and it was time for Vaux.

Because it had been raining all day Darrin cancelled all plans of “school work” and told us just to make sure that we visit the gardens along with the house. I was sad because with all the rain and wind we weren’t going to be able to do the candle light tour of the gardens, which I had heard, was the best part. The house was really nice but kind of cheesy because they had electronic mannequins acting out what would have happened at Vaux but at least it was entertaining. We didn’t make it out to the gardens till late so we weren’t able to take a lot of pictures but its ok because honestly I’m “pictured out”. We then spent a while in the gift shop and then headed out. After a long bus ride back to Paris I am dead tired and it late and we have a train ride early tomorrow morning to LONDON!!!

PARIS DAY 5

Today we went to Versailles. I had a rough start this morning so I wasn’t feeling to hot. We got up early for another train and then headed out to the palace. It was extremely cold and I don’t have a jacket here anymore so needless to say I was not a happy camper. Our tour guide was an hour late and I was extremely annoyed (mostly just because of the cold) so when he finally showed up I wasn’t sure I cared about seeing the palace anymore. But I’m glad that I did because the palace is as beautiful as I had hoped. Sid, our tour guide, turned out to be really great too. He knew a lot about Versailles and he was really fun to listen to.The inside of the palace is absolutely gorgeous. Lots of gold and marble and crystal. My favorite room (that we got to see anyway) was the long Gallery. The ceilings were painted to tell stories of the roman gods and goddesses. Chandeliers ran along the entire room. Gold borders lined the ceilings and walls. It was absolutely breathtaking. The whole palace was.

The gardens were just as marvelous. There are acres upon acres of fountains and forest and… well beauty. I wish that we had more time to visit because there was so much to see and we didn’t have enough time to see it all. We barely scratched the surface. We had time for a quick lunch/ picnic and then we headed out to see the gardens. My favorite portion that we visit was Queen Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet Village. It was serene and peaceful. I loved it.

All through the day we could see rain clouds coming in and because I didn’t have a jacket I didn’t want to get caught in the rain so I decided to head back to Paris. I was sad to leave Versailles because there was still so much to see, but I guess I will just have to save that for my next trip to France. Tomorrow we go to Fountainblue and Vaux Le Vicomte and I am so excited!!! Night all.

PARIS DAY 4

What an interesting day... ok well the last little bit of it anyway. Today we visited villa Savoy. This is the house that was built by Le Corbusier. Based on his five principles of architecture the house is supposed to be perfect. The house is very modern and definitely follows the saying less is more. Like I said with the Pompidou the modern style isn’t my favorite but I really did love Villa Savoy. It is simple but open and airy and just calming.

After Villa Savoy we went Kong for lunch, which was designed by Phillipe Stark. It was so expensive but it was good. Then we went to Notre Dame to try and make it in time to climb the tower. We didn’t get there in time to do the bell tower but we did walk through it. Notre Dame is so beautiful and it’s probably one of my most favorite buildings I have seen on this trip.

Because we didn’t get to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower last night we wanted to try for tonight but first we had to make one last stop at the Musee de Orsay. It was cool but we have seen so many museums that it’s all kind of a blur and I’m kind of getting burnt out from all the museums. Better get over it thought because there are more to come.

We made it to The Eiffel Tower and got half way up when in the distance you could see lightning and thunderclouds coming in. Paris is way pretty at night and we got some cool pictures of the lightning. It started to rain a little bit and we were just enjoying the weather… Then all of the sudden it turned into a full blown lightning, rain, thunderstorm. They wouldn’t let us go up to the top (for obvious reasons) but they couldn’t get us down either… WE WERE TRAPT ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE EIFFEL TOWER. I am not going to lie to you… I was having so much fun. Of course it was scary but it was way fun at the same time. We finally got down and we just decided that we weren’t meant to go up to the top on this trip because no matter how hard we tried we just couldn’t get there… I guess that will just have to wait till next trip too. What an adventure, definitely one I will never forget.

Tomorrow is going to be fabulous. We are going to Versailles. Man in the Iron mask here I come. I’m super excited. Laters everyone.

PARIS DAY 3

My feet hurt soooo bad because today was a day of walking... lots and lots of walking. Our day started off at the Pompidou. I have to say that I love this building. Its four stories of modern art which are really cool exhibits... but to me the best piece of art work is the building itself. The building was built so that the interior "skeleton" would be on the outside and the outside would be on the inside. So basically the inside is pretty bare (except for the art work of course) and the outside is industrial looking and very... well modern. Im not a huge fan of modern art but this building is one of my favorites. It houses pieces of art done by some of the greatest modern artist of all time. Picaso, Jackson Pollock, and so many others. It never seems like we have enough time. I wish that I could have seen more.

After we had a small bite to eat and then we all headed over to the famous Louvre Museum. 14 miles of pure magic. Haha I know I sound way cheesey but it truley was amazing. The Mona Lisa is small and really dont think it was that spectacular (maybe because I have seen copies so many times)... but its something everyone should see at least once in their life time. Once again we never seem to have enough time. We basically ran through most of the museum in about 4 hours but it was all so fast that I dont remember much. They say that if you were to stand in front of every single painting, artifact, sculpture, etc for only 30 seconds (or something close to that)... it would take you two weeks to get through the palace. PEOPLE THIS BUILDING IS HUGE!!! And there is so much to see.

After a while we were so hungry that we desperately needed to get out of there because we could barely stand, we were so out of energy. Megan took us to a great little crepery she knew of and it was so delicios. I had a "total crepe" which was absolutely delicious. It had egg, sausage, mushrooms, and bacon. Mmmm!

After dinner we went to the Arch De Triumph. MORE STAIRS... but I loved the views of the Eiffel tower. My camera doesnt do them justice. We tried to make it to the Eiffel tower before it closed but the lines were so long that it just wasnt going to happen. We will just have to try tomorrow if our day isnt too busy... haha.

FREE DAY PARIS

Happy Bastille Day!!!

Oh man I’m super tired. Sorry but this isn’t going to be very long because not a lot happened today. We got up early and tried to make it to the parade but it was so crowded so we nixed that idea. We went back to the hotel and my plan was to get caught up on homework but I ended up taking like a 5 hour nap instead. I think all this traveling around it finally catching up with me because I’m just so tired. The nap was nice though. At 8pm we decide to go see if we could find some place to sit for the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. On the way there we stopped and grabbed something to eat, and then by chance we met up with some of the other girls and waited for the fireworks. They had some weird performer named Jonny something sing and then it was time for the fireworks. They were so cool because they had interesting things projected on the Tower. It was cool to see, but it also made me homesick because the 4th of July is my favorite holiday and it was hard to miss it this year. Afterward we wanted to get home fast because Darrin told us that if people knew we were American they might try to cause trouble. Oh it was crazy packed all the way back to the hotel. It’s late now and like I said I’m dead tired so I’m going to call it a night. Sorry again. See ya’ll tomorrow.

PARIS DAY 1

Really my day started on the train but you already knew that. It has been a fun but tiring day (and I have a feeling it’s just going to get worse). We got to our hotel “Hotel Arley Tour Eiffel”. It’s definitely no UNA Hotel but it’s much better than Florence was. Darrin gave us an hour to freshen up and then we went on a walking tour of Paris and our area. He showed us the nearest ATM, 3 laundromats, a couple of sandwich/pastry shops, the metro entrances and a few more things.

We walked to the Eiffel Tower to sketch. We have all seen the tower in photographs and small models but when you see it for the first time in real living color, it just takes your breath away.

Darrin and Susie had us do a 30 minute sketch and then a 3 minute sketch, a one minute sketch, and finally a 30 second sketch. Not my favorite activity. I have a lot to learn.

At this point we had about 4-5 hours to ourselves before we had to meet up again for a group boat tour. A few of us walked to the catacombs which took us almost 2 hours because we weren’t exactly sure where we were going and when we finally got there…THEY WERE CLOSED!!! This was not so happy. We were all tired, grumpy, and starving so to “cheer ourselves up” we went to the hard rock café Paris for dinner. It was super expensive but it was so worth it because it was like having a little taste of home again.

After dinner we went back to our hotel and then went on a walk to the boats. We stopped at the Notre Dame and took some pictures before heading the boats for our tour. We ended up waiting at the docks for 2 hours because one of our group members got lost.The boat tour was amazing though. It was dark so we couldn’t take very many pictures, but the Eiffel Tower was lit up and it was beautiful. Now we are back at the hotel and it’s late. Tomorrow is Bastille Day (like the French Independence day) and it’s our only free day.

Bonne nuit everyone! Night

VENICE DAY 4

Today (really it was yesterday but I’ll explain that soon), was a very very busy day. Because we had a train to Paris at 7pm. We had a lot we needed / wanted to get done before we left Venice. We needed to get our luggage checked at the station so we could walk to St. Marks and then the ring shops (Amanda and Julia wanted to go). We were about to walk out of the hotel when the girl at the front desk was all “we can hold your bags for you”. My reaction was "Are. You. Serious?” She laughed and was all “yes, I think it’s a definite possibility”. This was awesome news because it saved us at least 20 Euro. The downside was that we now had about 2 hours more that we needed to kill before the train ride.

Ashley, Amanda, Julia, and I sat and sketched for a while and it was fun because random people would take pictures of or with us. One guy ran up to us sat in the middle of us, said “photo... say cheese”, his girlfriend took the picture, then he got up and walked away. Bizarre, but funny.

At this point we headed to St. Marks because we had about 30 minutes before it opened to the public but when we got there they were letting others in. We went to go in and this guy would let me, Amanda, and Lindsay (we met up with another group) go in because we had bags with us. BUT when I went to check mine the girl wouldn’t take it because they only check backpacks. This happened back and forth twice till finally the girl gave us a ticket and that got us through. Amanda Julia Ashley and I sat and sketched for a while.

About 4:30 we went back to the ring shop and bought a couple more. Ashely and I met up with Megan and Kylee for a gondola ride at this point. So much fun. Our Gondolier was super fun and even though he said he couldnt sing well... he sang for us. We had a good time and it was the perfect way to end our stay in Venice.

After the gondola ride ashley and I went to pick up our luggage and headed to the train station. That was the biggest adventure of all. We had to cross 6 huge bridges to get to the station and some of the girls have huge bags and they are heavy. Mine is one of the smallest on this trip and even I was having a little bit of trouble. I can’t imagine the others. Whew!! What a work out.

We boarded our overnight train at 8pm and that was the BEST TIME EVER. There were six of us to a compartment and they were so small. The beds were super uncomfortable but it was a party. There was no internet on the train so I wasn’t able to write (hence this blog was really written today in Paris than yesterday in Venice.) Anyways we are in Paris now so Paris Day 1 will be posted directly after this one (duh!) So here we go…