Brian!

I haven't updated in a while but I have SO much to update on!! I might have to split this up into two separate posts. Where do I even begin? Boring but I had class Monday in Invalides. That is the war museum and the giant tomb that Napoleon's tomb is in. The tomb is enormous for such a little guy!! I tried to focus during class but I really just couldn't because I was so excited for the next day. I went to the airport at around 7am Tuesday morning to pick Brian up! He was so exhausted from traveling but after a nice first class treat I didn't feel too bad so we still had our whole day ahead of us. Our first stop was to the hotel where he dropped off his stuff. Then we went straight to the RER and headed towards Versailles. Dumb move on my part, I didn't look into buying tickets in advance so we were stuck waiting in an hour and a half line. I had already been to Versailles but when I went it was freezing out and I was not happy to be there. This time the weather was so much nicer. We explored the castle first and Brian being the history loser he is loved all the rooms and listened closely to hear about this history with the audio guide. My favorite part was going to see the gardens, becuase as I said before we couldn't last time. The gardens were HUGE and very beautiful. We walked around for a while but we were so tired, him from traveling, and me from Amsterdam that we headed back towards Paris. We were hungry for dinner at around this time so we headed towards the Bastille and found a place for cheeseburgers for dinner (man I miss American cheese, what I would do for portillos!). After dinner we got gelato and walked around the Bastille area. Then very exhausted we both passed out while it was still light out.

Wednesday was another super busy day. We headed to Gare St. Lazare at 9am to make our 10h10 train to Bayeux. Bayeux is a city in the north of France in the Normandy area, only a half hour away from the D-Day beachs and American Cemetary. We were talking a half day tour of those areas. After two hours of sleeping on the train we woke up in Bayeux. We waited outside the train station for the tour to pick us up. Once the tour guide got there we realized he was just a man in a sketch mini-van. I would've been hesitant about this but my friends had taken the same tour just last week, so I figured it would be fine. We were the first two in the car but shortly after 4 other Americans joined us. They were a good bunch, pretty funny and asked a lot of questions. I defintely had to hold in my laughter at some points. Our first stop on the tour was Pointe du Hoc. This was a German bunker on the top of a cliff. The American rangers scaled the 100 ft cliff (some in only 5 minutes) to get to the top to sneak attack the Germans. The land on the top of the cliff was filled with craters made from all the bombs. The bunks (in shambles) still remained there too. Our tour guide, Fredricke, gave us some information on the area and then we got to explore a little. After Pointe du Hoc we went to Omaha Beach, one of the beaches the Americans landed on in Normandy. The beach is now used as a resort beach, as shocking as that sounds our tour guide gave us a good explanation. The reason the Americans came here was to set Europe free and allowing people to be free to hang out on beaches and do what they wanted. There was a memorial there but it was for all the wars. It was still pretty interesting stuff. Our next stop was the American Cemetery. This is actual American owned land in France, closest I've been to home yet. The cemetery is really cool. We first went to see the small museum on the property and from there went to look at the graves. All the graves are lined up perfectly symmetrical so whichever way you look at them you see a straight line. We walked around the graves and looked at all the names and just checked it all out. It was very powerful. Our last stop on the tour was a German bunker (more typical then the one at Pointe du Hoc). It was in the middle of a wheat field and it was still very intact. We looked around for 15 minutes but then suddenly it was already 6:00. We drove back to the train station and made it just in time for our 6h41 train back to Paris. That of course we slept through as well. When we got back we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant on St. Michele and then went to go see the Eiffel Tower. We got there just in time to see it all lit up and sparkling. We took some pictures then exhausted headed to sleep.

Thursday we finally spent the day in Paris! I went to class in the morning and then Brian successfully made it to the Jardin du Louxumbourg, read for a little while, and then met me at class. I was very impressed with his navigating skills. After class we got crepes, him egg cheese and ham, and me nutella and banana, and walked over to Notre Dame. We did the walk through of Notre Dame really quick and admired it from the outside. Then we walked towards the Louvre. Once we got there I was really nervous that's where we were going to spend the rest of our day due to outrageous lines during tourist seasons. Boy was I wrong. There were no lines and the museum was really empty. We got in, saw the Mona Lisa first of course, then headed to the Venus de Milo. We saw a lot of the other rooms on the way and Brian really liked all the old Egyptian and Mesopotamia stuff, again the true history teacher coming up. After the Louvre we walked through the Jardin de Tulieres and the Place de Concorde and found ourselves at the Champs Elysse. We walked down the street and went to the Arc De Triomphe. We walked the 200 some steps up to get a great view of Paris. Then we sat up there for a little while. When we came down we saw a little bit of a Ceremony for soldiers and then headed out from there. We went to the Chinese place I always go to for dinner and then headed over to the Bastille again. We sat on the opera steps of the Bastille waiting for Lauren to come to all get dessert (gelato again of course). While we were waiting there were trick bike riders messing around and riding down the banister of the opera house, only in Paris ha. We finally found Lauren, got Gelato, walked around and then we headed separate ways to get some sleep.

Friday was another toursity day of Paris. We started at the Catacombs but unfortunaetly they were closed due to flooding, such a bummer. Then we headed over to Musee D'Orsay for some impressionist art fix. I found a painting there that I missed a few other times, but I have a remake (Ashley Isaacson original from 3rd grade art) hanging up in my room at home. I thought that was pretty cool. We walked around the museum and after feeling cultured enough headed out. From there we walked around the area I live by and went to print out our Eiffel Tower tickets from an internet cafe for later in the day. We then walked over to Musee Rodin, one of my favorites. We saw all the statues outside and sat in the park for a little. After that we went over to the Eiffel Tower and fell asleep in a park over there for a little. Then it was 4:30 which was time for our reservation to go to the top. While waiting to go we saw a gypsy fight. That was something I hadn't seen in Paris before. Once the commotion calmed down we went all the way to the top of the tower. We saw a great view of Paris and picked out some of the landmarks that are noticeable from all the way up there. It was really cool. After that we went back and got ready to go out. We met up with Erin, Caroline, and Carolines two visitors from home to go to Baby Bottles for dinner. Dinner was delicious as usual and afterward we went to go see Sacre Cour all lit up at night. We headed down back to the Latin quarter to go to Temple bar for the night. It was a fun time just hanging out in a small group and everyone getting to know the visitors. After the bar I was super exhausted and headed to sleep.