tres bon [paris, france]

We got plenty of sleep and woke up at 9am to get out and see everything we could manage. First we walked up to Montmartre. We stopped at a boulangerie and got some good breakfast and then had coffee before walking up the steps to the top. It was cold but there were perfectly blue skies, so we got really lucky on weather.

At the top we saw the Sacre Coeur basilica, which was a very pretty clear white against the blue sky. It wasn't too impressive inside, other than being notably spacious. The view, however, was quite impressive. You could see the whole city, again the Eiffel Tower, and it was just like this little haven way up above all the buildings.

We walked into the rest of the neighborhood on Montmartre, where we discovered the very famous little square of artists not far from the Sacre Coeur. There were tons of painters all set up in stands right next to each other. The paintings were selling for quite a bit of money, actually, for an outdoor market. Maybe I'll move there to work... It was a really beautiful little neighborhood. We got some more crepes and walked to find what we thought was the Moulin Rouge. It turned out to be the wrong moulin but that's alright. It was pretty anyway.

We walked back down to our hostel and did some super-cheap shopping along the way. After re-charging our cameras we took the train to the Eiffel Tower. Once again we freaked out when we saw it. I felt like a child - it really makes you just want to skip or fly a kite or something. Difficult to explain except that it's the Eiffel Tower. So, needless to say, we took about a million pictures from every possible angle and then finally pulled ourselves away to see the Arc de Triomphe.

We walked for quite a while to get to the Arc, which was a tad anti-climatic at that point. From there we walked down Champs-Elysees. It would have been better if we had lots of money because it's mostly just your basic international designers. Really all I was thinking about was the song Oh, Champs-Elysees we learned in high school. We turned off of the road at some point and ended up at some museums, a palace, and a really beautiful bridge. We took more pictures and then decided it was time for dinner. We wondered to some random restaurant where we ironically ran into some friends from IES, who invited us to go out with them at night. We accepted and then had a really delicious meal before heading home to nap and get ready.

We eventually got to our friends' hostel after some somewhat frightning harassment from the locals. (By the way, the men are way worse in Paris than they are here.) At their worlds-nicer hostel we had some wine and then headed out for the bars. I'm not exactly sure where we went but there were a lot of bars and clubs in the area. We hung out for a little and then Jen and I got tired and decided to head back home. The taxi wasn't nearly as expensive as it would have been here, and the driver commented on the terrible area our hostel was located. Yes, we know.