Bonjour!

we finally made it to paris, after an extremely bumpy beginning...

it all started the morning we left for paris... duh. so we are walking to the bus and the bus guy says we can´t use the tickets that we bought online unless we print them out. so we look for a printer, can´t find one, so end up paying extra for new bus tickets just to get to the airport! jeeeez! then, we had to check our bags because they were too big. jeeeeez! then, we got to our hostel (dodgy neighborhood) and the guy said that he cancelled our booking because we were late. jeeeeez! then, we finally find a new place to stay and love it BUT we have to walk up 8020 flights of stairs with our enormous backpacks on! jeeeez! hahah all in all, our rest that night was well deserved :)

the next morning, we woke up super early to snag some free breaky from the hotel. the little man that checked us in the day before was super eager to show us where the breakfast would be in the morning and reminded us at least 8020 times that it was from 7:30-9:30. he was a lovely little man. so we had our baguettes and croissants and coffee and then took the metro to start the long paris-in-a-day walking tour! hooooooooray!

we began the journey at the arc de triomphe. jo and amie were in awe of the giant roundabout! we climbed to the top of the arc, took some super awesome pictures, and then walked all the way down the champs elysees. just before approaching the louvre, we scarfed down some delicious crepes in the park. amie and jo got lost in the louvre and ended up taking almost half of the 2 hours they spent in there trying to find the exit! hahah... all the while (to save some euros) i was baking in the sun under some random statue outside. this french guy started talking to me (in english thank god) and got me all excited to go to greece! yay!

after amie and jo had a little rest (since they were exhausted from playing marco polo with king louis the XIV in the louvre), we walked across the river seine to notre dame. there were police EVERYWHERE and a choir we could hear from blocks away. we think it was a funeral being held for those victims that died in that plane crash. many of them were french. it was so crowded and kind of intense. after listening in for a bit, we crossed the other side of the river, took a look at the shakespeare and co. bookstore, and then had a sit in the park before making the lonnnnnnnnnng walk from notre dame to the eiffel tower. when we finally made it to the eiffel tower we were pooped... but somehow, amie and joanna managed to climb all those 8020 steps to the top! AY CHIHUAHUA! i was laying in the grass at the bottom (to save a few euros) trying to see them from the top. when i gave up doing that, i watched the little kids play tag and watched the frenchies scam the tourists out of a few euros. amie and jo apparently had a fun time playing where´s waldo with me from the top of sir eiffel. the pictures are hilarious! we´ll have to get those up here one of these days...................

so after this long eventful day we took the metro back to the hotel. it was pretty late, but we were starving (obviously) so we popped in to the nearest cafe/restaurant. we tried to split a pizza between the 3 of us, but the frenchies that worked there said it was "not possible." so jo stepped up, shmoozed the waiter, and ordered us a couple of vegetarian friendly pizzas. they were deeeeelicious! so that restaurant deal was awkward, but afterwards we climbed the 8020 stairs back to our luxurious hotel room and slept slept slept.

the next morning we woke up early again to have some of that scrum-diddly-umptious breakfast that the little hotel man was so enthusiastically promoting. joanna said goodbye to the polish friends she made, we left our cheese in the fridge for the staff to enjoy, and we dropped our bags at the train station so we could have a stress-less day in paris. we metro´d to th musee d´orsay and love love lovvvvvvvved all the paintings there. after we had our fill of art, we enjoyed our last crepes, found some baguettes, mozarella and tomatoes, and got a bottle of cheap wine and walked all the way to the eiffel tower (again!) we enjoyed our lovely lunch in the grass and just hung out around there until it was time to catch our train to madrid!

we are now in madrid and having an EXTRAORDINARY time! but i have written enough, and i´m sure you´ve had your fill of my snooty french talk. so more to come from spain in the near future! for now just imagine amie jo and i with berets and curly mustaches and with a baguette in one hand and a block of cheese in the other laughing as the french do... harh harh harh! (you know, in that french accent...)

love love love!

Pierre Jaque Eiffeltower

aka

megan

:P