3/19/12
We had a solid plan yet again for a great fulfilling day in Paris! That again was deterred by sleeping in... Not by much, but we really did not want to wake up early again! It turned out fine, we were out of our hotel by about 12:30, we had a quick bite to eat here and then went out on a little walk to find the Moulin Rouge. On our way there though Jenna and Hannah saw a carousel out of the corner of their eyes, and we either have tapped into our 6 year old selves or have gotten a serious case of ADD because when we find something that catches our attention we kind of forget about what we were doing and --ooo squirrel!!
Sorry, where was I? ;)
Anyway, we went to go see what was going on with the pretty carousel and found that it was at the base of the Sacre Coeur, a huge and beautiful basilica that we were going to find after the Moulin Rouge. So our day got a little out of order, but hey, worked for me! Now I wanted to ride on the carrousel before we went up to see the church but Hannah and Jenna gave me these disappointed looks that I think was suppose to remind me that I am not a little child. So I went with them but I assure you people, I will ride that carrousel!!
We then trekked our way up to the basilica, and I mean trekked!! This basilica is located on the butte Montmarte, the highest point in Paris!!! I'm talking hills and stairs everywhere!! I was pretty darn exhausted by the time I got to the top. But it was so pretty! Therefore, worth it!! The basilica was just gorgeous and the view was fantastic!
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| These are just some of the stairs that we had to climb, they are very sneaky because over that ledge where you think they are done there are MORE!!! |
When were done admiring the beautiful church Hannah led us down a street close by that had a bunch of cute shops and really pretty houses! (Hannah has been to Paris so she has some good pointers for where to go)
At this point I have to say that I am so happy with how much my map reading skills have improved since I have been in Europe. There have been several times on this trip when my handy dandy map has gotten us out of some odd places and back to the safe(r) main streets! This skill was needed when we were done wandering streets and just wanted to make it to the Moulin Rouge already! We did find the main street but apparently none of us were thinking very clearly and didn't realize that the area where the Moulin Rouge would be located wouldn't be the most, uhhh, proper of all places... haha. SOO we got our pictures and got outta there!
When we started wandering around again we went back up some really steep hills and finally got to an area that we needed to rest and come up with a game plan. Jenna finally found another destination for us and with that we started to head toward the Cimetiere de Montmartre, on Avenue Rachel :)
On the way there and back we also got a bit of a view of the Eiffel Tower, not a very close one but it was still miraculous!
Walking back was a little difficult for all of us. We had walked so much and up hill that our legs were shaking!! Food was a must and so Hannah and Jenna both got a crepe with Nutella on it (yumm!!) and I got a tex mex chicken sandwich. It made me laugh that it was called tex mex so I just had to get it. The rest of the night was basically grocery shopping, munching on chocolate croissants, and Glee. Overall an amazing day in Paris!
3/20/12
I don't really know how it happened by we slept until about 11:15 today. Ok it might have something to do with staying up until the a.m. watching Glee but still we slept pretty heavy. Right away though we were up and at'em ready to head out. The first thing on our agenda was to go check out the area where our hostel that we are moving into tomorrow will be. It is a much nicer area and we are all excited to be somewhere that is a little quieter and cleaner. We had lunch close to our hostel and then made our way to the closest Metro station to buy a pass for the week, and thank goodness we chose that one, the lady who helped us was soooo sweet!! She didn't speak much English but really wanted to help us so she logged onto google translate and helped us to work the machines to get our metro passes. The whole time she was smiling at us and trying to joke with us, she was just amazing!
After had our metro passes we got to actually use them immediately and we were all so thankful for having been in London so long and using the Tube so often that figuring it out wasn't too hard at all! We took the train to Champ de Mars where we were able to get off and see.... THE EIFFEL TOWER!!! It was so beautiful and awesome and great and we got so many pictures of it!
We made sure to leave the Eiffel by a decent hour so we weren't running around Paris in the dark but I still feel we had a very full and great day!
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