My feet hate me.

So the past three days have been pretty busy! (Especially the last two) 
Friday we went to the spot where Udara took a picture as a child and took a picture of that picture in the exact spot.  We ran into some pretty cool street performers, they were hip hop dancers.  They got the crowd pretty involved & they are the first (and only so far) street performers I actually listened to enough to pay.  We went to the Jardin du Luxembourg, a nice park and garden and area to sit and relax to enjoy the beautiful day.  Friday night from 6-945 the Louvre is free for people under 25 so we went to the section of the Louvre where I have been before, Denon.  We could have gone somewhere new, but I told Udara she needed to see the Mona Lisa.  Also, it was interesting looking at the paintings again because I have since taken two art history classes.

View of the Louvre from inside

Walk home from Louvre

Saturday we went to Giverny which was our second day trip out of the city (our first visiting family only a little out of the city.)  We went to Claude Monet's home & gardens in Giverny and they were beautiful but I learned that I have some major pollen allergies.  I have never sneezed so much in my life.  When I woke up this morning my eyes were still puffy.  We walked about five miles to get there from the train station in Vernon because instead of taking the bus we decided to walk.  And of course we got lost first...went 30 minutes the wrong way, so we walked 30 more minutes back to where we started.  We are pretty proud of walking though!  And I guess i'm gonna need to get used to it being that I signed up for the Carlsbad half marathon in January.

Today(Sunday) we went to Le Chateau Versailles.  Versailles is amazing!  There is so much to see, we were there for seven hours and didn't see it all.  And me not thinking about being in the sun for seven hours didn't bring sunscreen....I've got a niiiice sunburn now.  We got a full 'passport' to see Marie Antoinette's Chateau which was formerly the family 'summer home', the palace, and we walked through the gardens for a while.  In the late afternoon they turned on all of the fountains for a water show. 

Marie Antoinette's Gardens

Chandelier in the Palace

Inside Marie Antoinette's Chateau

Udara's collage of the day!

Overall i'm glad we got to go on these two day trips, we have gotten some good walking in and our feet are telling us.  We were going to go to Mont St. Michel tomorrow but I can't even think about walking that much another day so we will probably end up doing that when we come back to Paris in July.  We will be doing Disney Paris when we come back too!!! Can't wait for that :)

Paris by Metro

Udara & I have been using our metro pass to explore the city.  A few days ago we went to an inexpensive shopping area, on accident actually.  We got off at the metro station and we followed the signs for exiting, but I guess we took the wrong way, and ended up in a mall.  Oh no...budget spender's nightmare :(  We also found a place to get our ticket to Nice for the 19th, it was 9 Euros to make the reservation with our Eurail pass.  We will be taking the TGV, that should be fun!  Our metro pass ends Sunday...we might have to renew it, there is still a lot to explore! 

Fountain at the mall

Yesterday we went to the historical Maison de Balzac & Musée National de la Marine.  The second was interesting, there were models of ships from many different time periods and the first had a pretty good view of the Eiffel Tower.

One of the stamps used to illustrate Balzac's novels

One of the models & one of Napoleon Bonaparte's royal fleet

I have been loving the food in France...pain au chocolat, crêpes, quiche, baguettes, cheese...SO DELICIOUS!

Another view of the Eiffel Tower

Yesterday night we went to see The Great Gatsby, I forgot how good of a story that is!
Not sure what we are doing today, waiting to go see Notre Dame & Sacre Coeur for rainy days because they are inside (rain forecasted for next week)

Tackled under the Tower

Today Udara & I worked on trying to figure out our Eurail pass & which trains we need to make reservations for.  It is all pretty confusing so we figured out what stations we need to go to and we are going to go to the train station tomorrow to the Eurail booth to figure out which trains we need reservations for.  Maybe it's easier than it seems...
This afternoon we went to the grocery store....I can't get over how cheap the food is here.  Norway first was a good idea, start with the most expensive, it only gets better from there price wise!  We had sandwiches & chocolate eclairs....and I bought a reasonable amount of chocolate bread....it's delicious, chocolate infused croissant.  So much chocolate!!!

Obsessed with chocolate bread.

Tonight we went out...Paris at night is always interesting.  We wandered to a cool looking building which we saw a group of people sitting in front of with candles lit.  Udara, Nishadhie (Udara's cousin), and I were trying to listen and figure out what it was for.  Eventually Nishadhie asked a woman and she said it was a group gathered to protest gay marriage through poetry....so we left.  Too bad it wasn't something worthwhile. 

We walked to the Pont des Arts bridge where people put 'love locks' which are padlocks locked on the fenced wall of the bridge. 

After, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower area, we bought crepes and were eating them on the way to the tower when we heard whistles and cheering.  From the sounds at first I thought it was a street preformer.  As we got closer we saw a huge group jeering police officers and one break away out of the crowd, sprinting.  Six officers chased him and tackled him to the ground.  I have no idea what he individually did, but the people in the group were yelling at the police officers and marching towards them in formation.  It was a crazy thing to see.  After, many more police came and the crowd dispersed to blend in with the tourists around the tower.  Crazy!  I think they were chanting about oppression and anti-socialism.

Udara's Instagram Collage!

Paris is always a good idea.

So last night before dinner Udara and I went wandering around and ended up at The Eiffel Tower (and used the metro for the first time to get there)  It is a very easy system which we bought a week pass for so we will be using it a lot.  We will be exploring Paris first then going off to do all of our day trips like Versailles, Giverny & Mont St Michel so we can get full use of the pass!
We were at the Eiffel Tower right around sunset (9:30PM) and it was the perfect sight to visit first.  I had forgotten how amazing the tower really is in person.

Today was a very long and adventure filled day.  We took the metro to Montmartre church and walked around that area, in boutiques (window shopping....mostly). 
We also found a nice bakery for lunch where we had three cheese quiche.  I am proud to say we ordered completely in French!  We have been doing pretty well overall with speaking French...understanding is a different story though, sometimes they speak too fast!  We found a park to sit in and eat our quiche and noticed that a lot of people were stopping by and taking pictures of the mural next to us.  We looked closer and realized it was a mural of "I love you" in A LOT of languages, we found English, French, German, Spanish, Norwegian, and even Sinhala (Udara's home language.)

After Montmartre area we took the metro to see Moulin Rouge, last time I was in Paris with school they made sure to steer us clear of this area...I wonder why ;)? 
When we were in this area I had to use the bathroom so we went to Starbucks because we hadn't seen any public restrooms anywhere...I bought some random pastry for the bathroom code.  We get through the first door and there is another door.  We have learned our lesson about letting doors close behind us (see post: trapped in a lobby) So I kept the door open while Udara tried to open the second door.  Then she says "...Maybe you have to close the first door?"  Alright, here goes nothing.  I close the first door and the second door doesn't open.  So Udara tries to open it again, then we realize....awkward.....it's a one stall bathroom and Udara is trying REALLY hard to open the door.  So we laugh and wait...and wait...another man comes in to get in line.  We wait some more.  He asks us in French, "Are they sleeping?"  Udara: "Hmm...maybe..." Wait some more..."Are they dead?"  Udara: "I hope not...."  Not dead or sleeping....but an amusing conversation in French nonetheless.

After we came home for dinner we went out again and walked around the streets by Champs-Elysees.  Lots of cool views and pictures of the Eiffel Tower!  I LOVE PARIS!  And our time here has only begun :)

We also found out going to a movie is only five euros, so maybe I won't be missing all the good summer movies!