When Will She Sparkle?!

Part One

I got up around six this morning and I feel dead! I'm still so tired but I know that today is going to be an adventure so I get up and get ready for the day! The hotel provides breakfast every morning so one of my roommates went and go it for us. Our breakfast included orange juice, croissants (that were heavenly) and yogurt, and of course my favorite.... Nutella! The breakfast was amazing and thank goodness it was already provided because if not I probably would not be able to afford myself the rest of the week! In France stuff costs a lot and it costs even more around the tourist areas so you can imagine how we had to pick and choose what we wanted to buy and what not. Anyways, so we met that morning in the lobby and had to get going immediately! Another thing that I learned was that my phone was off on the time and it kept switching to either 30 minutes behind or on time so I would either

be late or I would be on time! Next time I travel...I'm bringing a watch!

Part 2

We loaded up our tour bus and took off on a guided tour that featured the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile and my personal favorite "La dame de fer" (The iron lady) or best known as the Eiffel Tower. The history behind the Arc De Triomphe was so amazing because it is a tribute to those who fought for France but mainly those who fought during the Napoleonic Wars. At the base of the Arc is a tomb of an unknown soldier from WWI and there is the eternal flame. The eternal flame was a really interesting topic to learn about because it NEVER is put out! The flame is rekindled everyday at 6:30pm by one of the Veterans associations of France. It honors those who have fought for the country of France, and serves as a remembrance of the people who fought.

When I finally saw the Eiffel Tour I was so shocked, not only was she tall and striking but she was so detailed! The iron that made up the tower was laced and absolutely beautiful! My first thought was that this experience was not real, my second was that I was not really sure how I would fit her into one picture. The trick is to back up as far as you can but to where you can still see the details, squat really low and then angle the camera up so you take the picture from the base to the point. I was so excited to see the tower that I forgot about the pickpocket warnings and got a little bit too close to people that I probably shouldn't have. One thing that I thought was cool was that you could take an elevator all of the way to the top or you could even walk to the top of the tower. Anyways I also noticed that the Eiffel Tower is brown, which was weird to me because I thought that it was black but after asking our tour guide she explained that it gets painted a new color every few years (about 7 years or so) and the choice this time was a brownish/bronze! After snapping a few pictures it was time to load up the bus and head to our next adventure for the day!

Part 3

Our next stop was the Musse Du Louvre (The Louvre), I honestly did not know much about the museum besides it containing the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, so when we arrived in and there was this huge glass pyramid I was confused as to where the museum was. Well I came to know that the huge pyramid is called

the Pyramide du Louvre (Louvre Pyramid) which was built by a Chinese-American architect by the name of Ieoh Ming Pei. The pyramid is located in the Cour Napoleon (the main courtyard) of the Palais du Louvre (Louvre Palace) in Paris.

With plans to meet up for dinner, we entered the Louvre Pyramid and found maps! The museum was confusing at first because there are different entry points for each section of the Louvre. To see the Mona Lisa I needed to be in one wing, but to see the Venus de Milo I needed to be on the other side of the museum. First my group and I went on the hunt to see the magnificent Mona Lisa, and oh was she a dime! She was smaller than I imagined her to be but she was remarkable, so remarkable in fact that she has her own private security guards, and you have to stand behind extra caution lines just to view/take a picture of her. Unfortunately, I could not get directly in front of her to snap a straight on picture with the huge crowd but I did get a picture from the side. Next we moved from room to room taking pictures here and there and finally when we had seen enough we headed to a different wing of the museum. There were so many paintings I couldn't remember if I had seen some of them before or not! We stopped at an expedition that they had so I could snap a pic with my friend Darth Vader (I'm a Star Wars nerd, judge me) and then we went on the hunt for the Sphinx! We followed maps, signs, arrows and finally when we felt like giving up we found a stair case. The guys were so mad at me (Quincy and Sterling) because I kept making them walk up and down flights of stairs but I think they agree just as much as I do that it was worth it once we found what we had been searching for! After that we walked around and found the statues.... JACK POT! I had been wanting to see them and it just so

happened that we made it into one of the coolest rooms ever! It was a room filled with marble horses and animals! The details were extraordinary! There was one marble statue of a man with a blanket and the blanket looked so real that I couldn't believe it was marble....so yes...I touched it!

After everything we left and headed over to a Café that was right off of St. Michaels fountain and of course I took a few pictures! This was a fun people watching activity because you could just take in the view and not really have to walk around or do anything. As we waited, I really had to use the restroom so I asked the waitress...... NEVER SAY RESTROOM. She was a little bit sassy with me because of this and so she brought me a coin and said "Toilette" so I thanked her ("merci") and went about my business. Finally it was time for dinner, and may I say WOW! We walked into a cozy restaurant that contained tons of different types of wine so we knew that it would be a good idea to try some! I mean we are legal in this country so why not! We had a nice red wine with duck,a fresh salad, and a mango sorbet type of dessert topped with a raspberry!