Paris!
Hit the jump
We left the safety and familiar settings of the UK on wednesday afternoon for the (apparently not fictitious) land of France.
The Eurostar goes nearly 200 MPH, and goes under the channel. Which sounds cool, but takes only 20 minutes, and is quite dark.
Before we knew it, we were in paris! When we climbed out of the metro, we saw a big arch! Not THE big arch, but it was still pretty impressive.
We then wandered around the city around our hotel, eager to see the sights. Unfortunately, it was already quite late, so we didnt see as much as we wanted. nor did we even know where we were half the time.
Titles and descriptions mean a lot less in french.
The big building there is the police/justice/court system building.
There were lots of tours on the river, but they were just too expensive to go on. they were fun to watch from the side or the bridges.
More justice building.
We took a stroll along the side of the river, which was cool, until the boats went by and flooded the sidewalk.
I dont know what anything says.
I don't know who that is.
These are the gates to the court buildings they are quite big.
The next morning we got on the train for Versailles! which is a place. On the way, a band started playing on the train. which was very cool.
Here is a video of us making a general fool of ourselves with the band playing in the background.
Several music filled minutes later, we arrived at Versailles, which it turns out is a big building with an even bigger garden behind it.
It was actually a VERY large building.
The inside was a palace, literally.
Occasionally we got glimpses of the garden outside which is very cool.
Here is a diagram of the building with the gardens behind it. We entered from the left side through the big courtyard thing.
They didn't let us use the big key.
Ceilings were pretty cool.
How did a picture of my dorm room get in here?
This is the hall of mirrors. I think the reasoning behind that is apparent....
More glimpses of the garden!
Finally we got to go outside to the gardens! I was understandably excited.
the Companions did not seem to show my haste however. The total grounds cover over 2000 acres of land, with 230 acres of that being gardens.
Most of it looked like this.
A large portion of the grounds were this forest area. It is an artificial forest planted with mostly non native trees. But it was a good opportunity for my companions to leave me to die.
One minute I was examining exiting flora, and when I looked up, they were gone.
There were lots of lakes which FUN people were canoeing on. But we didn't.
Even the birds were out on the water.
Here is a diagram of part of the grounds.
Before long it was time to leave and return back to Paris. So we took our final pictures and said goodbye.
On the way back to our hotel, we saw Notre Dame! But we would come back to that later.
When we went in a local flower shop, I saw this sign, which I was sure was referring to Shawnee Kansas. The website is for sale, so I guess I'll never know.
That night we ate at an authentic burrito stand. seen here in this blurry picture.
The next day, we decided to start out with a little shopping before our adventures.
Our first stop was the Louvre. It was a surprisingly large building.
That pyramid in the middle is the entrance to all the exhibits that are underground.
It wasn't very crowded the day we were there.
This is the flying... something. flying angel or something.
Lots more ceilings with things painted on them!
Some fancy painting. Lots of people were around it, so we decided to take some pictures of it.
The whole of the 'companions'
It was fun to dry and decipher what was going on in all the pictures.
Kitty Cat.
After we left, I found this bridge with lots of locks on it. Most of them had couples names on them.
But not all of them.
Dont tell me how to live, signs!
I enjoyed walking along the boat docks.
Notre Dame was our next stop of the day.
When we stopped for lunch, we found a nice little restaurant where they had a dog! they even had some that weren't on the menu!
Snails.
We tried to blend into to the local population.
It didnt go well.
We then decided to get a good view of the city by climbing the largest hill we could find. yay.
It was a lovely view, despite the smog.
sacre coeur.
With accompanying music.
We then set out to find Moulin Rouge before it got dark. We got lost and ended up in the construction area.
Several decades later, we found it.
On our final day, we set out to see the remaining sights of paris. but not before our morning shopping session!
On our way to the arc de triomphe, we found this park full of statues!
The only picture with all of us in it.
This is the only white McDonalds arch in the world. When it was built, it was decided that yellow wasnt right for Paris. but that was a long time ago, so now they put a yellow one right behind it.
There it is!
George Washington. Who knew?
Finally!
Sitting around, trying to decide what to do until it got dark.
Several hours of looking at flags later, it got dark! which was cool.
On the hour, the tower flashed these lights, which was very cool from a distance.
Getting ready to go up in the tower!
Another love lock
When we arrived back in the UK, we were greeted with freezing weather and snow on the ground.
Well, thats it! sorry for the delay, but I've been doing lots of comics, which will be up soon!
here is one now!
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