June 27

Today was a busy day. We woke up and went to Versailles. It was beautiful but it wasn't what I expected. I liked all of the side houses that we saw better than the actual Versailles. After Versailles Jess, Breanne, Chance, Linds, Keysha, Chels, and Cassie went to the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top of it! It was so windy and cold though but the view from the top was amazing. After that we got crepes, which were absolutely delicious!!! It just started raining so I am glad that we are home and that the weather wasn't too bad while we were on the Eiffel Tower. Tomorrow we are off for Italy!!!

At Versailles, in the Hall of MirrorsLinds, Me and Kaari excited to be at Versailles.Me and Breanne going to the Eiffel TowerChance, Me, Cassie, and Chels going to the top

Jess and I happy to be on the Eiffel Tower

June 26

The plan today was to go to Musee de Orsay. Katie and I woke up late and weren’t able to make it… well, we went there but the lines were so long that we couldn’t get in and we couldn’t find our group. So we went shopping instead. It was a good time. We went to H&M and a couple of other small random stores. Then we went to this cute little pastry shop and got a sandwich and the best dessert ever… I got a millefeur or something like that. Then we came back and took a well needed nap. Later that night we went to the Church of the Sacred Heart where there is a great view of Paris. After that we went to the Moulin Rouge and took some pictures. It didn’t look as dingy and scary as I thought it would.Church of the Sacred HeartView from the top of the church Moulin Rouge with Jess and KatieEiffel Tower with Zach

June 25

Today we had a very busy day. We woke up and went to Saint Chapelle. The walls are mostly made of stained glass. It was so beautiful. The next place we went was Notre Dame. The exterior of this building was beautiful. After this we hit up the Pompidou. This building was my absolute favorite. The exterior is really cool, but not necessarily my favorite. The interior is very innovative and functional. I loved the museum inside the building as well. There were some great exhibits. After this we were absolutely starving, so we got a crepe. I got a egg, ham and cheese and it was amazing and oh so satisfying. When we were refueled we went to the Louvre. It was amazing to actually be in a place that I had seen so many times in pictures and movies. We went inside and saw the Mona Lisa. It was cool to see it in person but I wasn’t quite as impressed as I thought I would be. We went and saw the furniture exhibit and that was neat but it was the same kind of furniture we had seen in all of the houses. The Louvre was huge so that is all we saw there today. We were much too tired and hot to continue walking around there.Art Nouveau sign at the Metro

Inside St. Chapelle

Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame

Pompidou

Inside the Pompidou

View from the top

Restaurant at the Pomp

Kaari and I in front of one of the exhibits at the Pompidou

Me, Chance and Linds at the Louvre

June 24

We went to church. We went to an English speaking ward. It was very small, about 20 people. Then we went to the Catacombs. I think that they ran out of room in their cemeteries and had to dig up all of the bodies and they were all put in tunnels underground. The workers got creative and made different designs out of their bones. Don’t quote me on this and when I get home I will look it up to see if I got the history right. (We didn’t have a guide on this tour.) After the catacombs we came home and took a well needed nap. Later that night we went on a boat tour of the Seine River. From the river you can see all of the famous sights in Paris. By the time we got back it was starting to get dark so we took pictures of the Eiffel Tower and were going to go up but decided it was too crowded. It was beautiful and it finally hit me that I was actually in Paris.

June 23

Today we got to sleep in!!!! We went to Fountainbleau which is just outside of Paris. It was beautiful. It had one of my most favorite interiors so far! Then we went to Vaux Le Vicomte. This was also beautiful. The grounds were just so quite and peaceful. We waited around for the candlelight tour. This was really cool but it doesn’t get dark until about 10:30 and we had to leave at 9:30. It was dusk but not dark. It was still very beautiful though.

Fountainbleu. I think part of Ever After was filmed here.Rach and I at Fountainbleu.The green room at Fountainbleu.

Breanne, Zach, me and Katie at Fountainbleu.

Vaux le Vicomte.

Grounds at Vaux.

June 22

Woke up early today and left for Paris. We rode the chunnel there. It is a really fast train. The train ride only took 3 hours!!! It is the train that goes underneath the ocean. It would have been really cool except that I fell asleep. Anyway, so we get to Paris and a bus is supposed to pick us up. I swear we waited for 4 hours and no bus came so we ended up taking taxis which were really expensive. On our way there we drove past many famous sites such as the Louvre Museum and the Eiffel Tower. When we finally arrived we decided all that we could do was go eat. We went to this cute little restaurant down the street. It was Italian food and the people there were really nice and Mikell and I had crem brule for dessert.

View from our hotel window!!!