Paris

Well I finally figured out how to get on the internet again by buying an online pass only to find out that I could have gotten one from the front desk for free.

Anyways...

Saturday was probably the longest day of my life. As a class we visited The Notre Dame Cathedral at about noon. Then we were given the afternoon off to explore Paris or go to the hotel and get our lives in order. Madison, Sam and I wandered around the Latin Quarter for a while and found a nice little place to have a late lunch. It was the first time I had had rabbit before. Then we literally walked in the direction opposite from the cathedral and turned on which ever street looked interesting. We stumbled upon the Pantheon, the University of Paris and countless little squares and fountains. As we were planning our trek back we were looking at a posted map, a man came up and offered us some directions (turns out we were looking at it upside down) he pointed us toward an ancient roman arena and some botanical gardens. We made our way through the arena and then to the gardens. In the garden we found a Zoo, they had some pretty interesting exhibits (My favorite was the North American Raccoon). After the Zoo we made our way back to Notre Dame, took a boat cruise on the Seine, and I promptly went to bed.

Sunday was another exciting and interesting day in Paris. Our first stop was The Arc De Triumph. We made our way to the top for a great view of Paris. After a few presentations we made our way down the Champs Elysees all the way to the Louvre. The trek went through the prestigous shopping district, by the presidential palace and eventually to the Palais des Tuileries (home to magnificent parks and the Louvre). We then went into the Louvre and explored one of the wings. We saw a number of famous pieces including the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory Statue. We were then let go for the afternoon. Kevin and I took the Metro back down the Champs Elysees, grabbed lunch at a sandwich shop and found a touring Andy Warhol exhibit. We then took the Metro to the end of the line to the Business District "La Defense." It was Sunday so it was pretty dead, but the modern architecture was interesting the say the least. We then made our way to the groups evening rendezvous point, the Eiffel Tower, and grabbed a pint at an Irish Pub on the way. Once we met up with the rest of the group we made our way to the top of the tower and fought off the young africans trying to sell us trinkets. After the Eiffel Tower a small goup of us went to the Latin quarter for dinner.

Today is pretty much open but around 2:00 pm we will board the TGV High speed Train and take it to Bordeaux. We will be in Bordeaux for the next two weeks.