Parker #1: May 19

Today, our first full day in Paris, basically was pure amazingness. After 20 some odd hours of planes and trains yesterday nothing could have been better than 9 peaceful and blissful hours of heavenly sleep. But I was wrong. (no you can't quote me on ever saying that just cuz its on the internet). We woke up and had a breakfast of REAL croissants, OJ, hot chocolate, toast, yogurt, and muffins. Did I mention breakfast was AMAZING because we got it complimentary (that means FREE) and more importantly it was legit French style! In a jiffy we were off to La Tour Eiffel via the RER aka super awesome two-story mega metro tram. We then proceeded up the stairs to the 2nd floor of the tower but really like 15ish stories, all the while discussing the towers engineering, history and controversial political effects on city skylines. Needless to say the view was Amazing, worth the 8,50 euros, but probably something to see for yourself cuz its way to cool for me to put into words. Therefore rather than give you 1000 words we will soon attach Xian's pics of us at the top trying to figure out why the parisians are so tiny.

The city however is huge. After the tower we went to the Arc de Triomphe, a really, really humongous arch built for Napoleon in the 1800s surrounded 8 "lanes" of traffic and got our picture taken like the awesome tourists that we are. Nearby we had lunch which was of course delicious: a french sandwich on baguettes that put any American bakery to shame and with the oh-so-european bubble water. After some intense chocolate shopping and consequential devouring, we meandered down the Champs-Elysées taking pictures along the way. (Be sure to ask Xian what the police think of his now-nonexistent pictures of the American embassy. haha, whewww) Cedge and I made sure to note the guillotine spot (aka Concorde if your French) and rail Chi-Chi on his political beliefs agains capital punishment. Continuing along the Champs-Elysées saw some probably really famous shops and beautiful gardens in front of the Louvre. Since, as my poor legs discovered today, paris is really huge we then hopped on the metro again (don't worry we have a five day pass: best idea ever) to go to Notre Dame which is actually the #1 tourist spot in the #1 tourist city. The cathedral was beautiful and majority impressive and something else thats just better in person or almost halfway justified in pictures. So we (meaning christian) we took many.

At this point I would like to note our jobs for the day, though they were in no way official. Sam was the navigator since he was here only weeks ago, Cedric our translator for obvious reasons, Xian the photographer along with some friendly random strangers who don't mind taking pictures of all five of us, I (Parker) the engineering expert and most eager French scholar, and Henry was our tour-guide of art and architecture thanks to art history and Mr.Clark. So pretty much Henry and I are planning on sitting down for about 38 seconds tomorrow to redesign the entire business district of London. No biggie.

Continuing on we enjoyed walking along the river and the best ice cream/sorbet/gelato ever at Berthillon! We waited in line for about 20 years but then went to Sainte Chapelle which is famous for its stained-glass windows because a the time it was built it had the most in the world. After so more meandering we found a French restaurant and Cedric had us eat real Foie gras (yeah pretty much fat duck liver). After dinner we, being obese and lazy Americans, took the metro to the Louvre where I was justified against Cedge and Xian's tyranny of child jokes. Turns out if your 17 the Louvre is free but if your 18 they want an arm and a leg. I must note Cedge escaped on the minor detail of being a French citizen but fear not, his day will come. We saw soooo many works of art in so little time (maybe 2ish hours) but we made sure to hit all of the important meaning least exciting pieces. La Jaconde and Madonna on the Rocks. Here I must give a shout out to Henry's amazing art professor skills as I learned tons! We were unfortunately escorted out of the museum because we overstayed our welcome…

Then we went on the metro and learned that there is no difference between the mythological greek labyrinth and Paris's metro/RER system. Actually, there is one: it is in fact possible to stumble your way thought the former. Our journey home of about 4 miles consisted of 3 different lines and trains, 2,871 turns through the tunnels, 6 ticket booths and the mother of all travellators, a 300m behemoth with a ramp! We ended the day with a latenight grocery store stop where we bought only the healthiest junk food and some Nouvelle Star (yeah google that). I must warn you, one song is not the same in America as it is in France. Then my dear friend sam and I blogged, secretly enjoying keeping everyone else up until passin out ourselves……thud

~Parker