Day 7 - Paris

Our first full day in Paris!  Last night at dinner we planned out an itinerary for the day so that we would see all of the sights.  Stef was incredibly prepared and had all of the Metro stops marked out so we could get to places fastest.  We started our whirlwind tour of Paris at Notre Dame Cathedral.  Much like the Eiffel Tower, I think I was most surprised by the size of it.  I can't even comprehend building something so huge and intricate and skilled with no technology, hundreds of years ago.  After that, we went to the Bastille and then to the Arc d'Triomphe.  We had a picnic lunch at the base and then climbed the stairs all the way to the top.  Besides the Eiffel Tower, this view of the city and of the Champs Elysees is probably the most famous in Paris.  Much to my surprise, all 15 of us had managed to stay together, and enjoy ourselves, up until this point.


Next on our whirlwind tour was the Catacomb.  In the 1800's there was a huge shortage of burial space in the Paris cemeteries, so people were buried in mass graves in quarries that were underneath the city.  For whatever reason, I'm stil unsure of, the city decided to have the mass grave reopened and the bones reorganized to form patterns, rooms, and hallways throughout the quarries.  I was under the impression this was kind of a weird, off-the-beaten-path, type of thing to do, but when we got there the line was too long.  At this point we decided to split up for dinner.

Allison, Stef, Alesia, Mary, and I decided to do the fastest tour of the Louvre in history.  We basically ran in, saw the Mona Lisa, and then had to leave.  We took the Metro to the northern side of the city and headed up to Montmartre to find a place to eat.  This area is in the highest elevated place in the city and is home to the historically artistic and bohemian neighborhood.  After climbing lots of stairs, we made it to the top.  The Sacre-Coeur, which is the church in the center of the neighborhood is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  It is bright white with a large dome and has huge wide steps leading up to the front.  We had dinner at a really cute cafe down the street, all of us had crepes and wine.  After dinner, we sat on the steps in front of the church and watched people sing and play music.  There were hundreds of people everywhere relaxing, talking, drinking, and smoking.  (The French smoke a lot of cigarettes).  We met a really nice guy, whose name we think was "Bobcat" from Morocco that was telling us about school and life in Paris.  It was by far my favorite thing in the city.  The atmosphere reminded me so much of being at outdoor concerts at DTE, except it was set on top of a hill with the best view of one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

On our way home, we stopped and bought a bottle of wine and headed in the direction of the Eiffel Tower.  We wanted to go to the top at night to see how the whole city looked but we got there too late.  Instead, we sat on the lawn, shared a bottle of wine, gave our feet a break, and enjoyed some Parisian people-watching.