Spring Break Destination 2 - Paris, France
So we arrived in Paris at around noon and immediately encountered some trouble because we had no idea how to get to our hotel. We hailed a cab and gave him the address and even he had no idea where the street was. After him driven us around and searching through the map while driving we made it there to 1 Rue Jacquard. The address was 1 because its the only building on the street. The man in the Hotel was very nice and he showed us to our room which was like 4 boatel rooms put together but it smelled like something died in there and they painted over it. So once again we got the hell out of the room as fast as we could. Our first stop was food since we were starving. Now there are a lot of rumors that the French are rude. Well they are mostly true. None of the four of us spoke any french other that Parle Vous Anglais? Which really just pisses them off more. But they all understand English and will talk to one another in English but if you talk to them in English first they will answer you in French and only French. So after managing to eat we headed for the river. We walked down Rue de Rivoli which is a major shopping street in Paris all the way to Notre Dame. The place was free to get into and was amazing inside. The whole place was quite dark with only small pockets of colored light emanating from the many stained glass windows dotting the walls. It had a very sanctified feeling and even I felt the need to sit and close my eyes for a minute and think about my grandparents and how much me being here would mean to them and how much I truly miss them everyday. So after exiting the church and coming back out into the sunlight we made our way to the Louvre. It was awesome to see it in person because I never realized that it was set in this old Roman style pavilion. You turn the corner and this big glass pyramid is in your face. We chose not to go in because they were closing exhibits in 15 minutes. So from there we walked in the rain now for 45 minutes over to the Eiffel Tower. It was amazing to see that in person. It is massive and we walked around underneath it try to take pictures in the pouring rain. We were also getting hassled by vendors running up to us with obviously stolen souvenirs and offering them for €1 or €2 which was about €5 less then the souvenir shops. So we went back to the smell hotel to rest and figure out plans for the night. The next day we slept in and woke up and had some crêpes then made a B line to the Louvre. Our German visas got us in for free and we walked around admiring all of the artwork and got to see the Mona Lisa in all of its 11X17 paper glory. After that we walked over to Charles Garnier's Opera House. This opera house is famous for all of the ballet performances and other performing arts pieces it houses. Then we took the Metro back to the Eiffel and went up to the top. The view from the top was magnificent. You could see the whole city and practically all the way past the city limits. The weather was still gorgeous and the sun was just starting to go down so we grabbed some incredible photos of the landscape and the four of us. We went and got some delicious and well over priced French food and walked back to the Eiffel to grab some night shots. From there we went back wiped out and prepared to depart the next day. The last stop on our sightseeing tour was the Arc d'Triumph and to stop by Shearman and Sterling's office to grab some pictures from their conference room thanks to Alan's friends. We got some nice pictures but elected not to stand under the Arc and just take photos from the street because it was €8 to go under the arc. We went to the bus station to purchase our tickets for the airport which was an hour away, another thing we didn't realize when we booked it.
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