On Paris.

I've been in France the past two weeks. I spent the first in Paris, the second touring Provence, & now we're taking our final days in Nice.

Paris is a city. It's a beautiful city, but a city nonetheless. Our apartment was in the "high rent distract". On loan to us from some family's friends (not to be mistaken with "family friends"). It was on a street with lots of bakeries & restaurants. We had a gated courtyard. You needed a pass code to get in. If you walked down the street, you were on the Champs-Elysses. To the right was the Eiffel Tower.
We walked everywhere in Paris. Unless it was really dreadfully far, in which case we took a cab.
On the first day we visited musee D'Orsay. It's in an old train station & houses the impressionists. Everything is beautiful. Degas has always been my favorite & his was the room I was most excited to see. Dancers & sculptures & beautiful things. Everything is beautiful.
After the D'Orsay we went to Nore Dame. The cathedral & the base of the movie. It was beautiful. It was huge. Arches & windows & everything was beautiful.
We got crepes from a street vendor & then went to dinner. The food in Paris is fantastic.

The second day we took the train to Versailles. No one told us that Versailles is closed on Sundays. We took the train back & went to Montmartre. The neighborhood in Paris. Also the sight of the Moulin Rouge. Infamous night club & used-to-be brothel. We took a little train around the city & up to Sacre Couer, the basilica. Afterwards we took the subway to the Arc to Triomph. After walking around the base, my mother, sister & I decided to hike up. & we did. Lots & lots of stairs. The top offered lovely views. On the way back to the apartment, Portugal won a match in the World Cup. Honestly, I could not care less about the World Cup. I only know this because after they won, people went driving around the streets screaming & waving flags & cheering &, it was very loud. The police had to come & break it up. We saw a few people thrown into the backs of trucks. We did the Eiffel tower, too. Although, we did not hike up that. Just took the elevator. It was lovely.

The third day we went to the Louvre. No one told us that the Louvre was closed on Mondays. So we took the train back to Versailles. We had a very enthusiastic tour guide who took us to all the places you don't get to go if you don't have a tour. She kicked people out of places.
We toured the gardens.
We spent all day there.

The fourth day we went to the Louvre. It was open. It was huge. We had another very enthusiastic tour guide. She told us that if you wanted to see the whole Louvre, you would have to spend two minutes at each work, eight hours a day, every day, for four years. We did not see the whole thing. I ran into my neighbors (my neighbors, from Vermont) in front of the Mona Lisa. The biggest museum in the world, the most crowded area in aforementioned museum, & I run into my neighbors. It was very weird.

The fifth day, we left Paris. We saw that they were shooting a movie & the train station. The star of the movie was Cory Monteith, Finn from "Glee". My sister & I got autographs.

I'll write about Provence later. For now, I must away to dinner.