Le Tour de France

It's hard to have a bad day when you start if off with croissants, baguettes, and chocolate. Indeed, our day was wonderful, but extremely busy!

After breakfast, our first stop was Versailles, where we passed the time waiting in a long line by taking pictures of the gorgeous exterior. The line moved pretty quickly, and before too long we were inside, photographing everything we could see. The first part of our experience was mainly looking through galleries of the history of Versailles, which, although interesting, were considerably less beautiful than the palace rooms we explored next. Heather and I were disappointed that we didn't get to see the room featured in the Doctor Who episode set in Versailles, but that's okay. We'll be on set tomorrow at the Musée d'Orsay.

Following Versailles, we took the metro (we were extremely good at metroing by the end of the day) to Notre Dame. Indeed, it was magnificent, especially inside with all the stained glass windows. Since the rest of the church was very stark, they made all the difference! I couldn't help but envision Quasimodo when we heard the bells chime.

Next up was the Eiffel Tower! It was far more impressive than the one at King's Island. We didn't go up to the top, but we got some cool pictures anyway. My dad, who was the only one of us who had been to Paris before, showed us where to stand to get the best shots. I wish we could have seen it all lit up at night, but we were pretty tired by the end of the day!

Finally, we got to the Champs-Élysées, where I had been promised dinner on the most famous street in Paris. We found a good restaurant where my French came in handy again (though most of the time I just get to ask for directions and stuff), where we had a delicious meal. Again at my dad's suggestion, we tried the French vanilla ice cream for dessert, which was amazing! I'll definitely have to have some more before we go.

We continued to stroll down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. The sun was beginning to set, making for some really nice pictures! After photographing the monument to death, we realized there were people under it- well, naturally we had to get under there too! After much looking around, we finally located the tunnel that would take us up. More pictures ensued. Finally, cultured but exhausted, we returned to our hotel.

As promised, here are the über-touristy results of our day!

Le Château de Versailles.

Notre Dame.

Me and Heather at La Tour Eiffel.

Sunset on the Champs-Élysées.

L'Arc de Triomphe.