"Ah, Paris" continued

Paris was exciting, but not quite what I was expecting. Quote of the weekend is, "sortie! Where is the sortie!?" For those of you who know fewer than my eight words of French, "sortie" is "exit" in French. Since we spent a fair amount of time navigating our way through the metro system, we were in constant search of our way out of the labrinth. I must say that I had my first experience abroad feeling...not quite safe. Don't worry, we are fine. Some traveling wisdom I've picked up along the way steered us through some interesting situations. Saturday night in the metro is not fun. We were approached by, no less than, five men and one woman grabbed my arm while she jabbered at my in French. Luckily we knew enough to keep a cool head, not respond, and walk on like we had some clue where we were going. Little did they know that we were a little lost and already been walking for ten hours so we couldn't have run if we wanted to.

But, I don't want to let that paint the picture of Paris. My favorite part of the trip was probably the first day. We were lost that day, too, but that was half the fun. Our train brought us into the part of town that was supposed to be close to the Notre Dame cathedral, but of course, we still couldn't find it. You would think that with all the big roads heading in that direction, we wouldn't have a problem, but you all know about my keen sence of direction...=) We did find a great little local market, a beautiful cemetary, the university of Paris, and a fabulous cafe for lunch. So the time was not wasted, but we breathed a sigh of relief when we finally found those gargoils.

The Eifle Tower if beautiful at night. Every hour, on the hour, they turn on some special lights and it sparkles. Yes, it really sparkles. When you place it against the backdrop of the city, it is magical.

The Louvre Museum was amazing. The Mona Lisa was kind of blah. I'll let you form your own opinion, but it was kind of like, "okay, here it is. Now what?" The painting that really impacted me is included in my pictures above. I don't remember who painted it, but it painted a different picture of the crucifiction scene than I've seen before. It is portrayed as so humble and lonely, that I couldn't help from crying. Very impactful.

I'm sure that I will remember little details about the trip along the way, but maybe I will include those later. Overall, it was fun, but I think that I prefer my cute little walled cities orchards. I'm leaving for Switzerland in the morning, so you'll be hearing about that soon! Much love!