europe + alexandra: 7.13.09 Paris.

At 7:20 this morning there was a knock on our cabin door and who should it be but our trusty train car man with our passports! That was lucky cuz I didn’t know if I would see it or that man again so I was very happy to have it back. Trying to get all of our stuff together and get off the train was another adventure in itself and all I wanted to do was brush my teeth and face. We were a sight to see. There was a bus waiting to pick us up and take us to our hotel. The ride there was great because we were able to see a lot of the main sights just on our way to our hotel. I loved seeing all of the buildings and how different they were from Venice. They look like they are straight out of the 17 and 1800’s. it is a very big city and more spread out than Rome or Florence. Our hotel is pretty nice, I mean it’s no palace like we had in Venice but it is nice for sure. We couldn’t check in so off we went on a sketching trip to the Eiffel Tower. First stop was food because we were all starving having not eaten in quite some time. I got one of the best chicken sandwiches I have ever had and can’t wait to fall in love with French cuisine like I did with Italian food. We walked to a park nearby found a nice view of the Eiffel Tower from there to sketch. It still gets me when I am sitting in front of an incredible piece of architecture and sketching it as it is right there. When our sketches were done, Darrin had us set our sketchbooks up so they were right in front of the Eiffel Tower and it was cool to see everybody’s different interpretations of the view and their style of sketching.

the hotel arley.

first meal in paris and man was it deserved.

ze eiffel tower

pretty cool if i do say so myself

all our sketches laid out in front of the tower...mine is on the very left end.

We had the rest of the day to ourselves until our boat tour of Paris later that night. We needed to do laundry so bad so we headed to the Laundromat right by our hotel and boy was that an experience. First of all, the machines and their instructions are all in French and I can’t pick out a lick of French when reading it. At least in Italian I can tell what some words are but this was beyond me. We all sat there having a hard time knowing what to do when the man that owns the place walked in and helped us. He was a good time for sure and thought we were so funny and from California. He spoke hardly any English and laughed at our confused we were of what to do with laundry. He left and then came back and told us to come to the bar and he would take our picture. We were so confused but he was saying it like he would be doing us a favor because we are American and want our pictures in bars. We went next door and he had us stand behind the bar and took our picture. It was totally hilarious and even more random but he loved it. Finally, after like 3 hours of doing laundry we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the evening.

classic pic...who will ever know why the laundromat man wanted us to take a pic behind the bar

Darrin had set up for us to go on a boat tour of Paris at night and boy was I stoked about it! On our way there, we stopped by Notre Dame and took pictures of the exterior. It feels so much smaller when you are up close to it than looking far away but it still so grand. After our short stop there we made it to the boat tour. We got on the boat at 10:30 so the whole city was all lit up and completely beautiful. We saw so many sites and learned about the many bridges of Paris as we went under them. My favorite part of course was when we made it to the Eiffel Tower. Seeing it lit up at night is just a sight to see and one that doesn’t get old. It was quite a chilly evening, which was such a change from all the weather we’ve been having on this trip. It was a long journey back home but we made it happily.