France Trip

La France etait tres fraiche!
We were in Paris from July 2-10, staying at Eric's aunt Claire's beautiful house in Le Vesinet Le Pec. Eric's mom (Mimi) met up with us on July 3 from her trip to Norway, and Eric's sista Jessica met up with us on July 4 from her study abroad in a different city in France.
Mimi and Jess stayed at Eric's grandparent's house which was next door to Claire's.

The first night we were there we saw la Tour Eiffel. At first sight of it I said, "that's it?!" It looked like a huge piece of scrap metal put together to make something grandiose. But the closer we got the more striking and impressive it became.

But the closer we got to the tower the closwer we got to the guys who were trying to sell us souvenirs every step we made. They were relentless and we finally learned that you had to ignore them all together to get them to not bother you.

There was one guy who gave me a rose...we were shocked but pleasantly surprised...until after a few steps he came right up to Eric, sneakily so I wouldn't notice, and asked him for 2euros for the rose. Ha! Those sneaky guys. We gave the rose back.

That night we also went on a boat ride along the Seine. From the boat we were able to see the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, famous bridges and lots of old, gorgeous buildings. Also, along the Seine were partiers, mainly college aged kids. They were drinking, dancing, socializing, partying and peeing. There was also a Michael Jackson dance party because of his recent death.

From the Baton Mouche (boat name- Fly Boat) on the Seine

Notre Dame from the Baton Mouche

We visited Notre Dame and the Louvre the second day we were in Paris. By far, the coolest thing we saw that day was when we were in the Louvre. There was an older tourist walking around looking at the paintings of course, after all, what else do you do in the Louvre...when Eric pointed out to me that he had eyebrow hairs extending at least 2inches off his face?!?!?! It was quite a sight I have never seen before. It was brillant.

When Eric and I were buying tix for the Louvre, this guy our age comes up to us to sell 2 extra tix he had. We were a little sceptical but were going to buy them from him. Once we walked to an area where we could stand aside and give him money, he told us we could just have them and he walked off fast.

We started walking to the entrance with our new free tix when we looked more closely at the date, which read: 03/07/09!
We were ripped off! Good thing we didn't pay for them!
So what do we do? We go back to the ticket kiosk and buy two new, good tickets. But when the kiosk spat out the tix, they also read: 03/07/09. The French put the day ahead of the month! Oh we felt so dupped by our ignorance. But don't worry, we sold the two extra tix we had, and still got in for free. And then when we were done with the Louvre we gave our tix to a couple who then also got in for free :)

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Gargoyles on the side of Notre Dame

Le Louvre

Le Louvre

One day Eric, his mom and I went to Versailles to visit the Palace of Versailles where the Sun King (Louis XIV) lived. It was full of self portraits, random ladies with their boobs falling out of their clothes (portraits), and decorative ceilings and walls. It was cool but there were oh too many tourists there.
Before the palaces' gates were more of those annoying guys trying to sell souvenirs. Mimi succomed and bargained with a guy in buying an umbrella hat.

Eric and his mom on our way to Versailles

In front of Versailles...hot day

Versailles

Inside Versailles

Inside Versailles

Inside Versailles

Inside Versailles

Inside Versailles