We took a train from London to Paris and did a similar travel pattern to our England trip. We drove to the countryside first for a few days then ended our trip in Paris. My last post read as a diary entry with a day to day description, so this time I'll just sum things up, post some pictures of the highlights and leave you with one of my favorite stories from the trip.
Our first hotel in France was in the middle of a river, how cute is that?!
Mont Saint Michel, a castle positioned out on what we Valdezians call "duck flats"...
The American Cemetery at Normandie...
Paris at sunset...
Basilique du Sacre-Coeur...
Alexander III's bridge...
Ya'll know what this is...
Walking along the Seine...
The Louvre...
The Arc D'Triomphe...
And here's the story, morning glory -
On our last night in Paris MT and I headed up to the top of the Arc D'Triomphe to take pictures of the city at sunset then headed over to the Eiffel Tower to do the same thing. We'd by then spent 10 days on the subway in New York, 3 days on the underground in London and 3 days on the metro in Paris so we were getting pretty darn good at the public transportation thing. We took pictures at the Tower and chatted with a couple honeymooning from the States. It was the first time he'd been on an airplane, so I think he was pretty overwhelmned at the moment. It's funny how being in a foreign country makes anyone with a familiar accent an instant friend!
As we were heading back towards the nearest metro station, not talking, mind you, these three girls shout to us in English. I don't know what gave us away but they must have sensed our Americanness. We looked at them puzzled, thinking to ourselves, "They're either lost, or drunk, or both." When we saw that they were staring at a map, we had our answer. The conversation went something like this:
Drunk Girl #1: "Hey! Are you going to a metro station or walking home?!"
Kaela: "Metro..."
Drunk Girl #2: "Um..Can we follow you?"
Kaela: "Well, where are you going? I'll show you your route."
Drunk Girl #3: "Oh, it's ok! Can we just follow you to station? We just need to get underground, then we can find our way home!"
We lead these three, very drunk girls from Michigan on a foreign studies program, as it turns out, towards our station. It would be a good ol' midwesterner who's drunk by 11 pm on a weekday in a foreign city! Their main downfall was that the only girl who spoke french profficiently was also the most inebriated. No Frenchman could understand her requests for help. On our way back to the station DG #3 runs into a group of guys who are from Minnesota and are best friends with her cousin...I love the Midwest! We get them to the station, circle their route on the map and make sure they're on the right train home before leaving them to find our own way home. And that folks, was our last night in Paris.
KAELA! First, I am very jealous of your trip. It looks amazing! Second, how are you?? Are you still in CA? Did Mark graduate already? Anyways, I have a blog too if you want to check it out: duthries.blogspot.com. I am glad to hear you are enjoying life!
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