I am eating Hershey's Kisses as I write this entry :) ; someone who must love me gave them to me in the U.S.
Julien didn't wake me up at 8 AM, he woke me up at 9:15 AM, fifteen minutes before we agreed we would wake up. I was a little grumpy, but when he brought back the pastries and made hot chocolate, I managed to forgive him.
We started out our day by hitting an internet café. I was hoping to forget about computers and technology while on vacation, but found the offer to email my girlfriend too tempting.
A block away was the Arc de Triomphe where this time we managed to buy tickets. The view from the top was quite nice, definitely the second best sight of the day (I shall describe the first later.) We could see everything from there that we had already seen, and some that we hadn't. The Sacre Coeur fell into the latter category, so we spontaneously decided to make it the second adventure of the day. Before leaving, Derek decided to grab a souvenir.
The Sacred Heart church is at the top of a hill, surrounded by many people selling useless items. Inside, it is a much different atmosphere than that of the Notre Dame. The Sacre Coeur is very serene. Many more people sat in the pews praying than in Notre Dame.
Afterwards, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the bottom of the hill. "Bip Burger" I think. Not a very French name, but the food was French. I had a (goat) cheese sandwich. Very delicious.
Then we were off to see Versailles. You know, now that I think of it, Versailles equals or surpasses the view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. As we walked up to the front, just the sheer magnitude and beauty of the exterior left me in awe. And there was more in back. First, we took a quick tour of the inside (some of it, because it was so huge). Then, we cruised around the gardens out back (again, only some).
It was getting late, and we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower again, so we headed back to town. On the way, I grabbed dinner: a hotdog French style. It was a hollow baguette (like a drill had hollowed it out), with ketchup poured down the whole, and then the hotdog stuffed in.
Now I will describe the most awesome sight, but I have already described it on day 1: the Eiffel Tower itself. It is the most awesome structure I have ever seen. I could spend days, even weeks looking up at its thousands of steel girders.
We stood in line for a long time in order to reach the top, but the wait was well worth
it. The view from the top was georgeous. It was already dark, so we could see all
of the lights in the city.
A great place to get panoramic pictures. Well, now I am back
at the apartment, full from the day's many sights and wonders. So far, my vacation
has been very good.
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