lifes a beach

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Day 5 Wed. April 7th On our way to Paris


On the train Wednesday afternoon, headed for Paris


The countryside. I thought it was so pretty.

The train station in Paris


Concorde square. Lots of traffic. Eiffel tower in the
background!

Our hotel room. They had WiFi, so Julie checked out her
facebook.

Mel and Julie at the Arc de Triomphe

Julie standing at the Arc.

Close to our hotel at the Concorde square

The Obelisk of Luxor (stands where the guillotine once stood)
it was taken from the entrance of the Egyptian temple of
Luxor and is made of red granite.

A pretty fountain in the Concorde square

Mel and I with the Eiffel tower in the back
ground.
Well, on Wednesday, we boarded a train bound for
Paris, France. Our morning train had been canceled.
Something about a strike in France. We almost
changed our plans and went to Italy. But we
found out the later train was a go, so we kept
with our original plans. During the train ride, which
was about 4 hours long, we saw lots and lots of green
hillsides, with little villages along the way. Very
pretty. And then after the 4 hours, all of a sudden,
there was Paris. Huge city. I'm used to California,
where city meets up with the next city, and it's just
one continuous city. Not in France. All small villages,
then BAM, huge Paris. We walked alot in Paris. The
first night we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, which
is at the end of one of the most famous avenues, Champs
Elysees. We stopped at a little restaurant, and had a
very tough steak, and french fries. Dessert also. Flan
and also some fruit custardy tart. There were so many
other students there in Paris. Must have been a lot of
other spring breakers. It was fun to see the Arch in
person. they were doing some upkeep on it, so part of it
is covered with scaffolding. To think of the history there,
makes it pretty neat to see it in person.
Our hotel room was on the 5th or 6th floor. I just
remember that the "lift" went to like the 5th floor, and
we had to walk the last floor. It was old construction,
you could tell by the wood, and the old "nails" that held
the beams together.
The next day, off to the Louvre.

3 comments:

Brenda said...

I'm so loving these daily posts! So fun!

Andy and Melissa said...

Thats pretty sweet. Funny hotel room. And Julie looks like she is on the bachelor. With her scarf and earings and all.

Linda said...

Joneel,

Seeing your photos makes we want to go back to Paris and now to Switzerland as well. What an awesome experience! I'm particularly impressed that you all did this without a French speaker. At least we had Emily to help us navigate. Good on you!

Linda