Bonjour!

First of all these are some pictures that I took yesterday and didn't upload:

Our little studio


Doug and his baguette


Cool fountain in the middle of an intersection




Today turned out to be a good day. This morning I was still in a weird mood. We woke up early (6:30!), but had gone to bed really early last night (8:30!). I ended up falling back to sleep while Doug was on the computer. I laughed cause all week in London I was up a couple hours before he was, and now that we're in Paris it was reversed.

Doug went down and talked to the front desk about the laundry machines. Apparently they had tried to reach us, but had the wrong room number for us. It wasn't fixed, but we did get reimbursed and got a map and directions to a nearby laundromat (although not the closest we found out).

We got ready to head out. I was so frustrated I had a mini break down. Doug was sweet about it and just held me. Then I was much better. Sometimes you just need to have a good cry in order to move on.

We walked a couple of blocks and found the laundromat. Unfortunately all of the signs were in french. We figured we'd be able to figure out what they said by a couple of key words. A little old lady who only spoke french came over to us to try to help. We asked her if she spoke English (one of the phrases in our phrase book), but she just continued to speak to us in french. Really sweet, but we thought that it was funny that she kept repeating fully sentences to us when she knew we didn't speak french. She showed us how to punch in the numbers, how to buy the soap, where to put the soap, and how to pay. Every time we completed a step she'd exclaim "Voila!" She was adorable. So we sat while our laundry finished. When she was finished she left and said a final sentence tous which we think was "have a good time in Paris." All we understood was "en Parie" (phonetically). It was actually my first time doing laundry in a laundromat!



We then started walking back to our studio. We ran into lots of roadblocks for the Tour de France! We thought it'd be cool to see the racers coming back into Paris. So we waited to see some.


These city workers all had these brooms that cracked us up. The green bristles were shaped kinda like twigs. Hilarious.


Waiting!



We saw lots of the sponsor vehicles come through and parts vehicles. The sponsor vehicles made us laugh because they're kind of like floats, but going 30-40 miles an hour. So all of the people that were on top were harnessed in pretty secure! We waited for about an hour and a half before we gave up. We wanted to see some of Paris today and didn't want to spend all day waiting for the Tour de France to end, especially since we had no idea how long we would have to wait. If we had been following the race then it definitely would have been worth it, but we really would've only gotten bragging rights, and not real satisfaction or a feeling of being a part of it. So we didn't get a picture of the racers, but we got some of the sponsors. These are some of my favorites:








We dropped off our laundry and the snacks that we had picked up while we waited for our stuff to dry. i found cookies that I still need to try, and I got coconut macaroons. We also found pizza flavored potato chips, and they're really good! And they're called Lay's again here :)

We headed out on the metro to the Moulin Rouge. We know what it is and didn't have any intention of seeing a show there, but since my favorite movie is based on it, I thought it'd be fun to see the site. So we did! While we were walking up the street we found a souvenir shop and got a Paris souvenir. It's a small music box that has drawings of the famous Paris sites. When you turn the handle it plays "La vie en rose." It's my favorite Louis Armstrong song. We actually had it played at our wedding reception too.


According to the movie, Christian should have lived on this side...but it didn't look that familiar. No big sign lol





There was an air vent next to where everyone was standing to take pictures of the Moulin Rouge. I stood on it and it made my hair go crazy haha



Then we walked over to a place on the map that had a star on it. We didn't know what it was, but were sure glad we went there!

Loved the architecture and atmosphere of the streets



It was the Le Sacre-Coeur. A Catholic church that we could wander around for free in. Although the church was free, there was a "suggested donation" for candles to light. And they had the machines to press your coin into souvenir of the church inside the church. Jesus' words popped into my head as we walked through: "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it ‘a den of robbers'." (Matthew 21:13). While going inside of the church was free, we did have to pay to go into the Dome. When we reached the site of the church, we had amazing views of the city, so we knew that it could only get better if we went into the Dome. It was only 6 euros, so we decided it would be worth it. And boy was it! Gorgeous panoramic views of Paris. It was like climbing St. Paul's all over again (seriously, lots of stairs and very narrow staircase), and the views were just as amazing, if not more amazing. We have discovered one thing: Paris is beautiful!

Le Sacre-Coeur


Climbing to the top!


Goat drain



View from the top. Eiffel tower to the right. You could also see Notre Dame from here and the Arc de Triomphe


Breathtaking




Eiffel Tower


Looking out at Paris


You can see all of the people that were at the bottom





We walked through Montmartre and I was wanting a pastry. I saw some in a window so we each got one. Doug got a chocolate eclair (with a chocolate cream filling), and I got a puff pastry with a chocolate filling. It. Was. Amazing. If someone had handed me one of those when we got off the plane I would have been a happy camper through everything. I want another one just thinking about it. We'll probably get more tomorrow.

Deliciousness!



We headed toward a cemetery that was huge on our map. We ended up walking across a bridge over it and got a picture of how big it was. It was filled with mausoleums, and even though it was a cemetery, it was quite pretty.


Love their streets. Love their buildings.



We took the metro back to our studio and rested for a bit. Around nine we were really hungry and decided to try a place near us called the Frog. It's pretty much an American food pub. I had chicken quesadillas and Doug had a bacon cheeseburger. It was really really good food. We're pretty tired and are glad that we're on this time schedule now. We should be tired though! We walked a lot and climbed a lot of stairs today. Now we know why the french are skinny!

At our table waiting for our food


Mmmm


Oh, and this is what it looks like at 10 o'clock at night. So weird how long it takes to get dark!



Au Revoir!