The day after our tour of Kew Gardens we all got ready and met at the Eurostar train station to travel to PARIS!!!!!!! It was a 2 1/2 hour train ride from London to the heart of Paris so we left around 11:30 and got to Paris around 2:30. Yeah I know that's three hours but Paris is ahead by an hour so technically according to them it was 2:30. The ride was pretty fast but the best part was the fact that we had to go UNDER the English Channel instead of over or through it.

After we got off the train we were rounded up and told to board a charter bus. We then took a two hour bus tour of the area and got to see everything Paris had to offer including but no limited to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Parthenon, and Napoleon's Tomb. After the bus tour was over we were taken to our hotel which overlooked the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower. When were all settled in we decided to all go out to dinner as a big group to a fancy French restaurant. Everyone got to order French cuisine and I got to try foods I would never dare try in the U.S. I got to eat snail and duck and creme brule. After dinner we all wanted to explore so we went to a local store bought wine and sat under the Eiffel Tower and watched to light show. We got back to the hotel pretty late so we all hit the hay as soon as we got to our rooms.

The next day we got a reasonable start and probably the most decent breakfast since we left the states. Some of us wanted to go shopping and see the stores but others like me wanted to see the sites. The first stop my group went to was the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa by Leonardo De Vinci. It was breathtaking being able to be this close to a painting that is so famous and recognized everywhere as a masterpiece. The Louvre was HUGE so it took us a couple of hours to see all was wanted to see but it was well worth it because not only were the paintings and sculptures amazing the walls and ceilings themselves were incredible as well. It seemed as if every room had a different motif.

After the Louvre we went to catch a quick bite at a local Chinese restaurant. We then wanted to check out a modern art museum called to Centre Pompidou. It had exhibitions of modern art that I can not begin to describe but it was very enlightening, very French and very nude. After the museum it was getting late so we headed back to meet everyone for dinner and for a second night in a row we got some wine and hung out under the Eiffel Tower.

The last day we had to see Paris we got us early and went to first see Jim Morrison's (the lead singer of The Doors) Grave then to the local market where some of us bought gifts for our families and then to the Church of the Sacred Heart. It is a place where is you stand at the top of the steps in the front you can see all of Paris and was a fabulous view but way too many steps. After taking some pictures of and with the church we moved to another land mark the Arc De Triumph. From the top you could see in a complete circle the different streets leading out of Paris. It took forever to walk up but the view at the top was well worth it.

After we climbed down the Arc we all gathered up and got ready to head back to London. The train ride back seemed a lot faster then before but that must have been because we were so tired and the moment we dozed off we had to wake up.

Paris was up until now the most interesting place we've visited. I never realized the differences until now. When ordering water, you can;t ask for tap it has to be in a bottle and either still or sparkling. Their subway system is a lot more dirty then in London and in some parts Washington D.C. The french were a lot more easy going about the language barrier then I thought they would be. I sometimes heard horror stories of people not being friendly and not willing to help you when you needed it. Another difference is the pace of life in Paris. It isn't as fast as London but it isn't as slow as Amsterdam it is in the happy middle. The biggest difference I saw though in Paris was the amount of people that were homeless and the amount of gypsies. It kind of scared me at first but I came to find that most of them aren't that dangerous you just have to be aware and cautious. All in all it was a great weekend and I learned a lot about a city I've studied for years in high school and college and hopefully someday I'll be able to go back!