Jour De Triumphe

We are happy to announce that we have arrived in gay Paris and it is as gay as advertised! We ended up taking a late train from Paris to London and we got here about 7:30pm and I had absolutely no buying power. My credit card AND atm were blocked and we had just spent all our pounds are were frantically searching for Euros. I was therefore relying on Rohr to buy for me and we all know that's not a good thing. After a low-key night of finding our hostel, getting me some cash and eating a panini we hit the beds in preparation for a big next day. (awesome side note: one of our roomies was a non-Parisian frenchman and the other was a Hokie!)

So we got up around 8:00 on Wed. and went gang busters. Our Hokie friend suggested that we start at the the Eiffel Tower to get a good sense of the city, so we did. As the elevator rose more and more fear mounted in the eyes of my travelmate. By the time we arrived at the first platform he was crying like a small girl. So naturally I booked it to the very top and hung my arms out of the cage (don't worry mom, I'm alive!). We left the Tour Eiffel and headed to Montmarte (we never found Amelie, but not for a lack of trying). After surviving a full on assault by crazy english speaking Algerians we made the climb to Sacre Coure and took in the GORGEOUS cathedral. I'd seen it once before, but it took my breathe away this time. I forced Leo to go to the Moulin Rouge (major disappointment, they weren't playing old Nirvana songs or anything, but we did get a great pick of Leo mingling with the ravens beneath a sweet Metropolitan sign). We grabbed a great Sandwich Turc and ate it on the metro platform before heading to see Napolean's tomb, but by the time we got to the Hotel D'Invalides train stop the walk from the stop to the tomb was just too daunting, so we took a quick nap in the park. I fell into a deeper sleep than Leo, so naturally he grabbed his stuff and ran off, well this caught the attention of a kindly African man who kicked me to wake me and tell me that my stuff was being stolen. Well said African seemed less than kindly to me when I was kicked awake to hear is screaming in Francais and find that my lone companion was no where to be seen. Luckily, the man pointed to Leo, who was just coming out from behind a tree. We carried on to the tomb and bowed before the great Napoleon. We then walked along the Champs D'Elysee (and of course shopped at Gap and drank Coca-Cola) we then took to the top of that huge Arc and saw the city from yet another elevated view. Realizing how high we had been all day we decided why stop there and we booked it to Notre Dame, took in the interior, and climbed the 11,342 stairs to the top (yes, I counted...just kidding...but not really). This was the best view by far, I thought. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that we passed by the Hotel D'Ville on the way to Notre Dame and discovered that a huge film festival just started yesterday. Part of this festival included lots of Tim Burton, so we went to see Beetlejuice...in FRENCH! It was wild. (I'm running out of internet time so) We came home and went to sleep. More about today, tomorrow, peace and God Bless.