So the first post was pretty long and I finally had to just take a break and come back to the rest. I also need to apologize for it taking me soooo long to post the second half of the trip, February and March have been extremely busy and a lot stressful. So I will start with our weekend.
SATURDAY:
We kind of slept in and had our normal breakfast of assorted breads (usually a couple croissants, a couple of pain au chocolat/chocolate croissants, and some mini baguettes), fruit, juice, and our choice of coffee or chocolate chau (hot chocolate). After our breakfast we decided that we would head out and we decided to go back to the Louvre. This time we bought the little audio guides provided by the museum and around the museum we went. We just took our time and listened and re-looked at what ever we wanted. After we looked at everything we left and we exited out of the famous glass pyramid. My dad decided that he wanted to go and try and get a run in and then try and find somewhere to do laundry. Stacie and I decided we wanted to make use of the last day of our museum passes
and so we headed over to the musee de la mode et du textile, which houses exhibitions about contemporary fashion, costumes, accessories, and textiles from the 17th century to present. We both thought it would be full of really cool outfits, shoes, bags, etc. but all the good exhibits seemed closed and all we really saw was jewelry. So after that we headed out and did some souvenir shopping. It never ceases to amaze me when Stacie and I go on vacation she will get something for EVERY person she seems to know, even the people at work. Although not one of those people on vacation would ever bring anything back for her or even do anything for her at work. So after trying to find some deals we headed back to the hotel and just relaxed a little, watched an episode of One Tree Hill in French (it was from the 3rd season and since I knew it pretty well I played translator), ate dinner and hung out on the Champs Elysee. Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk from the Arch, 15 minutes to the Champs, and about 20 minutes to the Eiffel Tower. It was a great hotel that we never actually took any pictures of the outside or the room. I don't know why we just never did. I looked some up online and here is what it looked like.The Elysee Union Hotel:
The green awning in the picture above is a little market that had bottled water, sodas, snacks, and fresh fruit. We always chatted with the guys that worked there. We went in almost everyday.
and here is kind of what are room looked like (we had more room to the right of the bed because they put a cot there in front of the doors that opened out onto the mini-balcony). The closet was on the left and the bathroom was across from the foot of the beds. These were the colors of our room too.
SUNDAY:
So I have not previously mentioned that it rained or was extremely overcast everyday that we were there except that Tuesday we went up in the Eiffel Tower. So when we woke up today and saw that it was a gorgeous day we decided to seize the day and head to the highest point of the city, Sacre Coeur (it means the Sacred Heart and is a church). We hopped on the metro (I am very proud to say that we either walked or took the metro EVERYWHERE we went in the city and took a taxi ONLY one time and that was early in the week when we were still orienting ourselves and it was dark and raining buckets). That morning I woke up with a head cold, and a sore throat. We trudged up the hill passing many touristy shops and people playing the card games where travelers lose tons of money trying to find the queen. This is what it looked like looking down the street.
Then we headed up and walked up (most of) the stairs to Sacre-Coeur. Because of my cold we used one of our subway tickets and took the funicular up to the actual church (its a lot of steps up there). It looks like this:
So then we arrived at the church. It was amazing and beautiful and totally huge! We sat on the steps and watched a street performer juggle.
We then started our walking tour of Montmartre from our favorite person Rick Steves. Here are some random pictures that I took along the walk. Some in color and some in black and white.
The Windmill is only one of two working mills left in Montmartre. The walk was amazing we walked along just slowly drifting down the hills and streets. Here are some more pictures along the way.
Our walk ended at the famed red windmill of the Moulin Rouge. Here is a picture of the windmill in color and b&w and Stacie standing in front of it. Somewhere there are pictures of me in front of it but I think that they are on Stacie's and dad's cameras. Anyways somewhere along the walk we stopped and went into a pharmacy to get me some medicine. The pharmacies are different there because the pharmacist can actually prescribe minor medications. I got some runny nose/cold medicine and apricot cough syrup in a glass bottle.
Then we headed to this little island that has its own version of the statue of liberty. We walked along this tiny island forever till we reached the statue.
MONDAY:We got up the next morning and walked around again and visited some old churches like the one in the Da Vinci Code.
Then we headed to the Luxembourg Gardens and we walked around and then sat down and watched people sail some toy boats. 
Then we walked to the Pantheon. We didn't go in we just walked around outside.
In the picture below you can see my dad taking a picture of the street we just walked to get here.
Here we decided to split up. As you can see it is bright and sunshiny outside and so my dad wanted to head back to the hotel and go for a run. Stacie wanted to go to Pere Lachaise Cemetery (where lots of famous people are buried). Here are some of the names we saw at the huge maze like cemetery, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Frederick Chopin, Gertrude Stein, Moliere, and Abelard and Heloise. Here is the entrance to the cemetery.
Here is the only grave I actually took and wanted a picture of. It is the grave of Abelard and Heloise, they are two lovers who secretly married and then were torn apart and remained faithful to each other through the rest of their lives, he was sent to an abbey and she went to a convent. They now lie side by side in death even though they could not be together in life. They were working on maintaining their graves though.
Here are some of images of what it would look like if there was no construction.
We left the cemetery and headed back to the hotel. We met up with my dad and walked up the street and got a pizza from Pizza Hut, which we ate in out room back at the hotel.TUESDAY:
This was to be our last full day in Paris and my dad and I decided to spend it not in Paris. Stacie wanted to stay in the city and so she went and finished buying gifts for everyone that she has ever met and she went back to the Orsay. While we got up extremely early and caught a train to Normandy. We decided to take a guided tour with this Dutch man named Roule (Rule). He met us straight off the train and we found out there would also be this lady named Debbi from St. Louis with us. We started out in this little town called Bayeux where they made an artificial harbor, we got our lunch at his cousins store, took a bathroom break and made our only "Mickey Mouse" shopping trip (tourist shopping). If you look closely out in the water you can see what is left of the artificial harbor.
Then he took us to some German bunkers that had been hit by bombs.
Then we headed to Omaha Beach. This is the beach that they depict in Saving Private Ryan. It is the beach where everything went wrong. Roule (our guide was very informative and had lots of vets personal stories of what happened on that day) told us how to this day when the tide goes out in certain seasons the rocks turn the water red and the whole beach is totally protected. We were not there at low tide and you can see there is still a ton of beach. At low tide there would have been at least 250-300 yards of more beach. The boats were also dropping the soldiers off too early giving them more beach to cover. When you are at the top of the cliff (where the Germans were) you can see how the US soldiers were basically targets and the Germans were just picking them off one by one, sometimes before they even made it out of the boats. Here are my pictures of Omaha.
The spot in the middle of the pictures on the cliff where you can se the trees is the American Cemetery. That is where we headed after we left Omaha Beach. It was meticulously kept and everything there was so beautiful. The moment you step onto the cemetery you are officially on American soil because America was given the land after the war as a thank you for everything they did. Here is what it looked like.
After a bathroom break we left the cemetery and headed to Pointe du Hoc. This point on the cliffs was so important because they could hit ships miles out and they could also see and hit both Omaha and Utah beach. This particular point was bombed nonstop and you can still see all the deep craters and holes where the bombs landed. Here are my pictures from there.
We left there and headed to Utah beach and along the way he stopped at this little church. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. During D-Day a bunch of paratroopers missed their landing zones and many became wounded and two American medics set up in this little church and started helping anyone they could, the only rule was that all weapons be left outside. There are still to this day blood stains on the wooden pews. In the church there are some stained glass windows that are dedicated to those two medics.
Next we headed to Utah beach. It felt a lot different standing on that beach. Omaha beach had a quiet and lifeless feel. While standing on Omaha beach we didn't see a single bird or animal. But on Utah there were tons of birds and families walking and in general it was the usual calm, serene feeling the beach and waves always bring to me. There was also a museum there, which we didn't go to because Roule thinks its too "Mickey Mouse". Oh and his way of telling you it was picture time was to say "ok do your clicky, clicky, beepy, beepy thing"
Our last stop before we went back to the train station to catch our train to Paris was at this church called Sainte-Mere Eglise. This church is famous because on D-Day a bunch of paratroopers were all landing in the town. Unfortunately for the paratroopers there was a fire in the town that night and the townspeople as well as the germans occupying the town were all up trying to put the fire out and the Germans basically started shooting the paratroopers down. One of the paratroopers parachute got stuck on the church steeple and by faking dead he was one of the few who survived. To this day the people place a fake paratrooper on the steeple as a reminder. Here is the beautiful old church in Sainte-Mere Eglise.
We left the church and headed back to the train station. In the town we dropped Debbi off at her hotel and then Roule dropped us (me and dad) off at the train station. We took the train back to Paris and met up with Stacie. Everyone packed up and gathered their belongings and the next morning with many long troubling issues about what tickets and trains we needed to get to the airport we caught a plane back home. We stopped in Chicago and went thru customs and then caught another flight home to Texas! This is the last picture that I took on the whole trip. It is me and our tour guide Roule.
It was an amazing trip! I had a great time and I'm glad that after all those high school French classes Stacie and I finally got to go and see the greatest city ever! For all those who hung in there through this unbelievably long post I hope you enjoyed seeing my trip and maybe felt like you were there too!
