french friday - part douze

Incase you didn't read last week's French Friday post, check here to find out what I'm doing.  I really don't want to explain it all again.  ;)


Sunday, June 25, 2000:

"We are still experiencing quite a bit of jet-lag here today, so we slept in until 10:30 this morning.  We did the unthinkable and walked to MacDo for some food we knew we could eat.  (Hey, we were starving and needed something that wasn't questionable!  Trust me, we'll eat completely French food the rest of the trip.  I promise!)  

After a large, greasy breakfast, we got back on the metro. 

Laura demonstrating the best way to wear your backpack in crowded places.  It may look ridiculous, but it will prevent little pickpockets from getting in!  See "French girl" on the left... so very typical looking Parisian.  I'm sure she's thinking, "Hmmm... une américaine très intelligente..."

We headed to la Tour Eiffel. When we rounded the corner and saw the top of the tower, we were so excited.  It was bigger and more beautiful than I ever thought it would be!  It was so hard to believe we were actually there.  

This is from below the tower, looking at one of the legs.

Laura and I both knew that we just had to climb it, so we did.  And it was a killer.  We were only allowed to take the stairs to the 2nd floor, which was about half way up and then we took the elevator to the top.  It was awesome to see the entire city of Paris.  I never realized how huge it was.  It made me feel very small and slightly overwhelmed realizing how easy it would be to get lost in such an enormous place.  (Good thing I hadn't seen the movie Taken yet.)

Views from the top

When we finally got back on the ground, our legs were so shaky and tired!  So we sat down in the grass for awhile to rest.

After resting awhile we walked around the park and sat down on a bench where an older Frenchman came and talked to us for about half and hour.  It was great because we got to practice our French and he was très génial.

Then we headed to les Champs-Elysées.

The top picture was taken standing in the median, hoping the stop light down the street would keep the cars stalled a little longer.  Not a good idea.  Trust me.

We didn't have time for shopping today (that will come tomorrow), so we headed straight down the street to l'Arc de Triomphe.

Although our legs had had enough, we decided to go ahead and take the stairs to the top.  (No wonder the French are so fit - they have to climb everywhere!)  It was worth the climb - another beautiful view of the city!


As it started to get later, we decided to head back to la Tour Eiffel again so we could see it lit up at night.  Little did we know that it didn't get dark there until about 10:30!  So we sat around for quite awhile, but it was nice to just relax in front of such a cool site.

Once the lights came on, it was so beautiful!  We took pictures and started to leave, but a nice older man from Indiana told us we should stay around a few more minutes because soon the lights would all start flashing like they did on New Year's 2000.  So we waited and it was definitely worth it!  I've never seen so many flashing lights like that before.  Very cool.

On the way back to l'hôtel in the metro, a Frenchman was sitting in our car playing the guitar and singing the Beatles' "Yesterday."  It wasn't long before several others (including us) started singing along.  Just hearing the Beatles made me feel more at home.  That was definitely a memorable experience!

Vocabulaire:  (Very short list today.  Sorry.  I'll try to impart more wisdom on you next time.)

MacDo - McDonald's

une américaine très intelligente - a very smart American

très génial - very nice