jaunts-through-europe: August 30, 2009: Paris, Day 1

Bonjour.
So this morning we woke up and hopped on a train to Paris. At the train station they had these cool, though slightly dangerous, moving incline ramps to get up to the platforms. They were quite intense and were an adventure in themselves. On the train we got to go through the chunnel. In concept, it is very exciting, but for the most part we couldn't tell we were in the chunnel, other than it was dark. Upon arrival in Paris, we took a taxi to the hostel. It was quite the change from London because we couldn't understand the language and reading signs took a little guessing. It was a very good thing that Ying can speak French. We got all checked in and then went out to explore the City of Love. First we went to Sacre Coeur Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous. It sits up high on a hill overlooking the city. It is a white building, which starkly contrasted with the green grass and blue sky. For lunch we decided to eat some crepes because, well, we were in Paris and you just have to eat crepes while in Paris. We went to a little creperie just down the street from Sacre Coeur Cathedral and ordered Nutella and banana crepes. I attempted to order in French per Ying's teaching. I sort of succeeded. The crepe guy was very friendly and humored me and my sloppy French. I can now confidently order an apple juice in French. Really, just ask me, I've been practicing. I drank a lot of apple juice in Paris. Throughout our time in Paris, Ying taught me all sorts of French phrases. It was fun, though I probably completely destroyed some of the French language. Our next stop was the Arc de Triomphe. Now this was just massively huge (for the record, I realize this is a ridiculous sentence, but I'm leaving it anyway). We wandered around some more and caught our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower. I was absolutely thrilled. As we walked around, we kept seeing the Eiffel Tower through the trees. THE Eiffel Tower. It was unbelievable. After a stop at a French cafe for dinner (which included a nice bottle of French wine), we headed towards the Eiffel Tower. It was nighttime when we reached it, so it was all lit up. It was absolutely amazing. We rode all the way to the top of tower and looked out over the City of Lights. It was all very unreal. We were actually standing on the top of the Eiffel Tower overlooking Paris. It was the perfect way to spend our first night in France.
Au revoire.