We are in France! Poor Justin had to drive three hours in the middle of the night to get us here after flying into Belgium. I had fully intended to stay awake and keep him company... but I was tired!!!

First thing this morning was to go to the local Starbucks (becoming a ritual in every country) and see what their internet situation was. Okay, Starbucks in Paris? Insanely impressive snacks! It was like, pancakes, french toast, crepe suzette, awesome cupcakes and tons of muffins and stuff I've never seen/heard of! I had actually just filled up on on the hotel's continental breakfast, so I didn't try anything yet.

But finding internet has been more than a challenge. Here's Justin trying to get some sort of internet connection.


Next we hit the Eiffel Tower. It's so funny how you see pictures/movies of something your entire life, and you have a very specific image/feel in your mind, and then you go there and it's totally different. This happens anytime you go to a TV set, you will always say "wow! I can't believe how different it is from watching on TV!". Not that the Eiffel Tower isn't impressive, because it is. It's just different than I imagined it.

Here's what I imagined: The Tower is sparkly. In front of it is a wall and tons of people lean against it and have their picture taken. Across the street there are tons of expensive shops, cafes, bakeries with colorful macaroons, etc. You sit at a cafe and look at the Tower.

How it really is: It's not sparkly. There are not cafe's, shops or walls to have your picture taken at. There is a government building across the street (about a mile away), and under the tower are hundreds of people trying to sell you small replicas of the Eiffel Tower. There are some snack stands and they sell good snacks. It's still awesome.

I did get a tasty ice cream, and a free rose! Well, sort of. I was standing under the Tower with Justin and this guy came up and gave me a rose. It went like this:

Guy: (handing me a rose)
Me: No.
Guy: Here.
Me: No.
Guy: It's okay, take.
Me: No, no.
Guy: No problem, take.
Me: Okay!
Justin: No, don't take that.
Me: It's okay! It's free!
Guy: (moves over to Justin) Four euros.
Me: Oh.

Justin gave him three and I got a rose to carry around all day that was cleverly sold to me.







Statue on building across the street.



As the weather turned colder and rainy, we made our way over to the Arc de Triomphe. A large, sculptured arch in the middle of a large, circular cobblestone road.





The rain really picked up by the time we got over there, so instead of going to the top, we headed for shelter back at the hotel. I'd like to point out that we pretty much agreed that I'd be in charge of the umbrella and Justin would take care of everything else. Not only did I lose the umbrella we brought over here (in the Castle of Edinburgh), but I left the one we re-bought in my suit case at the hotel.

After a rest we needed to figure out a place for dinner. While France is very beautiful, the French themselves have not yet been extremely helpful. Now we've only been here 24 hours so that may not be a fair assessment, but that is what we've encountered so far. When we asked about internet, none was working. When we asked for a cab, we weren't going far enough for them to take us. When we asked for a recommendation for dinner, well, hehe.

We went to the one on-duty hotel employee, who was currently helping a group of guys in front of us. After his half hour explanation to them was finally over, we stepped up and asked for a "good recommendation for dinner". We explained that there are so many restaurants and it's hard to know which one will be good.

He said, "Ah, yes, you just go out the door and either go left or go right, and then walk around. There are restaurants all around." We asked for a more specific recommendation, but he just repeated the directions we could walk in.

HELP US WE ARE HUNGRY!!!

After being overwhelmed by my picky-ness along with menus only in French, we found a pizza place. From our window we saw one French guy in tight clothes kick another guy in tight clothes holding a Louis Vuitton man-purse. They acted like they were going to duke it out, but a peace maker kind of stopped them. This was actually the second tight-clothed-fight we'd seen today.

The streets are cool looking at dusk and on our walk back to the hotel before dinner we got some shots.