Well, here we are!

City of love is right!! So much PDA here. So many awkward, long glances at the significant other as you walk away blowing kisses. So much "two guys in a car raise their eyebrows and wave at Sophy a lot."

No, but let's start with the beginning.

We woke up this morning to classical piano outside out wide-open French windows. Yesterday we looked around the neighborhood for a while after our nap and then had dinner and nutella gelato. After our wonderful wakeup call this morning, we went downstairs and had French bread with nutella (I think I have made it a goal to have nutella each day). Then we had a short devotion before practicing our mapping for our ethnographic research. We went in pairs down the streets of Paris and assessed what kind of things were there - shops, people, residences, etc. On me and my partner's way back, we went into le Jardin du Luxembourg. So beautiful!

I have to admit, I wasn't particularly "wowed" by Paris up to that point, but I could have seen myself relaxing there for a long while. It's not that Paris wasn't nice, it just all seemed very fast-paced and precise at first...two things that I'm not, and I didn't think Paris was either! Anywho, we debriefed after this and then began our Paris tour. We got paninis and "coca-cola light" and then walked everywhere. We walked past notre dame, past the river, past the louvre, down the Champs-Elysees, past the arc de triomphe, and up into the Eiffel Tower. Our tour was about 11am to 11pm - walking all the way. We even walked 700 steps up the Tower, but then decided to take the elevator the rest of the way. You could see everything from up there, it was amazing! It was sunny and warm and there was even an accordion player on the river.

After we went up into the Tower, we went down and had dinner. I had a Boeuf Bourguignon with a Bordeaux wine (because Dr. C approved...and payed, yippee!). So good. Next we went back to the lawn outside the Tower to watch it light up. It lit at about 9pm, but at 10 it started to twinkle for about 10 minutes - it was gorgeous! Definitely magic.

Then we had our long walk back to the hostel, which is pretty nice by the way! We have a beautiful view of the courtyard outside and a little cafe right below us where I accidentally spent four euros on a small bottle of water. Oops.

So, that's my first two days in a nutshell! I didn't even mention the Tai Chi in the gardens with swords or the many, many, people who tried to illegally sell us small Eiffel Tower figurines. "No, merci" was a catchphrase for the day, for sure.

Bonsoir, monsieurs et madames!

Sophy