Francia

Paris
Housing: Hotel Notre Dame
Lovely city, beautiful language, amazing monuments, and delicious food. Who knew how easy it'd be to sneak onto the Metro?

Day 4: Eurostar across the Chunnel, Eiffel Tower, Chatelet, Pompidou Center, Latin Quarter, Hotel de Ville, Seine River, Cathedral Notre Dame, Nutella and Banana Crepe, Eiffel Tower after 10 pm, Igor.
80 pounds, and 3 hours later, we had crossed the chunnel and were officially in France.
We dropped off our luggage and went straight for the Trocadero because we love the Eiffel Tower. Our 14 Eiffel Tower keychains prove it.
B is for Boutros. Meet Pierre/Peter/Boutros. This is the first friend we made abroad. He struck up a conversation while we waited for the metro that was never going to come, and soon he had offered to give us a short tour of the city center. Don't worry friends, he was dressed in a suit and had just gotten off work. He took us to the best crepe place in town, and with a hot nutella and banana crepe in each hand we were officially welcomed to Paris.

Day 5: Boulanger, Eiffel Tower, Cruise on the Seine River, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, pastries at Paul's, Roland Garros for the French Open, Dinner on St. Germain for Assorte de Crusites (Assortment of Crudenesses)
I love french bread. This was breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack. Delicious!
Eiffel Tower.
Instead of waiting in the huge line to go up the Eiffel Tower, we chose to go on a boat cruise of the Seine River. It was a beautiful day.
Arc de Triomphe. It was erected by Napoleon after the victory of Austerlitz. Design inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus which we got a chance to see at the ruins of the Roman Forum.
We headed east towards Champs Elysees. This is the equivalent of 5th ave in NYC. There were so many delicious pastries and candies; we couldn't help but enter every single store.
I don't think we'll ever get over the fact that Rayna's pinky is bigger than my index finger.
The French Open happened to be in town, and we just happened to get some tickets for a tennis match. Rayna's waiting in line at Roland Garros.
In front of the clay courts of Roland Garros, right before the mixed couples match was about to start.

Day 6: Flea Market at Las Puces, Sacre-Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Versaille, Hotel Invalides, Notre Dame Cathedral, St. Chappelle, Dinner at Cafe Jade on St. Michel, Luxembourg Gardens, Pantheon, Espressos at Cafe Richard.
Sacre Coeur
Can-can-ing it @ the Moulin Rouge.
Hall of Mirrors @ the Palace Versailles.
Notre Dame made a really strong impression on us. Boutros took us here for evening mass the night before, but we had to see it again in the day light.
Dinner at Cafe Jade. We don't speak or read any French so we accidentally ordered 3 dishes. This was the first of three.
We'd been eyeing these miniature espresso mugs ever since our arrival in Paris. We just had to have some.

Day 7: Musee d'Orsay (Van Gogh's self portrait, Monet, Manet, Matisse, Renoir etc), Tuilerius Gardens, German/French food fair, Lourve (Mona Lisa, Venus Statue, King Louis XV crown jewels, Sphinx), nap in the Tuilerius Gardens, Obelisk, Concorde, Musee l'Orangerie (Monet's lily pads), Dinner on St. Michel and people wathcing over olives, nuts and rose wine.
Lucky for us, Parisian musuems are free the first Sunday of every month.
Renoir at Musee d'Orsay.
Pyramids at the Louvre.
Venus at the Louvre. They didn't let us take pictures of the Mona Lisa. Although it's pretty small, it was really impressive in real life.
We asked a man to take a picture for us at Musee l'Orangerie. The next thing I knew, he was about to take a close up of his nostril! We had to spend the next 15 minutes mocking him of course.
Last night in Paris. Adieu.