Soldes

Soldes ("Sales") are the most wonderful things the world has ever thought of. And France knows how to do it right. The french don't really do the after-christmas sales or tax-free weekend anything like that. What they do have is a five week extravaganza in June/July that is to some extent regulated by the government, but isn't exactly standard, and which makes my life super fabulous.

So after class wednesday (the first day of soldes) Hannah, Stephen (pronounced steph-ahn) and I went shopping. It was crazy, but awesome. I didn't buy a lot (I've already done a bit of shopping as you know) but the stuff I did get was incredibly cheap. One shirt (a new favorite) was only 3 euros. I know right? We had a great time. Stephen was a good shopping buddy, but Hannah and I kind of felt bad for dragging him around so many girl stores. We tried to get into a men's or a shoe store every other store so he wouldn't be too too bored.

Random observation: french people are completely oblivious to other people around them. they really don't notice anyone else around them, stepping up in front of you when you're at a rack, even cutting lines. it would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

Well anyway, yesterday, Lucia Hannah and I took the bus to the H&M. OMG. It was literally three times as big as the one by my house (atlanta). Crazy huge. Made a couple purchases. Including a butterfly ring that was only a euro. *contented sigh*.

Today Hannah and I made a trip to the fnac (pronounced fuh-nack) for the books. Generally speaking it's kind of like a best buy, but they also have a fairly large book section. Got a french-french dictionary (a Petit Robert for anyone who cares) because I've wanted one for a while and the 4th Harry P (our new nickname for him) because well why not. Will probably start Accro du Shopping next though. Hm. Ok that's about it. Peace.

Music Festival and my Mon/Tues

Sunday was the Fete de Musique here in France and it is a huge deal. The entire country jams out for the better part of the day, all in celebration that it's officially "summer" (it feels like spring). I started out around 4 or so, at Parc Prebendes where I knew there would be a concert going on.

I btw became the person to know, because I had gone to the tourism office earlier and gotten a little schedule of events (complete with map) showing what was starting when and where to find it. Yep pretty sweet.

Then I met up with Mary and some other girls at Place Plume and we listened to a girl called Soem and then a blues group. We got kind of bored and started wandering. We met up with Jane after that and wandered a bit. Then was dinner (sandwich, not the best) and we listened to a reggae group (not really) followed by a british pop group called The Radiophones who had THE cutist drummer. What is it about drummers? Anyway I digress...

So we were pretty done with place plume then so we followed jane and met up with these french guys she's gotten to know (just ok looking) and then we met up with even more girls. Then the group redivided and my group went and got drinks (I got a pina colada). So then we went back to place plume for a while, and I finally headed home around 12:30, at which point I realized that it was about dinner time on the other side of the pond and called my dad. End of day.

Monday was very tired. Everyone was tired. Really really tired. Our teacher tried to be all "Tell me what you guys did this weekend" and we all just looked at her like "Really? What do you Think we did this weekend?" Funny. Then after classes Hannah and Stephen and I went and did a little pre-sale shopping. Eurodiff was having a pre-sale and so I got a pair of shoes, a shirt and a scarf all 40% off. We also mapped out our plan for tomorrow. Soldes are awesome. Today was spent miserably shuffling through a really long day of classes. Yuck. Great art history class though and afterword I talked to my mom on fb and played some foos with Wayne.

End of day.

Versailles!

or as my mother called it, The Big V.

It was HUGE. so amazing...so extravagent, so incredibly wealthy...Words really don't describe it.

It was an extremely early morning, only made worse by the fact that it was cold yesterday and none of us had planned on it. Then we made the horrible realization that Olivier (the coolest professor ever) would not be accompagning us on this excursion. He was replaced by a strange woman with a moustache. Who talked very very very softly.

3 hour bus ride later we arrived at the coolest place in the world. We were informed that we could wander freely (just get back to the bus on time) or follow our "guide". Madame Moustache (as I continued to call her the rest of the day, much to everyone's delight) led us into the first room and spent (kid you not) 45 minutes explaining it to the group. Now I love explanations, and knowing the history and the basics about what I'm looking at, but there are limits. It was at this point that we (Sylvia, Rachel, Olesya, and I) decided it would be better to wander freely and actually, you know, SEE versailles.

Well, sylvia and I lost track of rachel and olesya in the crowd so we ended up seeing the rest of the chateaux by ourselves. We saw the grands apartements, the royal residence rooms, and the dauphins appartements. Booyah. We then took on the gardens.

For those who don't know, versailles has spectacular gardens that cover acres...really. And Sylvia and I saw all of it. In three hours. OMG. So tired. So then every saturday afternoon they turn on the fountains, which is incredible. So we saw many of the gardens again. Then we ran into Olesya, Rachel, Stuart, and two other guys (whose names escape me, but who all went to West Georgia with Rachel) and we all went to the Domain of Marie-Antoinette. We wanted to see her little farm thing, but we couldn't really find it. We DID get into the Grand Trianon (Napoleon's residence) for free (due to a combination of our student ID's and my french) which was cool but it wasn't what we were looking for. It was starting to get late, so we gave up on Marie's farm and headed back.

At 5:30 they had the awesome fountain show at the neptune fountain. So cool. The fountains start up and get bigger to music. Very cool.

A 3 hour bus ride later and I crawled into bed, exhausted but happy.

Chenonceau

Gosh I love castles...

Today we went to chenonceau. This was not a trip via the institute, but rather via Duffy (it's coming from our extra Duffy money for the knowledge of mes parents). Twenty minute train ride takes you directly to the castle. Right out front. Kind of funny really.

Lovely castle, goes right over the river. One problem: old castles require maintenance and that maintenance can last years. Maintenance requires scaffolding, my pet peeve. So I practiced a little Jackie-Cantwell-Photography-Magic (aka tips I got from the AJC living section). You can get great angled photos, side views, and vertical shots that just barely cut out the undesired section. Another great way to "cut out" scaffolding: stick a person in front of it. Literally place your desired model so that they (mostly their head) blocks the undesired section (aka the icky scaffolding) and leaves the rest of the beautiful tourist attraction in view. Perfect every time.

Also took some blurry pictures of the indoors. Oh and there was this cute little maze which we got totally excited about, because really who doesn't love a hedge maze? But then we got completely let down, seeing as we were rather too tall (the hedges only came up to our shoulders) and rather too smart (it would have been a difficult maze if we had been like, 5). Oops. Explored the gift shop. Nothing worth buying. Got back on the train. Went and got a chocolate eclair for no reason other than I wanted one. It was delicious.

This has been the 6 oclock news from FTDO. Jackie Cantwell, signing out.




PS: OMG VERSAILLES TOMORROW!!!!!!!

Thursday of Crazy Week

Wine and Cheese Tasting:

Ok prepare yourself for the revelation of the century (not really): I don't like wine. It's not just a certain type of wine either. We had dry wines, we had sweet wines, we had white wines, we had red wines, we had many different types of wine. And I didn't like them. Just not my thing. The average glass of wine has about 100 calories, the average chocolate milkshake has about 200. I'd rather have the milkshake than the two glasses of wine, sorry. A sweet wine has more calories than a coca-cola and I would definitely choose the coke.

Cheese however is a different matter: I LOVE cheese. We had goat cheese, cow cheese, sheep cheese, pasteurized cheese, not pasteurized cheese (which is not allowed aux Etats Unis)...and I loved it all. The camembert was a favorite. Love cheese. Could eat that stuff all day long...(on a related note: I have become adjusted to the goat cheese with strawberry jam combo and now find it an acceptable dessert).

Oh and if anyone was wondering, 3-4 glasses of wine DOES make me tipsy. I was a far cry from drunk but I definitely had a slight headache and standing completely still without wavering was starting to become a problem. I kind of knew that would happen though, seeing as my mom is also petite and her limit is really about 2-3 glasses.

Yep. That was the wine and cheese tasting. Any questions? No? Good. Moving on.

Crazy week: Part 1

Crazy week...so we'll start from the beginning and go from there...

Wednesday I went to Azay-le-rideau and Villandry (both chateaux).

Azay is a really neat castle that's situated right next to the river so it has a sort of natural moat going for it. Very pretty and it was a gorgeous day. really pretty architecture, and the furnishings are incredibly gorgeous but of course no flash photography indoors. blurry photos are no fun. but it was still really really cool and olivier (the awesome are history prof) was with us. he is so passionate about his subject and his knowledge of everything is so incredible.

Villandry was that same afternoon (there's no classes on wednesdays in France) and it was also amazing. it may be my favorite chateaux based on pure beauty. The castle itself is nice and looks very nice, but its famous for its gardens. They are the most beautiful things ever, the flowers are all perfect and perfectly placed. It smells like heaven too. The entire area is filled with the perfume of all the flowers.

Then we were really hot and we wanted ice cream and they had all these really unusual flavors. Like flower flavors. I debated between rose and lavender, but I decided on rose. It was good, not a new favorite or anything, but it was sweet and cold and that's what I needed. You definitely feel like you're eating a flower, but it wasn't bad at all.

Ok so that's pretty much it...more later!

Amboise and Blois

Oh the adventures of the weekend...

So saturday I had the excursion to Blois and Amboise. First stop: Amboise...

Amboise is a really cool chateaux that was mostly destroyed by revolutioneers. I would love to go back in time and tell them that tearing down 3/4 of a major tourist destination is a bad idea and that the french people would regret their decision, but alas I can do no such thing. Olesya and I have decided though that we were born to be princesses.

Beautiful tapestries, intense stone sculptures, and amazing woodwork. And of course fabulous views. yep, definitely born to be a princess. We also got to see Leonardo Da Vinci's grave (it's in the royal chapel). Then after chateau-ing it up we went and visited Da Vinci's house (for those who do not know, he spent the last three years of his life sitting in the lap of luxury as the french king's new favorite). Very cool but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

Next stop: Blois. Blois was awesome just in that it was all still standing. Well sort of. This is yet another castle that went through multiple renovations, not all of which went to completion. Literally four different styles of architecture, all vastly different. You can literrally look around the inner courtyard and watch the renaissance take over france. Very cool. Can't wait to show you pictures.

Walked around a bit. Had the best lemon sorbet ever...like frozen lemonade on a cone...yummy! And then we got back on the bus and came home.

On an unrelated note, I'm reading this really awesome book right now. In english it's title is Life of Pi and you should go buy it and read it right now. Super duper good. Almost as good as the sorbet. Ok I'm done for now. Pictures on facebook later today.

Shopping

I have had much wonderful shopping here.

You've already heard about my two scarves (I'm thinking of getting another one) and my books (also thinking of getting another one).

You must now hear about my super fabulous buy. Before this totally gets eclipsed though I'll throw in the fact that I also got a cute little cardigan. Ok anyway on to THE purchase.

So it was really yucky and cold and AWFUL for like the past three days. Ugh. I hate rain and I hate cold and it was not going well for me. So a bunch of us were in this I-need-a-jacket/coat kind of mood so we went shopping. (this weekend is going to be hot ironically). We were in zara and noticing that the bomber jacket look is very in right now and were commenting on how we had seen them quite a bit since arriving in france. problem: leather is expensive. so we moved on to the next store. Pimkie.

I (along with Mary and Katie) were standing around watching Tegan try on a brown leather bomber jacket (which she ended up buying) when I noticed a black leather jacket on the rack below. It's sort of a blazer look (almost). think fitted leather jacket with some seaming and zipper accents. less bomber more sleek. It was priced at 30 euros (give or take $40). Guess what came home. *happy face*

Yep. The grand purchase. hurrah. Ok off to do more shopping. (jk)

The crazy woman I live with

I'm starting to sort of comprehend my host mom. understand no, but comprehend yes. she's been moving my stuff everyday, like my back pack will be like 2 feet over from where I left it or random stuff like that. I couldn't figure it out for the longest time; I mean what's the point of moving it over a few inches? it wasn't like she moved it to a completely different location in the room: that could be attributed to a super high level of OCD but this just didn't seem to qualify. Then I realized that she vacuums everyday and she moves anything on the floor so she can vacuum. She vacuums btw like my grandpa: perfectly straight lines on the floor that do not overlap. Crazy.

I have been whining about the food for some time now about how it's always like all veggies and salad. Well last night I found out the reason for this. She serves me veggies and salads and healthy stuff because she knows I eat sandwiches (which I consider healthy) everyday for lunch. She's trying to make sure that my diet is balanced so I don't get fat. I would love to tell her that if my diet gets any more balanced, I'm going to starve. So I bought a six pack of Kinderbars (candy bar that is kind of like kitkat + 3 musketeers + nutella) to keep me satisfied. rawr.

Oh and apparently Im too loud in the morning (my side of this story is that she's a light sleeper and the walls are I kid you not an inch thick (I measured) and for goodness sakes I get up at 8 that's not soooo bad) so I'm no longer allowed to brush me teeth or anything in the bathroom in the morning. I have to use the kitchen sink. Yep. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Next week though our schedules are so different that we're not eating together at all so I basically won't see her for an entire week. Ahhhh....

Hm

Pleqse exscuse qny typos in the follozing postm it is being zritten on q french keyboqrd becquse i, qt the institut right noz qnd their keyboqrds qre different fro, ours qnd i, only ,ildly concerned qbout your qbility to decifer it: plus if i try to do it zithout typos it zill tqke like tzo dqys to qcco,plish:

It hqs rqined here for the pqst three dqys qnd it is reqlly cold qnd zindy qnd frqnkly i, tired of it: zhy isnt it behqving like su,,er§ so,e friends qnd i hqve decided thqt ze qre tired of zeqring the sq,e light jqckets qll the ti,e (nobody brought heqvy coqts) and ze qre going in seqrch of blqzer ish things thqt qll the french women weqr lqter;

Bought tzo scqrves yesterdqy qt ProMod; very hqppy qbout thqt; also zent book shopping; two for mere (,y sis) qnd two for me; not telling the first tzo but the second two qre L'histoire de Pi (Life of Pi) qnd Les Confessions d'un Accro du Shopping (Confessions of q Shopqholic); they're level 6 qnd 7. thinking about getting another one. something like a level 8 or 9 just to try it qnd see if I cqn hqndle it becquse hqrry potter is level 6 qnd thqt zqsn't too hqrd.

Yep thqt's pretty ,uch it. ok I'll stop torchering you zith this crqzy ,essed up keyboqrd. Fro, noz on im only posting fro, ,y co,puter:

France looks like Ohio

My academic advisor slash scholar mentor Dr. Morgan gave me this book before I left (kind of a gag gift) that's a reproduction of a WWII GI Guide to France that the governement had written up. This book is hysterical for anyone who has studied french culture at all because it's just so wrong on so many levels. Like at the time it probably served its purpose very well and it was written in a very effective "regular Joe" kind of style, but really it's just the funniest thing on earth. One of the representations of France that this guidebook provided was that France looks like Ohio. Well they're not entirely wrong.

I spent a total of 8-9 hours saturday on the road to and from Mont St Michel and France does look rather like Ohio. Farmy, with some trees, and fairly flat with the occasional slight hills. Ohio. The major difference is that the cute little towns you pass have a heavy dose of frenchness.

Mont St Michel is super cool. Giant cathedral on an island in the atlantic. It did not rain while we were there so it was great. The prof who was with us was really super knowledgeable about everything and it was great walking around with him and learning all about everything. The cathedral is a victim of bad planning, wars, picky kings, and budget cuts. First of all most of the island is sand, not rock so the medieval builders had a hard time getting the building to stay up. Then they had a problem with france and england being in perpetual war and they had to build huge walls around everything. Then the kings were like hey let's make this a prison. And the monks were like, well we don't have a choice do we? and the kings were like nope. So there's about four different centuries of archetecture in this one building. Very neat.

We then went to St. Malo (where it did rain) but we had galettes and crepes and gelatto so it was ok.

It's Not Just the Electrical Outlets

France is weird. No really. Not kidding, it is WEIRD here. Like go back to the early nineties weird.

It's june right? Not in France. It feels like september. rainy and cold. Wednesday is supposed to be sunny so I'm going to do some shopping and get myself a scarf and a sweater. Stupid weather.

So electrical outlets aren't the only things that are different here (which by the way I don't understand. Didn't the electricity thing start on our side of the pond?). The locks are different too. Like if you don't lock the door a certain way it's not actually "locked" it's just "closed by key" meaning with the first one the door will not open from one side at all even with a key (this confuses me to no end) and with the second one you can open either side with the key (but not without). Really strange.

Also they don't have dryers here. They hang everything up on racks 40s style. So you can only do laundry when it's sunny. (still can't tell if my host mom is going to do my laundry for me or if I'm doing it myself...) They also have dishwashers but they don't use them. Ever. And they don't have air conditioning either. Like I understand to some extent that they don't really need it like 80% of the year, but really? It gets decently hot here in july and august (which by the way is when kids here have summer vacation). Strange.

Also nothing is open on sundays. I'm not just talking like government buildings and schools. NOTHING is open. A few cafes and the mcdonalds (which they call the MacDoh) and that's it. So no shopping on sundays (very sad).

I just don't understand the french. It's not like we're just not on the same page; it's more like we're in different libraries. I think it's because they drink too much wine.

Lots of Info: Part 3

Sooo much to talk about, sooo I broke it up into multiple parts for my sanity and your convenience. Parts 1 and 2 cover general observations and classes. Part 3 will discuss my excursions.

There are lots of excursions/activities offered through the institut. Azay-le-rideau (it's a castle) is included through the USC program. The other castles I'm going to are Chenonceau, Bloir and Amboise, and Versailles (palace of the sun king). Tourraine (the area of Tours and the Loire (river) Valley) is filled with castles because throughout much of french history (like 3/4 of it) this is the area that french kings chose to live in. The thing to remember with french castles is that they are not and have never been private residences. If the king lived there, it was not just his home, but also the main governmental building. When the history books say a certain place was where court was held, they mean literally the king's court (all the important people) lived and worked in the palace. And even during those times, it was open to the public. Everyone, so long as they were dressed appropriately could go in and see just about any part of the building. That's why Versaille is so huge.

Imagine if the White House was where the President and his family as well as all the Congressmen and their families lived and took care of the nation's business, and on top of that, anyone wearing a suit and not smelling like rotton eggs could come in and watch Obama brush his teeth. That's what Versaille was like in it's hayday. Crazy.

In addition to the castles, I'm also going to Mont-St-Michel and St. Malo. Mont-St-Michel is a huge cathedral on an island in the atlantic ocean just barely connected to land by a road. St. Malo is the nearby area. Crazy cool. That's actually tomorrow.

Oh and not next thursday but the thursday after I'm going to a wine and cheese tasting here at the institut. yay goat cheese.

The institut also has a bunch of free activities. Like yesterday we went to the Musee des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Beautiful Arts) which was very cool. 17th/18th/19th century art (I don't really know). Both paintings and sculptures. Yep.

So that's about it..working on the get-pictures-on-facebook thing...Have a good weekend!

Lots of Info: Part 2

There's tons to fill you in on so I broke it up into parts. This part will focus on classes.

All of my classes here are language intensive, which means I focus on improving my french skills versus fulfilling general ed requirements for USC.

I placed into B2 (highest of the intermediate levels) which is a 6 or 7 out of 9 on the old system. So I'm fairly high up there I guess. I don't know and I don't really care. The class isn't too hard and it seems to be a pretty good fit so we're good.

Monday through Friday I have french language class for three hours in the morning which is mostly grammar. yuck. The afternoons are all different.

Monday I have a two hour lunch break (facebook anyone?) followed by atelier, which is more or less a recitation class for french language, then an hour break, followed up by civilisation which is a culture class. Haven't had one yet but it should be good. Tuesday is a full day. Only one hour lunch followed by civi, recitation for my oral expression class, oral expression class (way fun we spend the whole time working on prononciation and inflection etc), and ending with art history which should be cool. Wednesday I just have literature in the afternoon, which is sooooo boring. Normally I do well in lit classes and am semi-interested in them. This one is just boring. Don't know. Thursday it's oral expression and recitation. Friday I have nothing in the afternoons. Woohoo!

There are only 10 people in my class. About 6 of us are students (3 from USC, an italian, a spaniard, and a girl from Illinois) in college. There are 3 adults who are going back to school and there's an older canadian woman who is just doing french because she's bored. I don't like this woman very much because she kind of hogs the teacher's attention which is sort of annoying. Ugh.

Not sure if there's anything else to say about classes....Hm ok moving on. Please continue reading through part 3.

Lots of Info: Part 1

I have lots of info to share so I'm breaking it down into more manageable pieces. Part 1 will focus on life here in france in general, as well as my day to day existence.

Basic observation: french people own lots of mirrors, but I don't think they use them. Seriously I swear some of them don't look at what they're wearing before they put it on. Very funny and occasionally disturbing. Park = people running = really short jogging shorts and waaaay to much thigh. Think 1980s basketball shorts.

Parks are awesome by the way. They're everyway here. I walk through two to get to school everyday and there are always a ton of joggers as well as these little old ladies walking their dogs. The dogs by the way have learned to recognize a college student. They will literally sit down when they see you coming and refuse to move until you have petted them in passing, which of course we all do.

Food here is amazing. I have breakfast (bread and butter and orange juice) and dinner at the house and lunch at the institut. The institut has two cafeterias but when they say cafeteria they mean a room with a vending machine. So we (everyone) just goes to one of the hundreds of little cafes/boulangeries in the area. A boulangerie is like a sandwich shop more or less and I LOVE them. Today for example I had a Sandwich Chevre which is goat cheese (it's a specialty of the area and very good) and some lettuce on french bread. Costs like 2 or 3 euros and is like a foot long. Delicious.

At first I was mildly concerned about my host mom (that's what we call them, host moms, host dads, etc) and her idea of dinner. The first night she literally served me a small salad (just lettuce), a piece of bread, and water. I went to bed starving and confused. It has greatly improved though. Funny thing: I get the impression that she seems to think that we don't have vegetables in Georgia. A couple days ago she made this carrot salad thing and proceeded to explain to me what a carrot is. She did the same with this broccoli dish. I think she was mildly disappointed that I both knew what they were and ate them regularly. Yesteday we had radishes as our precourse and she was all happy to find out that I had not eaten them before, despite the fact that they are fairly readily available in Georgia. I lied and said I liked them. Our main dish last night was mussels (les mouilles?) and they were sooooo good. I think we were both glad to find out that we're both seafood eaters.

Funny comment my host mom made: I mentioned that I love french food and she was all like oh yes french food is so good and light, not heavy like american food. I nodded along because this very true, and she proceeded to say "that's why you're all obese". hahahahahaha

I do walk to and from school everyday and it does take me a full 20 to 25 minutes to do so, but it's not so bad. It's a good time to just chill and listen to my ipod. Plus a good long walk like that is my way of justifying dessert (omg sooo good).

Another random observation about france: it is Incredibly dry here. Like really really dry. My lips are so chapped (is that really how you spell that?) and and my hair is like hay right now. Such a change from the humid south.

That's pretty much it. Please continue on for parts 2 and 3.

Funday

Like Sunday but more fun.

This morning Olesya (who is also my current roomie) and I got up early (7 am) and started our super awesome day. No really it really was that good. Breakfast in the hotel (which as it turns out is not complementary but we probably couldn't have gotten it any cheaper). Then off to the Sacre Coeur (the Sacred Heart Basilica)! It was Beautiful. Inside and out. Gorgeous views too, but be warned: it's a bit of a hike. We give any and all stairs evil looks now. Totally worth it though. Montmartre is a very pretty area as well. Very typical "oo-la-la" frenchy.

Next stop Le Palais Garnier. This is the Grand Opera House. SOOOOOOOOO opulant. Everything is marble or gold plated and everything absolutely everything glitters. This is also where many parts of the Phantom of the Opera was filmed. And only 4 euros.

Louvre. The whole darn thing is just so amazing to look at it's unbelievable. I'll spare you the gushing over the outside though and just tell you what we looked at: some random french art, some really cool medieval art (we're assuming that that was also french), the napoleonic apartments, more art, the rubens room (boring), some statues, the venus de milo, the medieval louvre (the original foundations of the louvre castle that the current louvre is built on), a sphynx, winged victory, psyche and cupid, hermes, cardinal richelieu (these are all statues by the way), diana, (there were others but I forget), lots and lots of spanish/italian paintings, and of course the mona lisa. the crowd was INSANE. everywhere else the crowd was very manageable and not at all overwhelming, but...let's just say the venus and the mona lisa are different. asian people (no offense just a general thought here) tend to be VERY pushy and arrogant (with no concept of personal space) and they seem to feel that you do not matter. at all. now for those of you who don't know me, I'm rather short. Not like short short, just below average. Well below average does not cut it. I saw the mona lisa for like 1 minute when someone's head moved. Then it was gone. Pooh. Olesya took a picture above the crowd for me so at least there's that. I didn't really see anything astonishing about it anyway.

So our feet hurt really badly and we were starving (it was like 1:30 at this point). we went out and found this cafe/bar/food place and got sandwiches and cokes. Coke is expensive here (like 4 euros) but i needed caffeine. We ate this in the gardens of the tuileries (just outside the louvre). OMG. so cool. And then we went to the place de la concord. Neat obelisk and fountains. nice buildings nearby. *shrugs*. after that we went to the Sorbonne (the best french university period) but it was pretty anticlimatic. we then continued on to the Jardins de Luxembourg (the real destination anyway). These are beautiful gardens and there's a pretty sweet palace right there too.

After that we had done all of our must-sees and so we decided to take the advice of my Forber's Paris Guide (which has the most helpful map and metro map) and do the boat ride on the seine. This is such a good idea. Beautiful way to see the sights from a different angle. After we passed the Eiffle my camera battery died. Poor thing had been on almost nonstop since that morning. We grabbed dinner at a cafe across from our hotel. Amazing food, great waiter. And then we settled down into the hotel for the night. Cuz it was like almost 10.