Fun Times

We just bought a TV! I have no idea how we're going to fit it in our apartment, but we're really excited about having one again. I don't know how much British television we'll be watching, though, what with the licensing and all. But it'll be great for all the movies and American TV that we watch. Plus, (and here's the best part) it means we'll be able to bring back our Wii when we go home in June. :D So, if we aren't blogging much in July, you can blame the creators of Guitar Hero and Lego Star Wars.

Some Paris Photos

Our room at the Hotel du Champ de Mars

Our view of the Eiffel Tower at night

The Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Montmartre - where people sell Eiffel Tower keychains and African love knots, play jazz or breakdance, and block stairways to force tourists to take surveys.


Notre Dame - some great crepe places nearby, too!

The Thinker, at the Musee Rodin.

The Musee d'Orsay, our favorite stop of the trip. It's a beautiful museum built from a converted train station, as you can see above.

A Chance for Future Mockery

As I am sure you are in the habit of hearing, Matthew and I are trying to be better about blogging. Ha!...you might say. Well, Ha!...you might be right. But I'm trying to devise a system. So, bear with me.

First and foremost: our trip to Paris. I'm a lucky girl to have gotten the kind of guy that takes her to Paris for their second anniversary. (Not Paris, Texas; we're talking about the Real Deal.) We stayed at this lovely hotel off of Rue Clair, just a block from the Champ du Mars and within view of the Eiffel Tower. (Stayed tuned for pictures.) We took the train through the Chunnel Saturday morning and got into Paris around lunch time. We spent most of the day just walking around, enjoying the sights, and thinking of all the movies that we know set in Paris. We ended up with a picnic dinner at Montmartre, though the overcast skies made the sunset a little disappointing. Apparently, on the first Sunday of every month, most of the museums and attractions of Paris are free. So Sunday was spent cramming in as much as we could. We hit the Arc de Triumph, which, by the way, you need a ticket for, even though it's free. :/ Then we went to the Rodin Museum. It would have been neat to see it in the summer; a lot of the statues are outside within the garden that surrounds the main building, but unfortunately it was still too cold for anything to really look lush. The highlight of our trip was the Orsay Museum. I had never been before but had always wanted to go. We spent about four or five hours wandering in there. Though only one floor was open due to construction, I don't think we could have stayed much longer than we did. So, we've decided we'll have to go back once the other floors are reopened. Monday we devoted to the Louvre. We would have done it for free the day before, but we figured that would be just too much for one day. Plus, it's about the only thing open on Mondays. It's a little daunting how much that place actually holds. We really just hit a few of the exhibits, though we saw a lot. That afternoon, we walked down to Pont Neuf and ate crepes at Notre Dame. Quintessential Paris. Tuesday morning, we made one last stop at this little bakery on the corner (where we had Pan Au Chocolats every morning) and headed home.

Both Matthew and I had been to Paris before. But my previous experiences were always a part of a large tour group; I wasn't exactly submerged in a culture. So it was nice not having schedules and just getting to pick up a baguette and walk the streets, taking it all in. It was interesting to hear our French. In the end, we decided it was a lot easier to simply ask in French whether the person to whom we were speaking could speak English. Nobody seemed really offended, and it was definitely more reliable communication. Overall, it was a picturesque weekend away. The bar certainly has been set.....