Paris

I was in France for 5 days, Paris for only 2.

The first day was spent entirely at Armelle's house in Villas (I believe that's where we were). Heather needed to catch up on sleep and we all just needed to relax for a bit. We wandered the small town, smaller than Mitchell, and went grocery shopping.
The second day we proceeded to Paris and first stop was the Louvre. I was in awe and personally surprised myself about how much I knew about art and history. The Mona Lisa wasn't all that great compared to the rest of the artwork contained in this one place. I honestly don't get her appeal. Well after wandering for about an hour or so Armelle and Heather decided that they would rather sit and talk rather than look at the paintings, needlessly to say i left them behind but couldn't help feeling a little slighted. After the Louvre, we ate our lunch and Heather decided it would be fun to feed the pigeons and incidentally one pigeon almost died as it decided to venture into Armelle's purse only to be smacked into a wall by Armelle herself. We decided to walk around a bit and spotted the Eiffel tower off in the distance, so that became our new point of interest. The Eiffel tower was pretty but not too exciting, the best part of it were the guys selling cheap souvenirs and their running away from the police of bikes. The Army men were a little intimidating, what with their guns and all, but I realized that they found this ritual of selling and running as funny as I did.
Day Three we decided to head to the Red Light District. Moulin Rouge wasn't all that impressive, and there was scaffolding around the windmill, of course because it's part of the EU. We then ventured down to a very Red Light District museum, which was hilarious in its absurdity. After the museum, we ventured up toward Sacré-Cœur Basilica. On the way Heather got propositioned for sex by some random French guy, considering Heather speaks even less French than I do it was rather hilarious, and once we got Armelle and she figured out what was going on she yelled at him in French, I laughed. We continued walking and reached the steps leading up to Sacré-Cœur Basilica and were approached by some guys trying to sell us some string bracelets for some reason or another, they spoke English very well and kept talking about Obama, once again Armelle spoke French and that was that. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is gorgeous inside and out, you can see almost all fo Paris on a clear day (ours was foggy) and the inside is awe inspiring. There is a mass every hour so the church is always open, it's hard to even begin to explain the church, we weren't allowed to take pictures. It was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous and the most beautiful church I have ever seen. After Sacré-Cœur Basilica, we went to LaFayette, a huge 7 story shopping mall so Armelle could go Christmas shopping; incidentally the mall next to this one is where they found the dynamite a few days later.
Day Three, Armelle's aunt, Daniele came and picked us up to take us shopping in some small town. On the way we passed a gorgeous French church, apparently anytime you are watching a French movie about French royalty this church is always used. I wish I could have taken some photos. Once we arrived at the town, we wandered the Christmas market, and I was convinced to try foie gras, tasted kind of like funeral meat, and rewarded myself with a soft pretzel. We wandered around a bit, through a few shops and then went for a coffee. While we were at the coffee shop, there was what we assumed to be a television crew interviewing a native American who had accepted the French lifestyle, translated through Daniele and Armelle. Heather and I couldn't stop laughing.
Day Four was rather uneventful, we just hung around the town all day. I went with Armelle to get baguettes and the such and was hit on by some guy, all I understood was "water" and "important," (I was holding a pack of bottle water) and I just nodded and said "yeah." It was so awkward. That night we ate at an authentic French restaurant. We shared some weird type of fondue, a huge wedge of cheese on a heater that once it melted you scraped it off and ate with various types of pork, it was good. The restaurant owner came and talked to us, she was incredibly nice and thought we were so interesting.
Day Five was the day of traveling. We had to clean and pack and be on the train by 4:30. Then from the train take the metro, I felt like I was in a cattle car. Following the metro, catch the bus to the airport, 3 hours later, arrive at the airport for our flight. By the end of it all, I was so tired I made a fool out of myself at passport control. The man was asking me the basic questions and asked how long I'd been there etc. I responded 3 months and so on and so forth, he mentioned that I didn't have a stamp. Then I realized I was in the Republic not North, I got the death stare...oops.
My great French adventure...I liked Munich better :D