Today was our first free day in Paris. It was a little bit intimidating since I don’t speak any French. If I remember correctly I took French for 6 weeks in 6th grade. I enjoy listening to French people speak but when they start talking to me I have no idea what they are saying and when I want to talk back I automatically want to speak Spanish. I think it’s cool how since the languages are similar I start to think in Spanish. Another thing that is somewhat frustrating about it is I don’t know how to pronounce anything so even sounding words out doesn’t really work for me, instead I automatically start to sound it out as if it were Spanish which is wrong.
Today we attempted to go to church. There were two churches that we found that were fairly close. The only difference between the two was the timing. First we tried to go to the church that started later so that we could have a better chance of getting there, but when we got to the place where the church was supposed to be it was closed, literally it was bared up and covered. So then we made our way to the next church building where we were going to go at first and just barely missed church. We took some pictures and then talked to the missionaries. After talking to the missionaries we found out that the other building was at stake conference and that it is known as “the jungle.” Talk about an adventure.
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| Entrance to the Church |
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| Us leaving |
From church we went to Notre Dame to see Quasimodo. Unfortunately when we got there he wasn’t home but it was ok we were willing to wait. We sat in there for about 4 hours. We wanted to participate in a service but it was taking too long and we were getting tired of sitting there. While we sat there I got some good sketching in and it was relaxing.
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| The Notre Dame |
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| Rose Window in the Notre Dame |
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| The Interior of The Notre Dame |
The Notre Dame is a gothic Cathedral and is a sight to see. It was equally beautiful outside and in. The detailing was incredible. I really liked the rose windows and the chandeliers. It was amazing, and I didn’t mind sitting in there to sketch and soak up the incredible work.
After leaving the Notre Dame we (Andrea and I) went back to the hotel to eat some food. On the way we saw some rioting going on, but since I don't speak french I had no idea why they were upset.
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| Riots |
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| The Arc de Triomphe |
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| Walking back down the stairs |
After fueling up we went to see one of the most famous monuments in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe. We took the metro to the stop where it was at and so when we came out from the metro stop it just took one step and a glance to be in awe. It is enormous! This is a monument where human scale really comes into play. It is crazy to see the real size versus what is portrayed in a photograph.
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| Look at the scale, that's Andrea standing there |
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| Look how small the cars are |
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| The Arc de Triumphe |
We went to the top of the arc to see the view that everyone talks about. And the rumor was confirmed it was miraculous. Paris is Beautiful.
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| Me looking at the view |
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| View from the top |
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| LOOK MOM |
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| View from the top of the Arc de Triumph |
After Arc de Triomphe we had plans to go to see the Statue of Liberty but for some reason we couldn’t find it but instead we saw an incredible view of he Eiffel Tower. I’m pretty sure that I will never be tired of seeing the Eiffel Tower while I am here.
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| Eiffel Tower |
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| I think I can be the Eiffel Tower |
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| Yummy yummy in my tummy |
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