L'Eglise Madeleine

The next day we decided to do a walk for our Paris Walks class. Which is exactly the way it sounds. We have set walks to do that were created by BYU professors. It's basically our own little tour guide. We get guided through the city without loo

king completely like tourists (i.e. a double-decker).

**I stole your picture Brooklyn. Hope you don't mind :)

The walk then took us to a very cute little Patisserie/Restaurant. It is called Ladurée. I highly recommend going there if you are ever in Paris. Even for the cute window displays alone.

The Ladurée is where these little delights were invented. Yep, invented. They have some bizarre flavors of macaroons. And it has the strongest taste. They have flavors anywhere from chocolate to rose. I got four flavors and by the time I got the chance to taste the rose I had to pass. I'm telling you, the flavor is very strong and rich. Not much of a fan myself.

Then we went to the musée du parfum. The museum tour was super boring. I'm pretty sure the tour guide who supposedly spoke English just memorized a script, because I tried to talk to her and she gave me a very doe-eyed look.

I've always known Paris as a place known for its amazing shopping. But even more so, its amazing window displays. Never before has window shopping been so fun.

Don't ask why this man is proposing to the other man. It turns out that in the series of windows the man was actually named "Mary". I don't think the French quite understand English...

Le Louvre

On day three we took the métro to the Louvre.

We live a good forty-five minutes outside of Paris so we see some pretty interesting people at the métro stations. There are so many people that just spend time in the tunnels, and this day we had a little friend on our train. Check it out:

**Sorry it is sideways

So... then we went to the Louvre. This was the first time (of actually looking at exhibits) of what has been about four now, and since I have a class that meets in the Louvre (I know, right?) there are many more visits to come. It seriously is so easy to get lost in that place. But it is really pretty. The art in it is really cool, obviously, but the building itself is really beautiful. Ariel and I looked at the Egyptian stuff this time. The Louvre houses so much art that each exhibit of art has enough to be in its own museum.

**The Sphynx

**The ceiling of part of the Louvre--amazing structure.

**My favorite. The Winged Victory. It's amazing in person.

First Post

Well I finally started a blog. This is going to profile my time in Paris so I can remember what I did. I've been here for ten days now, and it feels like so much longer when I consider how much I have done. I only have a handful of pictures so far, but hopefully more to come.

Day 1:

The first day I arrived at about 11:30 Paris time. Tired, but

not feeling exhausted. We went to the hotel, whi

ch was pretty ghetto. The room had a bunk bed. The bottom was a double and the top a twin. Then there were two doors that led to what looked like closets. But one was just a toilet, and the other was the shower. No locks were on these doors, mind you. And then all the way on the other side of the room was the sink and mirror. And when I say all the way, I really mean about ten steps. The room was super tiny.

(Yes that is me in the picture, looking awesome)

Then we went on a Seine river tour. The boat was a double decker and most of the lower deck was covered. It was freezing so the majority of us stayed inside and with the warmth from the heaters, I fell asleep. Jet lag was starting to hit and with the sway of the boat there was no hope. After that we went and found dinner and headed back to the hotel.

Right by the métro stop where we went to the river tour was this cool carousel. It has two levels on it. And right next to it is an ice skating rink.

Day 2:

This was the day that I met my host family! It was a very interesting first little bit to say the least. We all met in the lobby of our hotel and had taxis come pick us up. I decided that since it was going to be a long taxi ride I would speak French with the cab driver, to get warmed up. I was doing really well if I do say so myself, and was able to communicate without too much hesitation. The taxi driver dropped us off on the sidewalk and me and Ariel and all of our luggage were standing outside the door anxious of what was going to happen. We rang the doorbell and quickly heard someone coming to the door. The first thing I said was "bonjour...uh...nous sommes les étudiantes de BYU.." And the woman said "Ariel, Rosalie, come in come in, allez-y." She showed us our rooms, which are tiny by the way, and gave us the password to the internet and showed us the nearest Mètro station and then let us be.

We had dinner with the family, which consists of the parents, two kids at home (a son and daughter, both in their twenties), and an intern from Lyon, France. We only had dinner with the mom and the kids, including the intern. We had squash soup and part of a baguette for our first course. Then we had salad. I learned that saying "je vais fatiguée la salade" literally means "I will tire the salad" but is used to describe mixing the salad and salad dressing together. After the salad we had some beef and potatoes. It was the reddest beef I've ever been served. it made me a little nervous, but it was good. After that we had little tangerines for dessert. It was a good first meal. Especially after hearing the crazy things that my "camarades" had to eat.

Day 3:

Thursday was day three, and Ariel and I decided to go into the city and explore. We went to the Notre Dame. It was cool, but I had already seen it, so I wasn't super excited. But as we kept walking we found a park behind the church, and I found that the back of the church is really re

ally pretty.

We also went to the Arc de Triomphe.

I forgot how big it really is! I had never been up close to it, so we went through the underground tunnel and went right next to it. It is a really cool structure.

This picture was taken as far back as I possibly could without stepping onto the most dangerous roundabout in France.

We also went to the Louvre. To be continued.