What we did do today was so much better than any Irish party could be. As a class after breakfast, we all went to Notre Dame Cathedral!
All I really knew about this place was what I learned from the Disney movie. I used to be so scared of this movie but since the middle of high school I have loved it and coming here I was so excited! The inside was spectacular with more wonderful stained glass (the highlight of all of my cathedral visits) but the best part was climbing to the top! We were able to climb for free with our amazing museum pass but I would have gladly payed for this experience. There seemed to be a million and five stairs but it was so worth it. the first staircase took us up to the landing in between the two towers 
the view was spectacular even from half way up. The best thing to see on this part were the gargoyles! Disney did not lie when they showed so many gargoyles! Even the ones shown in the movie to spew fire onto the bad guys were there, though they were used to filter off rain water not fire on bad guys. Here are some pictures of the lovely/scary gargoyles! (and one of me trying to blend in with them.) 
This one looks the most like the ones from the Disney movie :] made me happy seeing it. 
One of these things is not like the other.
In the sunshine they do not seem scary but legend says that they come to life in times of danger to the Cathedral to protect it, I would not want to be attacked by one of these things. After seeing the gargoyles, I went in to see the crowning jewel of the cathedral, the oldest bell in any French cathedral. There is a legend that by kissing this bell, you will have extra good luck for a year and that you will see the hunchback, Quasimodo.
Well, I kissed it and felt a bit luckier (or maybe it was just excitement from being in Paris) and did not see the hunchback. I think this myth was made up by some person who was lonely and single in the city of love. Wonder what that says about me then for kissing an old bell...After showing my love to an intimate object, i climbed the rest of the way up to the very top of Notre Dame!
This picture is looking down from the South tower. The landing just below me is where the gargoyle pictures were taken and the bell kissed, and the people below that are on the ground, I was getting dizzy from being up so high when I looked down but loving every second of it! 
This is me on the very top of Notre Dame!! :] The next stop was to the Sainte Chapelle Cathedral in the Justice Building. I did not know why we were recommended to go to this place and in my head was thinking 'why another cathedral? we just went to the best one, I'm pretty cathedral-ed out' But after waiting 45 minutes in a security line (it was in the judicial building, the parliament of France so it was very heavily protected) and stepping inside the cathedral, I took back all my grumbly thoughts. All the walls were covered in elaborate gold leaf and it was just beautiful but every wall was made of mostly stained glass!!
This is the east rose window and you can see the north and south walls too made mostly of stained glass! I was loving life even more than I already was in here! And we came when the sun was shining through them and it was indescribable. By this time, the class group had broken into smaller groups. I was in a group of 8 and we had a grand adventure! First we went to the Cluney Museum to see the 'Lady and the Unicorn' tapestries.
"La Dame a La Lincorn" is the French title. It is the oldest surviving tapestries in the country and represent the five senses. The reason why I liked it, was because the story 'Beauty and the Beast' was inspired by them! [to be more precise, the tapestry representing sight inspired the fairy tale]There are six tapestries in all, the one above is the main one, with images representing all of the five other ones in it. After the Muse de Cluney, the 8 of us went on a mini adventure to find a specific ice cream store that was recommended through a travel book.
It was worth the 30 minutes wandering the alleys of Paris to find. I got 2 scoops, chocolate nougat (dark chocolate and walnuts) and chocolate blanc (white chocolate.) It was sooo yummy!! The white chocolate was my favorite ice cream and may even replace my favorite American ice cream, mint chocolate chip. The next adventure we had is now crossed of off my to-do-before-I-die list (it is getting shorter everyday with all that I have been doing, but at least I'll die happy :] ) we climbed the Eiffel Tower!! Some people in the group had climbed it the first night we were in Paris but I wanted to wait and do it in the day time to see everything! And I am so glad I did :] I had seen the tower all lit up the previous night an thought it was lovely, but in the daylight it is just so majestic.
After waiting in line to buy tickets and being hounded by gypsies and peddlers wanting your money, we got into the lift to ride to the half way point and then got out to change lift to go to the very top! Upon getting out of the lift, we noticed that inside the protective cage were little flags from all major cities of the world and underneath was the distance to those cities. I had a pang of homesickness hit me when I saw that Los Angeles was 9,105 miles away from where I was standing. Thank goodness for Skype!
After standing on the top[literally and figuratively] of the romantic world, Sarah, Margret and I headed toward the top [figuratively] of the museum world: the Louvre.
At this point of my study abroad, I was a bit museumed out. We go to so many that I was unfazed by all the new beauty in new museums. This is a dreadful thing to happen, but it was true. I wanted to see a few pieces in the Louvre though because, well, it's the Louvre! Before we saw any art, we stopped at the cafe and rested our aching feet. While eating, we made our game plan. Both of the other girls I was with had been to Paris before and had seen everything in the Louvre they wanted so all we saw was up to me. Knowing that I was museumed out, the only art works we really spent time at were these: 
The Venus de Milo! (can you tell that my pose is trying to copy her? hope so since that's what I was going for) I have always enjoyed the stories of the goddess Venus, and this artwork has intrigued me. And I finally got to see it! 
The other artwork I wanted to see is perhaps the most famous piece of art in the world: the Mona Lisa. There were so many people crowded into the room that she is hanging in that this is the best picture that could be taken. Everyone knows about this painting and with all the hype about it I really expected it to be bigger. Why is this painting so famous? I'd like to ask DaVinci if he foresaw this painting as being so famous.(when I meet him in heaven I will ask him) We did see other artworks while walking to these two but only really saw the two major tourist pieces, and only spent an embarrassing 37 minutes in this the most famous museum in the world. This fact of only being in the Louvre for 37 minutes became a joke between us and we gauged how long everything else took by this ( like saying 'it took two Louvre visits to get our food!' next time I'm in Paris, I will spend longer there.) We wanted to eat dinner at a sit down restaurant to relax our feet more and if we could, eat recognizable food. We decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe! Good American food and music and their amazing milk shakes sounded so good compared to another raw egg calzone. Having no idea where to find the Hard Rock Cafe, we wandered from the Louvre towards the Arc de Triomphe and the touristy section of the city. While walking through the park to the city, we saw a beautiful sunset:
After admiring the sunset in Paris, we continued walking. We came to realize that there was no way wandering would get us to this specific restaurant. The three of us decided to find an information desk and ask where to go. The only information desk that we found was closed so, gathering all my knowledge of the French language (the little amount I learned) I went to the information station in the metro stop. The man behind the counter was very helpful and my French must have been better than I thought because he responded in French. When he saw my confused face he changed to English and gave us directions. As nice as he was, the directions were to the wrong metro stop which resulted in me having to ask directions again and this new worker was not so nice. But we found it! This is me being victorious in front of the restaurant my few words of French got us to (it took almost two Louvre trips to find it.) 
After a well deserved hamburger, fries and shake, Sarah, Margret and I decided that we deserved an extra dessert so we all shared a hot brownie sundae :] I didn't even know I was missing American culture until I saw this restaurant. Visiting and eating there cured me of the homesickness though. When we got back to the hotel, we had a nice long girl talk session and then turned the lights out. I could hardly sleep though because the next day I was going to DISNEYLAND!! :] Have a great day, there is no way I won't when I'm in the happiest palace on earth :]
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