Hello From Paris

Hi Everybody,

We have now been in Paris for 3 days. We got here on Sunday afternoon and went to see Sacre Couer. It's this giant church on a hill but the main thing people come to see is the view. You can see about all of Paris from there. We all loved the street performers, especially this guy who did tricks with a soccer ball. He managed to climb up a lamppost with the ball spinning on his nose, and then at the top juggled the ball with his feet while hanging on the pole with only one hand.

After Sacre Couer we walked to an area in Paris called Madeleine Place. There is a Madeleine church, a Madeleine Blvd, a Madeleine subway station and at least 5 stores named after me.

The next day we started at the Louvre. We got to see the Mona Lisa along with the Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo. They were all amazing and surrounded by HUGE crowds. We walked through the Tuilleries which were beautiful before eating a healthy Parisian lunch of baguettes and Nutella (chocolate spread) along the Seine.

On Tuesday we started at Notre Dame. The front was covered top to bottom in amazing statues, and the huge circular stained glass window was awesome. We got to climb up 378 steps to the bell tower where we could see the bell, but sadly we could not ring it. We also got to see the gargoyles up close and look out on the city.

We went to see the Shakespeare and Co bookstore which apparently a lot of famous writers wrote their stories at. I think that the coolest thing we did that day though was go up in the Eiffel tower. Colin, Dad and I went up to the second level where you could see all of Paris. We walked around the outside of the second level a couple of times before starting to freeze (it was really cold) and going back into the inner part of the second level. There we got our first French french fries and waited for the sun to set. Once it was dark out the whole city lit up. It looked like someone had spread Christmas lights over the city. We looked around a bit more before going down. We arrived just in time to see the Eiffel towers lights flashing. Once an hour for around five minutes they blink the mini lights on the Eiffel tower at rapid speeds. It was really cool to watch.

Today was our last full day in Paris. We got to go and see Versailles which is a GIANT French palace built over 200 years ago. We first walked through the gardens. There were fountains, orange trees, flowers, statues, a canal meant to copy the ones in Venice, and the fake ruins of a Greek temple. It was incredibly beautiful and unimaginably large.

We then went into the palace itself. There was no space on the walls of the palace that was not decorated. After the palace we went back to the neighborhood our hotel is in. Colin and I tried our first ever crepes and had them for both dinner and desert.

Overall I really liked Paris, but there is one thing I would change. Apparently there are no rules here about cleaning up after your dog, so even when you are just walking down the street you have to be reeeeally careful where you step. Tomorrow we leave for Switzerland.

Check the following link for more photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42179806@N08

Goodbye.