I. LOVE. PARIS.

Basically, this was one of the best weekends ever. Lisa and I did so much in a short period of time, and we essentially felt like we were on our honeymoon.

Thursday night, we thought the TGV would be a "nightclub," since we got in at 11 pm. American and French friends alike told us this, and everyone lied. We took naps and ate snacks and listened

to Justin Bieber. When we arrived, and throughout the rest of the trip, we successfully navigated the French metro! I forgot how much I missed a good subway to get you around. Lisa's friend Nikki was awesome and let us stay with her in her apartment in the Latin Quartier, which is amazing. We didn't realize that we had passed the Sorbonne and the Jardin de Luxumberg until daylight was upon us Friday.

Friday we woke up early and metro-ed over to the Eiffel Tower. We had thought we had taken the wrong subway stop because we made a 300 degree turn instead of a 360 turn off the subway. Once again, accidentally, we found the Eiffel Tower. We meandered over like little children, and then we climbed to the second "observation deck." Climbing it was not only good exercise, but just incredible on

the whole. The Eiffel Tower really is more beautiful in person than in pictures. That picture is us on the Eiffel Tower, Tom Cruise proposing to Katie Holmes style.

After, we walked over to the Arc de Triomph, walked down the Champs Elysée, walked to Les Invalides, Le Petit Palais, Place de la Concorde, got caught in a terrible rainstorm, went to Le Louvre, the Jardin de Tuileries, and we saw the Pont Neuf (the bridge). At Le Louvre, we saw the Mona Lisa, the Aphrodite sculpture, Milo et Venus sculpture, the Sphinx, Hammurabi's Code, and a bunch of other amazing things. We posed like the sculptures for pictures, and that's how we made friends. After this adventurous day, we stumbled into Chatelet Les Halles where shopping really called us.

Saturday, again waking up early, we took the metro to Le Sacre Coeur which is fantastic. Especially climbing up the tower... by the way, so much climbing in Paris. So. Much. Climbing. Afterwards, we walked around Montmartre, saw the I Love You in many languages wall, did more shopping, went to the Cemetery and saw many a cool graves like Degas, Emile Zola, and Hector Berlioz, walked by the ever so anti-climactic Moulin Rouge, felt uncomfortable by Pigalle, searched the Jewish quarter for falafel, and had Chinese food which was delish. Luckily it rained during lunch, so by the time we walked over to the Opera House the rain had stopped. After that fun-filled group of activities, we went to this huuuuuuge department store called Lafayette and went to the top floor, in which one can get an amazing view of Paris. Everytime we climbed a significant amount of stairs, 30 pictures followed. Talk about classical conditioning.

Saturday we just decided to walk all the way back to the Latin Quarter. We decided we must have walked 7 miles that day, or something that impressive.

Sunday, our last day of romance, we went to the Notre Dame bright and early. We were soooo confused as to why it was more crowded than usual, and we realized it was Easter Sunday. How we ACCIDENTALLY went to the most famous church in all of Paris on Easter Sunday is just something we would do. After walking through the service, we waited online for about an hour to climb more stairs to the top, but it was beyond worth it. For one, the people in front of us kept going to the souvenir shops to buy things to keep them warm. Their total list included: three new pairs of gloves, 1 large cup of coffee, a beret, a scarf, and a pair of socks. This was really a sight for cold eyes. Then we saw the Jardin de Luxumberg which reminded us of the scene with "16 going on 17" in The Sound of Music. Actually, Lisa and I must have sang it for about 10 minutes.

After more walking around and unfortunately heading home, we had decided that it was a fantastic weekend. For one, we've been learning about all of these things in Paris since we were in 6th grade, and to see them as a reality was just... unreal? Also Paris has got to be my favorite city I have traveled to thus far. Copenhagen is a close second, but Paris is well... Paris. Not to mention, Aix is a dreamworld. Ahhh I hate superlatives.

The weather was more fickle than a girl picking her outfit for a first date. Rain, shine, overcast, mildly cloudy, and as we got on our train home it started to HAIL.

Anyway, tomorrow, we leave for Prague, Brussels, and Amsterdam with our third partner in crime, Caroline, who we missed very much.