I’m writing this while watching the sun set behind the cathedral and listening to some drunk guy singing in Italian on the street below. It’s a very strange combination.

Today was a bus day. After breakfast, we walked over to the Louvre and caught a tour bus. They handed out cheap little headphones to plug into boxes beside our seats. Then you chose your language from one of eight. English (represented with a British flag which threw me for a second), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, German, and what we think was Arabic. We spent the next few hours being driven through the crazy traffic of Paris, seeing the main sights, and completely losing track of all the dates of when things were built, added onto, commissioned by this king or that one,  built by which architect, burned down, moved, or changed into a palace, museum, or prison.

I said it before, but I’ll say it again. The amount of history here is overwhelming.

We drove past Notre Dame (which we went back to- more later), that bridge covered in padlocks , a lot of ancient palaces-turned-something else, the big university, the Concorde where Marie Antoinette was beheaded (along with a bunch of other people) and up the Champs Elysees to the Arc d’Triumph. The Champs Elysees is a huge street lined with the highest of the highest end stores. Louis Vuitton, Mercedes Benz, Cartier, Tiffany, dozens of Parisian couture stores, and a McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds- right smack in the middle of it all.

At the end of the road was the famous Arc d’Triumph-

Pictures don’t convey the scale of it. From the other end of the road, you could see it over the tops of all the 5-6 story buildings. People have flown planes through the middle of it. And the carvings on it are spectacular. Intricately carved people fight battles in scenes the size of movie theater screens.

The traffic around it is nothing like I’ve ever seen before either. Busses cut through the cars and scooters like giant whales in an ocean. Everyone just lets them go where they need to go. The cars drift in whatever direction they need to go, weaving across each other’s paths in some places. And the scooters just dart wherever, making up their path as they go along. It’s a scary-looking hierarchy but amidst the toot tooting of horns, it seems to work. Another fun thing was the Ferraris and Lamborghinis parked everywhere with “Drive Me!” plastered on their sides. Tempting, but not in the crowded center of Paris.

Oh, and we also saw this slightly famous thing-

From the other side of the city, it’s like “Oh, there it is. Doesn’t look any bigger than the Space Needle.” From the bus nearby, it looks pretty big. But standing underneath it….

It’s massive. Huge. Pick your adjective. I would guess that about 12,000 people could stand underneath it, if they squished together a little.

But in all honesty, I was more impressed with Notre Dame. That thing is big and beautiful beyond belief.

 

I’ve never seen such amazing architecture. Every single bit of that building is made intricately. In some places it looks as delicate as a butterfly wing while others are adorned with massive gargoyles and statues of saints. We’re actually going to go inside it tomorrow to ogle at the stained glass and ornamentation in there, which we’re all really excited about.

We’re also going into the Louvre tomorrow-

That building is both the biggest and the richest art museum in the world. It stretches for three or four city blocks long and a least two across.

One the biggest things that struck me today (beside the beauty of everything) was the diversity. So many cultures, races, styles… Oregon really is an isolated part of the world. I couldn’t tell you how many different languages I heard today. I really enjoyed seeing all the different people staring at the same beautiful things. There’s probably a deeper meaning there but this isn’t English class and I’m too tired. Despite all the diversity, everyone was really kind about bumping into each other, avoiding each other’s photos, and just being generally cheerful. It was awesome.

A few random bits:

Sentence I Never Thought I’d Say: “No! I’m not going to walk to Notre Dame. I will walk to the Louvre though.”

(Our apartment is only a few blocks away)

Here’s a little bit more of our apartment, by the way. These beams are at least a hundred years old-

And this is our hilariously small kitchen with a six foot tall dad for reference-

All the doorways here are about six feet, one inch tall too. Never have I been more glad to be short. I can reach all the shelves too!

 

Mom’s Note: All the cathedrals we’ve seen so far are built with carved stone as opposed to Italian architecture, where everything’s built with colorful mosaics and intricate facades.

Mom’s Note 2: The cheese is delicious.

I’ve been working on this for way too long now. But before I go, here’s a picture of the cathedral all lit up now that it’s well and truly dark-

Bye!