Paris - Part 1

We incurred our biggest "hiccup" on our trip while trying to get to Paris. We reserved our train a day before, but our first two options for trains were completely booked and we ended up arriving in Paris around 5 PM instead of the 1 PM that we were hoping for. Apparently we were pretty lucky because the French rail workers were recently on strike and there were no trains to Paris earlier in the week.

Upon arrival in Paris we found our hotel, which was a nice change compared to the random hostels. There was little price difference between cheap hotels and hostels in Paris, so we enjoyed having our own room. After settling in, we walked to Sacre Coeur, also known as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. It's basically a huge white church on top of a hill which provides for a great view of Paris. We walked around the area and went inside, then proceeded to hang out on the steps outside of the church and watched the sunset over the city. We could see the Eiffel Tower from the steps, but we were a few miles away, so after the sunset we took the metro there to get a better view. We didn't have much time because we knew the metro closed by 1, and we left around midnight and ended up catching one of the last few trains back to our hotel.

Sunday, June 27th started with church at one of the most magnificent venues that we have ever attended mass, Notre Dame. After church we went on our 3rd Fat Tire Bike Tour of our trip. Just like the other bike tours, we heard some interesting stories about the city's history and tourist attractions, and we better understood the layout of the city.

After the bike tour, we had some free time and I could think of no better way to spend it then to go to La Defense, the financial district. Yes, I may be a little weird, but all three of us did think it was pretty cool once we looked around. It is completely traffic-free, so it's not congested like the downtown of any other city. After La Defense, we headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for Moulin Rouge!

Darin