Oh yeah...Nous sommes alles en Europe

The problem with hating France and the French your whole life, is that it's really hard to admit how much you loved the place after actually going there. And that's the last time you'll hear me admit it! Back to my old ways...

Q: Why do Frenchmen have moustaches?
A: To remind them of their mothers.

Q: Why do the French like smelly cheeses?
A: Well, in a room full of French people, you can't really smell the cheese.

"There is nothing lower than the human race...except for the French." - Mark Twain 1878-79

Q. Why do the French Smell?
A. So blind people can hate them too!

That's better. So, like the rest of our trip, we saw a bunch of stuff in a very condensed amount of time. We actually spent four nights in Paris, which was the most we spent anywhere. Still, we felt like death each night after sight-seeing.

We started our visit with a trip to Sacre Coeur. The basilica stands on a hill that overlooks the rest of the city. Hiking to the top was not the funnest thing, but it was worth it.

After that, we hopped back on the subway to go see the Arche de Triomphe. I'm not sure I'm spelling any of these words correctly. Since it's standard in French to not pronounce the second half of a word, I could spell it like Archejio de Triompheqx*^mn and it would still be pronounced the same way. So, I never really figured there was a point to learning how to properly spell French words. Anyhow, the archejio is on the famous Champs-Elysee avenue, and we went for a little stroll to look at the shops. And then took a long walk through the city until we made it to the Eiffel Tower.

We stayed at the tower long enough to watch the sunset after buying tickets to go up to the second viewing deck. I was really grateful that the top deck was completely full, so I wouldn't have to feel bad about denying Jaime that opportunity because of the cost. Since, I'm a horrible person and wouldn't allow us to spend hundreds of dollars on food, we ate a lot of sandwiches made of baggetts, smelly cheeses, tomatoes, and turkey. So, I was happy when we were forced into saving money.

We visited the Louvre, which is huge. We saw a lot of very famous works, like the Venus di Milo, the Mona Lisa and a bunch of Hans Holbein's paintings. On our last day in Paris, we went to find Notre Dame, but went to see Sainte Chapelle first. It was probably our favorite place in Paris because of how much stained glass was used to create it.



Afterwards, we went to mass in Notre Dame. We went to mass in Italy as well, and we were very impressed by the choirs. Hopefully it doesn't offend anyone, but here's a video of the choir singing in Notre Dame.