People who snore should not be allowed to sleep in hostels.

Bonjour from France!!! Rhonda has scampered off to classes for the morning, leaving me in her cute little French house with her computer. Thus, I will update! The basic summation of the weekend is that we conquered Paris. Now for a little more detail...

I got into Nantes on Friday evening, and I met Rhonda, we found some food, found the train to Paris, checked into our hostel, and passed out. Not too exciting, I know, but we knew Saturday was going to be a big day, so it was necessary. The plan was to get a lot of sleep, but one of the guys in our hostel, who we affectionately named "Johnny Snores-a-lot", did just that-- snore...a lot. Where as the plan was to get about a good 8 hours of sleep, I ended up getting about 3-4. We did everything, within reason, to get him to stop snoring: I would flash the light for a couple of seconds, or ask him to roll over, and I even resorted to throwing a pillow at him a couple of times. Every attempt would work for about 20 minutes, then he'd start up again. It's not worth elaborating anymore on here because the sounds he made just can't be captured via words. But ask me sometime in person, and I will do my best to impersonate Johnny snores-a-lot.

Nevertheless, we got up the next morning and set out to discover Paris....and discover Paris we did! We started off at the "Sacre Couer", a beautiful Byzantine church very near our hostel. It is the highest point in Paris, so it also provided a great view. There was a celebration of something or other going on this weekend, so after the church, we wandered around the area for a bit looking at the different vendors and shops that lined the streets. Then we visited the Monamarte Museum. We thought there were going to be paintings from different impressionists there, but unfortunately we were wrong. There was some cool stuff-- original posters advertising different Cabarets (including the Moulin Rouge), and Renoir did live there at one point and time -- but all in all it was a disappointment.

Then it was on to the Louvre. We spent about 4 hours at the Louvre and only saw a portion of what was there. We, of course, saw the Mona Lisa, the Wedding at Canna, and Venus de Milo, but there was a lot left undone. A hard part about Louvre is that the building itself, once a palace, is also astonishing to look at. So, by the time we took in all the beautiful paintings, some sculpture, and some egyptian art, it was time to move on.

After that we made our way down the Champs Elyeisses (sp?). It's (according to Parisians) the most beautiful street the whole world. I have to give them credit because it is pretty incredible...trees, with their leaves changing colors, line both sides of the street. Right in the middle at the end of the street is the Arc de Triomphe. It was nice to stroll and just to watch people going about their ways.

Then we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Its really weird to finally see something in person that you've seen in pictures your whole life; it didn't seem like it was any big deal to be there, but at the same time, I was astonished that I actually was seeing what I was seeing. We decided to climb up to the highest point you could reach by stairs. I'm not sure what this is in feet or meters, but I estimate it was about 1,000 stairs. Fortunately, the view was worth it.

Because we were only in Paris two nights and this was the second of the two, we decided to stick around the Eiffel Tower until dark so that we could see it both in the day and at night. Because we're Americans and have no rugby radar, we completely missed that the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup were taking place in Paris this weekend. (To be fair, we noticed that a lot of people were walking around with Rugby jerseys, there were some dudes at the nantes train station handing out rugby stuff, and because we've been in Europe for a while, we knew it was going on. But, it's been going on for a month, so neither of us knew it was STILL going. Only after we figured out it was still going did we notice the giant rugby ball in the middle of the tower and the jumbo-tron that was strapped to one side.) So, not only was the Rugby World Cup going on IN Paris, but France was playing England that night (it's big like KU v. Mizzou or K-State, and IA v. IA-St. big). So, in our waiting time, we stumbled upon a beer garden for the rugby world cup and decided to join in the party...sort of. We got in there and pints of Heinken were 7 euro each. Not cool. So, we each had one can (at 3.50 euro), sang "The Gambler," "Country Road," and "Piano Man," with a bunch of Brits and French, and then carried on our merry way.

We were planning on going out Saturday night, but because of our lack of sleep and the fact that we had been going pretty solid since 9:30 a.m., our going out turned into sitting in a little restaurant to 'watch' the England beat France, receiving the worst service ever, and then going back and passing out. (If you're wondering, yes, Johnny Snores-a-lot was there again the second night. However, I remembered I had some Tylenol PM, so I took it and was able to sleep).

We started off Sunday, by going to mass (in French) at Notre Dame. Then we went and saw Sainte Chapelle, got lunch, and then toured the Siene on a boat ride. We finished the day by touring the part of the Champs Elysisses what we hadn't seen yet, and then slowly made our way to the train station to come to Angers.

Because I'm on Rhonda's computer, I don't have any pictures to post yet, but I took a bunch, so when I get back to London on Wednesday, I'll post them. For now, we're hanging around Angers and having fun here! :)