Puis-je avoir un verre de vin??

Bonjour!  

Time flies at the Manor- three weeks from tomorrow until I get home!  I'm very excited, though it is bittersweet.  I hope everything state-side is going well.  Short story for you all to make you laugh :) Today we were in British Studies talking about World War II.  The presenter said that the Americans that came over to help with the war were, "Over-paid, over-sexed, and over here".  But the Americans retaliated the British with their own phrase: "Under-paid, under-sexed, and under-Eisenhower".  We had to laugh, because the scowl on his face was priceless!  Back to the blog- I'm posting another story from another day in Paris.  I don't want to bore you too much about this city, but I loved it so much and my last day there was wonderful and too good not to share!

On Friday, Erin and I hung out and went people watching all day.  Yes, we did get a little lost, but it made our adventure that much more wonderful.  On Saturday, I went with Erin, Kate, and Matt, and our first stop was the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, or the Pere Lachaise Cemetery.  This place was like it's own city- miles of graves and tombs that were made to remember loved ones.  We didn't just want to go to a random cemetery in Paris- Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde were buried here, so we went to find them.  It was very interesting to see the history inside of the cemetery- there were so many graves from so many different dates.  It was honestly unbelievable.  The people that commemorated the deceased left flowers and plaques on the grave sites.  It was very cool.  

After we left the cemetery, we jumped over on the metro to go to the Eiffel Tower again to see it by day light.  It was just as beautiful, even though the skies were a cloudy gray.  It seemed like it was going to rain all day, but that didn't stop us!  We had a great time walking around the tower, and then we left to go to the Modern Art Museum.  We didn't get to see much, but it was definitely a unique place.

Outside of the museum, there was a large street market.  It reminded me of the flea markets in Florida.  People were cooking food, vendors were selling bags, shoes, coats- you name it!  There was even fresh produce.  We ended up eating in the street market.  I had a crepe with "pizza meat and cheese", and honestly it was delicious!  We all had something different, which was fun.  It also allowed me to see more of the Parisian culture that is so unique to our own.  Once we finished our meals, we were on our way up the hill to Champs de Elysees, which is equivalent to the Chicago Magnificent Mile.

It was about a mile hike up the hill, but it honestly wasn't too bad.  Once we got up it, we were greeted with the Arc de Triomph, which is a monument to commemorate the commanders of the French army, as well as their version of the grave of the unnamed soldier.  We were able to walk around out there, but it was quite windy since rain was coming in.  We then made our way down the street looking at all the different stores- Tiffanys, Coach, H&M- you name it, they pretty much got it.  We stopped for coffee at a Starbucks while we were there to warm up.  We had more to see that day!

We caught the metro to go over to Montemarte, which is the Bohemian district in Paris.  This is where the iconic Moulin Rouge is located, which is one of my favorite movies!  We got there and it was pouring down rain.  We also had to walk uphill (a very STEEP hill) to get to la Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, which is one of the highest points in Paris.  It was really pretty once we did get up there though!  No pictures were allowed in the church, but it was absolutely gorgeous.  It was nice to see how many people took the journey up there to pray.  When we left the church, it had stopped raining.  We then walked back down the hill to go do a little souvenir shopping.  On our way back to the hotel, we stopped to take a few pictures of Moulin Rouge, which was so so so so cool because it was all lit up (pictures of that to come soon!).  People can still go and watch shows to this date, but we opted to go back to the hotel to have a glass of wine (glass=bottle).  We had a lot of fun together watching BBC (it was the only English channel) and talking with one another.  It was one of my favorite nights this semester thus far :)

That's all I have for now.  I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, so keep me in your prayers- we have a school trip to London on Friday and I have a concert with my meet-a-family on Saturday afternoon, so I need to be feeling better!
Love always,
Taylor <3