Ahhhh..... sweet relaxation at last. Whoever thought going on vacation to Paris was relaxing... well, I have a few words for them!! LOL... no, we are having a wonderful time, we are just walking. a lot. did i mention how much walking we are doing?? phew. i'm tired!

this morning it took us a bit to get on the subway. we went down to the train station two blocks down from our hotel, and the ticket machine was coins only (they have no dollar bills, only $2, $1 and on down coins). and our credit cards don't work in the subway ticket machines for some reason. so we walked around, went back to our room for a minute to grab the umbrella and then headed to the little train stop right across from our hotel and low and behold, this ticket machine takes dollar bills! so we are off! we stop by Notre dame, and well, let's say we take the scenic route! ;) but we were so incredibly in awe of all the buildings down there, we didn't mind! i found a starbucks coffee, so i got a refreshing cup of mocha. it was not raining hard, but it was lightly raining, and a bit chilly. Found a store that had some paris gloves, so i got those. that wind is bitter! then we finally found notre dame, and walked around it. what an amazing sight. then we walked in. truly breath-taking! stunning. being able to attend mass there was just so incredibly awesome. after mass we walked around inside the building.

after mass and touring the notre dame, we went right across the street for lunch. we had an incredibly tasty half chicken and french fries. mmmm... the bathrooms at the restaurant cost .50 euros to use!! although, i found common curtisy is to hold the door open for the next lady when you are done. LOL then we took a purposeful scenic route to the louve. that was pretty amazing too! we went inside, and there are some really neat things in there! daddy and i are not huge art vans though, so we looked at the highlights, stumbled upon some others and then said let's go back to the hotel and rest!! at that point, we had been on our feet for 4.5 hours, so we were dead tired.

resting for a bit now, then heading to go see the eiffel tower at night. hoping to find a mcdonald's or other (cheaper) fast food type place near there. here near the hotel, there is not any internation chains, like subway or mcd's. purely little mom and pop type sit down places. really neat to go to, but harsh on the eating out budget!! lol.

ok, off to go upload some pics to share. i have a TON of them!! i'm uploading the pics to photobucket, since there are sooo many and the computer (or wifi connection) is pretty slow to do it one by one, so i will put the highlights and all stanley pics on the blog. if you want to go see our other photos they are at: http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b174/barrymissy/ password is Missy.