Last two days in Paris and arriving in Grenoble

Bonjour! Wednesday was probably my busiest day yet. So much walking. 10 miles is not a crazy estimate. First, we started out at Notre Dame. I've always wanted to go here and it did not disappoint. The outside is more detailed than I ever realized. The front entrance depicts the final Judgement and half of the people are in Heaven and the rest are being tormented in Hell. It is really cool.

Inside, the interior is indescribably beautiful. The stained glass windows are beyond compare. We only explored the lower part for about 15 minutes. Then we climbed up to the bell towers. You could see all of Paris below. I am afraid of heights so that was a little difficult, but I still enjoyed getting to see the gargoyles up close. Sadly, they didn't burst into song or witty one-liners, so Disney lied to me. 

After Notre Dame, we went to the Sainte-Chapelle, another famous Cathedral which was beyond beautiful inside. It was built sometime in the 13-14th centuries and they actually took down the stained glass during WWII to protect them in case it got bombed, which happily it didn't. 

We then went to Palais Justice, which is most famous for housing Marie Antoinette during her last few weeks. Although Marie Antoinette's actual cell no longer exists, a reproduction on the spot exists as well as a  little chapel dedicated to her.

Then, we went to the Louvre. The amount of people there is staggering. They are all pretty pushy. We had a guided tour and saw some highlights of the museum, including, of course, the Mona Lisa. It wasn't as small as I expected, but all the people crowding to get a pic was ridiculous. We saw the Venus de Milo too, which was awesome. I definitely need to go again, since I didn't see that many things and the Louvre is huge.

 On top of Notre Dame

Then, my group split up and two friends and me went all the way down the Champs Elysees, through the Tuileries Gardens (we again imitated some statues to much hilarity) and down to the Arc de Triumph. It was quite a walk. We walked up to the top of it and the view was amazing.The only sad part was the random skyscraper that completely ruined the skyline. It seriously needs to go away.

Afterwards, we went to the Musee de Cinema. It was smaller than I expected, but I suspect that we didn't see the whole thing. It was closing in 45 minutes when we got there and we were all tired and hungry, so our cogniitve functions were definitely limited.

We then had a very yummy dinner at a cafe. I had salmon with veggies with pesto and sauce bernaise. I then had what was basically a chocolate lava cake and it was AMAZING! I almost licked my plate.

The next day, we went to the Eiffel Tower and climbed up the first two sections. Then we took the elevator up to the third and last section. I have to admit, my fear of heights was not helpful for looking down from the Eiffel Tower, but as luck would have it (for me), it was completely foggy and you could barely see the ground. My group was sad, but I was kinda happy.

Afterwards, we split up into smaller groups and I went with 3 of my friends to the famous cemetery  Pere Lachaise. It's humongous. There are lots of celebrities buried there, including Isadora Duncan (dancer), Oscar Wilde (English writer), Edith Piaf (famous French singer; if you've watched Inception, she is the singer of the song that plays every time they're supposed to wake up), Frederick Chopin (composer), and Jim Morrison (famous singer).

Morrison's grave was the most difficult to find. It was really hard navigating Pere Lachaise. There were so many beautiful and elaborate graves. Not every path was marked, so finding some of the famous graves was very difficult. We missed them more than once. We actually lost one of group and couldn't find them again. We seriously just had to leave and meet them at our hotel.

Afterwards, we went to the train station and came to Grenoble. We were actually in first class on the train, which was awesome. It was hilarious watching our group struggle with all their baggage. There were some huge bags that were very unwieldy. It made me very proud of my packing.

My host mom picked me up at the train station. I will describe my family and my first full day in Grenoble in a few days. Au revoir!