First day in Paris

Last night we walked over to Basilique Sacre-Coeur, only about 15mins from our apartment (but uphill) but it was totally worth it - gorgeous and white and with an amazing view of the city from the top. We went inside but they were having a service so we could only walk around the sides and have a look, and no photos allowed (some people just ignored that rule).

Today was great, although the weather was a bit awful. It started off sunny though, then turned to rain in the afternoon. We got the metro to the Arc de Triomphe, but it was closed off, there was some sort of ceremony with a foreign president happening. We could take photos of it from the barriers but there were cops and security (with guns!) stopping people getting through (dumb!!) we did have a nice chat with an english family though while we were going around.

As we got to the Champs-Elysees which we were planning to walk down, we were accosted by some teenage girls with petitions asking us to sign their forms and asking if we spoke english. I had heard of this scam already from the internet so I kept asking her in french what it was for and getting very vague answers. I asked her about 3 or 4 times before she finally said Its to make a donation and I said Oh sorry I don't have any change then she left me alone. When Aroha said she wasn't going to give any money (after she started writing her name then crossed it out) the girl yelled at her "You crazy!" and something in a foreign language that sounded like swearing.

Paris is much prettier than I thought it would be, and there is so much more to look at than I thought. We walked past the Grande-Palais (Grand Palace) and that was amazing, across Pont Alexandre with cool gold and stone statues then I saw another awesome building with a gold domed roof - that was the Hotel des Invalides which I'd had no interest in seeing (because I didn't actually know what it looked like) it was so cool!

We got a bus to the Eiffel Tower and I was blown away by how massive it is, and how its actually a almost bronze color not silver like I'd imagined. We got a boat down the river and back - so many amazing buildings, especially Notre Dame and Musee d'Orsay. There were lots of ones they mentioned that you couldn't see from the boat, but I definitely want to go back there later. All of a sudden 6 days doesn't seem like enough. But thats alright maybe I'll have to come back.