Je voudrais une baguette

When we last left our story I was running to catch the bus. The 25 bus into Stoke-on-Trent so that I could get on another bus, a National Express bus into London so that I could get on another bus, a Eurolines bus to Paris! Seriously, 3 buses, but it was worth it. Rather than describing the whole bus experience I'll hit you with the highlights. We sat on the top of the 25 double decker, which I don't normally do. We stopped partway through the 2nd bus for dinner and decided that Krispy Kremes would be a great idea. One after dinner, one at the London bus station, one around midnight on the bus, and one in the morning after we got off the bus. I did consider eating them all when I was in charge of watching everyone's stuff at the London Bus station. I did manage to finish all of my literature reading on the bus to London and I slept some on the ride from London to Paris. We arrived in Paris just before 8 in the morning. First stop was purchasing Metro tickets and going to drop our stuff off at our hotel which worked well. Next we found breakfast at La Petit Pont, delicious crepes (banana and nutella with whipped cream) so good. Plus the waiter brought them out with sparklers in them. Yeah, sparklers. So fabulous. Next up was looking at the inside of Notre Dame, where I spent almost the whole time mouthing "Wow, wow, wow, look at that" because they had signs that said "Silence!" everywhere. Then we stood in the queue outside for far too long (like 45 minutes to an hour) to climb over 400 stairs to the top of the tower, and we saw the gigantic bell, and the Eiffel Tower and a gorgeous view. Reenforcing the theme of my study abroad experience, the scariest stairs (circular and dented and weird) lead to the best views. Then we met up with Kari (my friend from Alaska that is study abroad in Paris) at the Eiffel Tower and had lunch and climbed the 669 stairs up to the 2nd platform of the Eiffel Tower (the top was closed) and although those stairs weren't as scary they were more exhausting but still lead to a great view. Next we checked out these bears (a special exhibit that was only there for a certain time, it was really cool) and then it was off to the Arc de Triumph where it was POURING RAIN. So it was out of the metro and back into the metro. We went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and I saw paintings that I had done a presentation on in my art history class and even though we were being herded out like sheep when we were supposed to have 15 more minutes, it was amazing. Then we went shopping before we went to dinner. Crepes again, but as part of a three course deliciousness. I had a cheese soufflé first, an American crepe (burger and egg and cheese), and ice cream for dessert. Sunday morning we had already decided that we were going to give the majority of the day to Versailles and then see what we had left, and on the way we would have breakfast. We found the cutest hole in the wall bakery where they only spoke french, it spoke to us, it was perfect, I loved it, we had croissants and I ORDERED A BAGUETTE IN FRENCH. With lots of help from Alyssa but I was so proud of myself and the baguette was soooooo good, we nibbled on it pretty continuously throughout the day until we had lunch. Lunch was not exactly authentic french but it was good all the same. When we got back in to Paris we went back to the Arc de Triumph to take pictures without the rain and then wandered the streets looking for shops and found a bakery where we found macaroons and I bought an eclair. Then it was back to the train for me. We had an adorable family saying goodbye at security moment that was really funny and cute. Then I finished part of my math homework and bought dinner on the Eurostar train. It was pretty good. Then I had to run between stations in london and literally ran and jumped on the underground (man I looked like a tourist) so by the time I got to the train and sat down when they announced there was an option to upgrade to first class for a fee, I justified that it was worth it and I honestly think it was. Finally it was a taxi back to stoke and some well deserved sleep.