Paris, France

Our Parisian adventure was, once again, with the fabulous USO. We took a bus into the city, got a free tour, and then were set loose to explore the city on our own for the day. We started off right by the Eiffel Tower, so we took pictures and marveled over it but we didn't climb it or take the lift because the lines were outrageous! We then walked to the Arc du Triomphe where my camera promptly died. Sad day. :[ It was really cool to stand under the arch though and watch the traffic whiz around the giant roundabout! We then trekked down the Champs Elysee and popped into Laduree for fantastic macarons! I got three morsels of pure delicious delight. I got raspberry, black currant violet, and carmel. They were all wonderful, but the black currant violet was my favorite. After our snack we proceeded to the Louvre. I went in with Kylie and Ashley, and that was where we said goodbye to Paul and Katie. We did a sort of whirlwind tour through the Louvre where we somehow missed the Venus de Milo, but made certain to see the Mona Lisa. The crowd around the Mona Lisa was gigantic, but I just sort of wiggled my way up to the front to see her. I was afraid that I wouldn't find her impressive because she's so hyped up, but standing there taking it all in I just felt so awe-struck to be in the presence of daVinci's most famous work. After the Louvre we worked our way over to Notre Dame. On the way we ended up on the lock bridge where we found a lock that said "Allison, will you marry me? Colin" which was just SO perfect! So I got a lock for Colin and I and wrote our names on it, locked it on to the bridge and tossed the key into the Seine. It was so very romantic! Then we headed over to Notre Dame and walked around the outside of that as well. Again, the line to get inside was insanely long and we didn't have too much time left before we had to make it all the way back to the Eiffel Tower to board the bus. So we grabbed some crepes for the road and made our way back. It was a wonderful day, but it was a little disappointing that we didn't get to see the city, and especially the Eiffel Tower, all lit up at night. I would definitely go back to Paris to be able to spend more time and to be able to give the Louvre the proper amount of time. I'm definitely grateful for the time we got to spend there, though, despite the fact that my camera died right away! Here are some of the picture I DID manage to take.