Bonjour/Guten Tag

Well the first leg of my trip is over. I spent a few days in Paris with Jessica, and while the weather wasn't very cooperative, I did find the place very nice. I arrived in the afternoon by plane on Saturday and had enough time to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Arc de Triomphe. Notre Dame was cool, especially the rose pattern and the gargoyles, and the Arc was much bigger than I expected. That night I went out with some of Jessica's classmates to a party at their school. They actually used one of the school buildings for the party and turned it into a multi-room dance party. Pretty fun, though the 20 Euro admission hit the pocketbook a little bit.

The next day we made it to the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. The Louvre, I'm sad to say, may be better than any of the museums in London: it's a combination of the British Museum (ancient artifacts), National Gallery (famous paintings) and Victoria & Albert Museum (art & design). There's definitely a lot more to the museum than just the Mona Lisa. You could spend a day in there and still not see everything. The one thing the London museums have going for them is they are free and for the most part don't have any lines. This became more obvious when we went to the Musee d'Orsay, where we had to wait 1.5 hours in the rain just to get in. It has a great collection of Impressionist paintings and other pieces of art, and I came to the realization that in order to appreciate that kind of art you really need to see it in person to get a sense of the texture and style. Art textbooks or posters are no substitute for the real thing.

I made it to the Eiffel Tower that night, which was very stunning lit up, though I didn't get to
see the hourly light show that usually occurs. I decided to wait until the next morning to get in line to go up and hopefully beat the crowds. Boy, was I wrong.

When we got to the tower the next morning, the line was longer than Jessica had seen at any point in her time in Paris. Monday was a bank holiday, which meant most things were closed except the Eiffel Tower, so everyone decided to go there and wait two hours to go up. The weather was cold and windy with a slight rain, which didn't make the waiting experience any better. I only went to the second level, which was good enough to see a good panoramic view of Paris, but it was too cold to stay up there for very long.

Next we walked around the Latin Quarter where much of the schools and colleges are located, and walked through a nice park next to the Palace of Luxembourg, which houses the Senate. Another Metro ride to Montmarte, and we saw the church of Sacre Coeure and walked along the red light area to Moulin Rouge. Up until this time I didn't think Paris had a cheesy side, but I was mistaken.

More walks to statues commemorating the Bastille and the Republic, and we were pretty spent. The sun finally came out just as we were finishing our tour.

I have to say, Paris is very charming and unique. I did hear an accordion on one Metro ride, which satisfied one part of the trip. The weather didn't help my impression, but so many other factors overruled that aspect of the trip.

I'm holed up in Basel, Switzerland right now with my aunt and uncle for the day. It's on the corner of France, Germany and Switzerland. I walked around the old town with my aunt today, and it was nice to see a town that wasn't so busy and had a very different style than London and Paris. I'm off to Rome tomorrow, complete with a train ride through the Alps. Should be a beautiful trip.