day 28.

It started out as a rainy day, we were supposed to go to Versailles, but Darwin & Sausie decided it would be better to go tomorrow because it's supposed to be nice and sunny. So instead we went to Sacre Coeur which is a church at the highest point of Paris. We jumped on the Metro and made our stop at Mulan Rouge of course!! We snapped a few pics and began our little hike up to the top of the hill, on the way we saw a lot of fun little shops and an adorable cupcake shop that we told ourselves we would come back to on the way down. It was fun to see all the little houses and cobble stone roads, but once we got to the top, it was a spectacular view!

Marlin Monroe style

some cute little children clothes I found in the window

I also loved all the graffiti art all over the place! 

here is a view from the top, the buildings went on forever!

Sacre Coeur

just scaring the pigeons

 

So... funny story. I was walking and some random so called "street artist" came up to me and asked if he could draw me, he said he was so inspired to draw me and said he wanted to do it for 50 euro. um.... YEAH RIGHT! But he kept persisting and like an idiot I let him do it for 10 euro... and this is what he drew. Looks just like me right?? haha 

Danielle got her's done by an actual artist and it looked just like her!

 On the way back down from Sacre Coeur we came across the most adorable little boutique! They paper mached their hangers with newspaper and magazin articles and just had the cutest style ever! I wanted to buy everything there!! I did get a cute little cookbook for my sister there :)

 And... like we told ourselves we made it back to the cute little cupcake place and enjoyed some delicious little cupcakes!

all gone.

p.s. I forgot to mention that I also got fined 50 euro for jumping the rail at the metro because none of my tickets were working and there was no one at the help desk, and my group was leaving me & Danielle because they thought we were right behind them. I'll have to get in more detail about it later. We will just say there was a little argument with the French police and a lot of confusion between both parties because neither of us spoke each others language. It was very annoying. So advice to any of you who want to travel to France, DON'T JUMP THE METRO! Although I saw a million people do it, they target Americans.

day 27.

FREE DAY.

Okay. Let me just say one thing.. I am claustrophobic.
I had a traumatic experience happen to me today and I felt like I was going to throw up, pass out and then die. (Don't fret dear mother, I am now safe and breathing) The girls and I decided to take a little walking tour of Paris at the worst time of day ever! Rush hour. Which apparently is at 3:30 here. We were heading into the Metro when we saw a crowd of people swarming around the ledge like bees waiting for the Metro. There was no way we were going to get in there without a million people crowding around us. When we got in, it was sweaty body against sweaty body without a way to even lift up your elbow (oh and not to mention the fact that French people really don't wear deodorant) . So I tried to close my eyes, not think about all the smelly bodies around me and breath, UNTIL the metro stopped right in the middle of the tunnel. They had a little problem and we were standing there trapped inside this fish bowl of people without any fresh air and hot, muggy breathing. At that moment I really thought about my surroundings and began to panic as small bursts of freak outs singed through my body. I wanted to get out of there so bad but there was absolutely no where to go and no way to get out! I felt like a Holocaust victim being piled into this disgusting dirty train with a million people waiting for my death. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and jump out the tiny crack of a window that was about 5 feet away from me. Once I saw that window I tried to maneuver myself towards it, but there were way too many people to try to get past. So I began to freak out and once again, panic. People started to back away from me as the "crazy American girl" began to announce "I CAN'T BREATH! I CAN'T BREATH! I CAN'T BREATH!!!!! Oh my gosh you guys I'm gonna die, I'm seriously going to die, I can't breath!" I have never had such a freak out in my life, I felt like I couldn't control my body, I just kept jumping randomly thinking I could get more air or something, then all of a sudden I began to tear up! I felt so dramatic but I couldn't help it! I let my claustrophobia get the best of me and I couldn't calm down. Luckily the metro started up again and we finally made it to our stop. I jumped out of that death trap so fast and it felt so good to breath fresh air.

THEN... on the way home it was still just as crowded when we got there 3 hours later. I told myself I wasn't going to let the freak show happen again, but let me just say... French people are crazy when it comes to getting on the Metro! They were like a heard of elephants butting their way in and squeezing themselves in there like a human Tetris. Peoples faces were squished up on the window and bodies were everywhere. There wasn't even enough room to fit us 4 girls in the same Metro so we had to go separately. As each Metro came by it was like survival of the fittest, they wouldn't even wait for people to get out, people would just push and push until they were barely inside. Then the human fish bowl would zoom away, while we would all wait for the next one to come. Finally I made it on with Danielle, I was squished up against the door and as we drove away my face and hands were pressed up against the door as I said goodbye to air for the next 5 minutes. When we got to the next stop, people began to push to get out and literally trampled over me and my leg fell through the gap!! Luckily some nice men hurried to get me up and I was back on the Metro. It was scary, I thought I was going to lose my leg or something. As they say "mind the gap" that didn't happen for me today.

Wow sorry for the novel of my traumatic Metro experience.... here are some pictures:
(I found this picture online... and this one isn't even half as bad as what we were in, there was barely any room to move around.. but here is a little taste of my experience.)

we went to this HUGE music festival that was all over Paris, it was soo much fun!

at Norte Dame

the love lock bridge

it was a great day. :)

despite claustrophobia central.

day 26.

free day.

Arc de Triomphe & Statue of Liberty.

Today was another free day, so Molly, Elyse and I went to the Arc de Triomphe and the Statue of Liberty. On the way to Arc de Triomphe we came across a little flee market, a pair of cheetah print flats caught my eye, so I began to try them on and the owner of the booth came over to me and began to tell my how beautiful they looked on my feet (but they really didn't), then we started small talk about where I'm from and how well he speaks English... then it lead to some sweet talking and asking for my number. In my head I thought... if he wants my number, I better take full advantage of this situation. I told him I didn't have a working phone here, so he gave me his number and asked if we could meet up for coffee or something. Then I asked how much a little purse I liked was and he answered 50 Euro, and my response was "how about 10." then he laughed and went over to his car and pulled out a piece of paper and wrote his name and number on it and looked at my friends and said, "if this girl was my wife she would take me for all I'm worth, but that's fine with me." then he looked at me and said "this purse isn't 10 euro, not 5, not 3 but free for you." It was the best! I got a free 50 Euro purse and then we walked away, what a sweet little man :)

Then we got to the arc and climbed to the very top and looked out at the Paris, it was an amazing site to see!

we managed to get only one car in the background :)

the stairwell we climbed to get to the top

we love Paris <3

yeah... I was a little obsessed with the hearts.

We searched high and low for this and we found it!! Defiantly not as big as the one in New York but it was fun to see!

Funny story about this bench... I think it was while I was taking this exact picture below, but these 4 little old men (I mean old, like 70's) came up behind me and pretended to take pictures, but instead they were taking pictures of my butt!! and I totally caught them, they began to laugh and speedily walk away. They were like little boys, it was funny and very weird.

love this bridge.

So after we got something to eat, I took a picture with the server and he reeked of B.O. it was disgusting. French people really don't wear deodorant. Also, while we were posing for the picture he kept pulling me closer and creepily told me to kiss him... I just laughed and refused.