she and him

Today was our last day in Paris. I know it's sad, right?

But it was a GREAT day.

We had a day trip with the BYU Art History program that is in Paris now and visited a bunch of places that Van Gogh painted. Then we visited his grave.

I really like Van Gogh's work if I do say...

Then we went to Giverny, which is quite possibly my favorite place on this whole. entire. earth.

Giverny is where Monet lived and painted. It is filled with flower gardens, water lilly gardens and a beautiful and quaint house filled with lots of color that I was not able to take any pictures in. Sorry.

After today, Monet is not only my favorite Impressionist painter, he is my favorite painter of all--besides my love- of- a- fiance I call Alex, of course! He is my favorite. In life.

After our excursion, I ate my last macaroon from my favorite Boulangerie close to my house before going home for our final dinner with our host family.

Dessert before dinner, eh? ...it's ok I'm in college so I'm allowed

Dinner was amazing. I can't say anything that would express my gratitude to the Beauville family who housed me for the last five weeks. They were manifique and truly hospitable. I have come to love Madame and Monsieur and their four kids and can only hope that I will do my part in keeping in touch with them. Merci.

My host mom serving appetizers

my little host brother Henri just being his silly self... HA!

My host family

But for now, I'm gonna focus on coming home to my friends, my family, Cafe Rio, P-town, and Him.

So Wednesday came and went and I didn't blog.

Thursday came and went and I didn't blog.

Sorry.

Today is a new day and I'm bloggin'!! Ow Ow!

So Wednesday we decided to go to Invalides and do the Musee Rodin. Invalides is a huge building with a gold dome on top--Napoleon is buried here. I don't know why the heck he needed a big 'ole building that is completely decked out inside from head to toe for his dead body, but I guess whatever floats your boat, eh?

his LARGE tomb

After Invalides, we went to the Musee Rodin, which houses many of Rodin's work. He is the sculptor that created The Thinker and the Gates of Hell. It was absolutely lovely because the museum is almost completely outside in a beautiful jardin with roses all over the place. I loved it and would highly recommend it :)

do you see the spirit above my head?

That brings us to yesterday, which was a great day!

In the morning, we went to yet another chateau called Ecouen that also has a Renaissance Museum inside.

There was this one section dedicated solely to weaponry, SOOOO here's my question to you: Would you rather be stabbed with...

this thing?

or this thing?

After the chateau/museum combo and a lovely picnic on the lawn, we arrived back in Paris and I got to meet up with my good friend Lindsey Pike who is currently on the London Study Abroad. We were freshman roommates and last year hung out a ton: lots of double dates with Alex and her boy Ben. :) It was a blast!!

After meeting at Notre Dame, I took her to get my favorite crepes in the Latin Quarter. After eating a delicious, warm nutella crepe, we visited Sacre Coeur--I still love this place and never get tired of it's beauty!! BUT, it was pretty sketch when we went and would not recommend going there by yourself. Ever.

After Sacre Coeur, we went to the Tuilleries Jardin and then walked down Champs Elysee. I wanted to take her to Laduree to get macaroons, but the lines were crazy long, like always. So we kept walking until we got to the end of the street and decided to hike up the Arc de Triomphe. Another great view I will never get sick of. I think my obsession for views comes from my dad who always enjoys a good view. Thanks dad!! haha

After hiking the Arc, it was close to when we were going to meet up with everyone, so we went and got salads at a cafe and headed to the Eiffel Tower--tonight was the night we would hike the Eiffel Tower all the way to the top.

We wanted to be at the top when it was dark so we hung out on the grass and ate candy and this new delicious spread called Speculoos (that we all love!) for a while because it doesn't get dark til about 10:30 pm here! But anyway back to this spread, Speculoos is basically like Teddy Grahams in peanut butter form--YUMMMM!!! I love it!!

bottom of the stairs leading up to the top!

Then we got in line at about 9:30 pm and waited. And waited. And waited some more in line to buy our tickets. We decided to hike up the Eiffel Tower by foot because it was on my bucket list--all 1300 stairs. Wow!

We started our hike and we made it up to the highest point you could go by foot in just...drum roll please...8 MINUTES!! Can you believe it?? We booked it and our legs were burning, but it was sooo much fun! I loved every minute of it!

Then it was time to take the elevator to the top and we saw the line. The line was a mile and a half long and we didn't even know where it began and where it ended. All we knew is that we didn't have a whole lot of time because the metros stop running at 1 am. At this time it is about 11:15 pm or so and the man tells us it is an hour-long wait to get to the top. Are you kidding me right now? No. He wasn't. Not at all.

So we got in line. We waited and waited and waited...tried to cut in line a bit because in France there isn't really such thing as lines. If there's a rope and a line for example, the frenchies will ignore that rope and cut in line and think nothing of it.

While in line, we were enthralled in a group of middle school students from Belgium, all speaking Dutch, except for an occasional English swear word thrown in. So we struck up a conversation and it made the time go by a lot quicker--they were awesome and their English was perfect!

Then we met some old Japanese ladies who were in line near us and they were sooooo excited when I said "Hello, my name is Madison" in Japanese. It was so funny--they were cheering and clapping and just so excited!! haha I love the Japanese.

We made it to the elevators. Took the crowded elevator up to the top and there we were. Over 1000 feet up in the air overlooking that little city I like to call Paris. Amazing!! That's all I can say.

But to continue the adventure, it was almost midnight and we needed to make it down the Eiffel Tower, get Lindsey home, AND get back to our house before 1 am when the metro and trains would stop running. It is about a 30-40 minute travel just to get to our house alone. I was freaking out because I was not about to pay 30 euros to take a taxi! Let's just say we made it through the elevator lines to get down to the level we could walk, down the stairs and to the metro stop, which is about a 10-minute walk from the EIffel Tower, all in about 10 minutes. We ran like maniacs and it was crazy--and a definite rush! What a night!

But that only brings us to the metro. We still had to get Lindsey to her hotel and us back to our house in about 40 minutes. It was impossible. Lindsey ended up having to stay at our place and leave at six in the morning this morning to meet up with her friends for Versailles.

Man, last night definitely one for the books, my friends!!

And now, I'm off to Nice in the morning!

Rough life, I know. ;)