Adventure is out there!: A bientot, Paris

All I Ask of You (Reprise) - Yes this song is fitting for this post, don't you worry. Also, I love Ramin Karimloo, so I had to throw this in here.

Alright, I really want to get caught up before I get to London, which is in oh 2 days. NBD. We are all so anxious to get there. Traveling around has been fantastic, but it gets hard to be on the road for such a long time. I can't wait to actually be living in London! Ok, ok. Back to Paris. I only have a few days left to tell you about in Paris, so let's finish that up, eh?

Day 7:
This was a pretty awesome day. Started off with a visit to the Paris Opera House! I was a little bit excited. It was so amazingly beautiful. Sadly most of the lights were off in the auditorium, so it was hard to see everything. But I could see the amazing chandelier and the box seats and all that. I would love to sing on that stage... It was really cool to walk through the whole opera house because you can just picture Phantom of the Opera and it's perfect. Loved it. We were definitely humming songs from the show the whole time we were there. And we didn't get to go on the roof, but we did go out on a balcony, which was pretty exciting.

After that we headed to the Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise, which is a famous cemetery in Paris. Delacroix, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde are all buried there. We got lost in there for a little while, but it was cool to see all the different headstones. Some of them were seriously huge! Then we split off from our group and a few of us went back to Jardin du Luxembourg because well, we love it so much. Also, in case you missed this before, this is the park where Marius and Cosette met in the novel of Les Mis. We got pretty wet at the gardens, and some of us were not really prepared for the rain... but it was definitely worth going back. It's just so beautiful.

Pictures? OK.

The beautiful Paris Opera House

This room was built as a walking room during intermission... Oh ok.

The lights were so bright! But the stairwell was beautiful.

Oscar Wilde's grave. Got to pay our respects. People wrote all over the glass surrounding his grave though, which looked pretty tacky..

Paris definitely changed from summer to autumn while we were there. Time for my favorite season!

Luxembourg Gardens :)

Day 8:

Saturday was pretty chill. Tabs and I went to Musee de L'Orangerie where they have more impressionist pieces, including Monet's water lilies! The colors in those pieces are so fantastic. Our plan then was to head to the Pantheon, but we had some minor detours on the way... First, all of the metro stops near us were closed! We could not figure out what was happening and then the cops wouldn't even let us walk down the street. It was the weirdest thing. We later found out that there was a riot down in the metro, so I guess it was a good thing they didn't let us down there...

So since we had to walk for a while until we could find an open metro stop, we came across a big crowd of people with cameras standing in front of a hotel. We were like, there has got to be someone famous staying here or something. So we joined in of course, hoping to see a celebrity! I asked a kid next to me who they were waiting for and guess who it was... Oh Lady Gaga of course. ha. We ended up waiting with those crazy peeps for like 2 hours just hoping she would come out. Yeah, she never did. I guess she didn't come out until later that night, so that was kind of disappointing. Lady G, lettin us down.

Yay! Waiting for Gaga. So not worth it.

After that little adventure, we finally made it to the Pantheon. Who knew that there was a Pantheon in Paris too? ... I sure didn't. The coolest part was the crypt where a bunch of famous people are buried: Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Victor Hugo!

Pretty epic.

Two brilliant men buried in the same room. (The second name is Alexandre Dumas, if you can't read it.)

That night we went to downtown Paris, the side with the skyscrapers and newer buildings. They did a really cool fireworks show! Probably the best one I've ever seen. But somehow some of the fireworks started coming closer and closer to us, and they were literally going into the crowd! Uhh yeah. Kind of terrifying.

Day 9:

On Sunday we went to Stake Conference in Versailles! It was at a cool government building, and they had headphones for all of us to listen to a missionary translate it to English. It was a great experience to be there with so many of the French members and to hear them speak and see their faith and testimonies. I actually ended up sitting by a man who is American and from San Diego! Poway no less. And he knew my grandfather! Papa died before I was born, so that was so cool to meet another person who knew him in his lifetime. What a small world.

After the conference, we went to the Palace of Versailles. It was incredible, inside and out. Beautiful rooms with huge paintings, and of course, the miles of gardens surrounding it. They had some weird modern art that was on display inside, which didn't fit with the palace at all... And there were a million people there! It was one of the worst touristy places I've been. It was sooo ratchety. But it was still a must see and very cool to be there.

Then that night Tabby, Katie, and I went to Amorino's for more gelato and walked by the Seine. Always a good time.

Just chillin in the courtyard

I wanna know where da gold at.

The Hall of Mirrors. Amazing.

Day 10:

DISNEYLAND!!!!! I was seriously so excited all the way there. When we walked through the gates, I was ridiculously giddy. We were all like little kids all day. No joke. How could you not be at Disneyland? I loved it so much! It was such a fun day. It was pretty rainy for a while, but we didn't even care. Cuz we were at Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth. That's a true statement. The rides were really cool and some were a little bit different. Indiana Jones was an outside roller coaster that went upside down! And Space Mountain... well, it blew our minds. So of course we went on it twice in a row. We were sideways, upside down, all over the place. You couldn't even tell what direction you were going. Mind officially blown. I can't even really explain how great everything was, but let's just say, it was a good day. :)

Disneyland! Woohoo!

By the way, it's Disneyland Paris' 20th anniversary, so that's why there's a big 20 on the sign.

Sleeping Beauty Castle!

Here's our group that stuck together all day: Jane, Tabs, Me, and Katie

Waiting in line for Pirates! The pirates spoke in French, which was pretty hilarious.

The Queen of Hearts' Castle. Super sweet maze leading up there.

Day 11:

Last Day in Paris. We had to do laundry and get ready to go, so we had a late start that day. But we had to get in a few things before we left Paris! We went back to Shakespeare and Company and actually went inside! So. many. books. It was a beautiful thing. I really wanted a book from there, so I bought The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It seemed fitting, seeing as Notre Dame is literally right across the street. And they stamp the book for you, so it was pretty legit. We made one last stop at Amorino's (hazelnut gelato of course) and then headed back to the hotel. That night we decided we had to go to the Eiffel Tower and eat some crepes one last time. It was a perfect end to our stay in Paris.