Thursday Sept. 11 - Train to Paris

Got up early and had another one of those awesome European breakfasts...I am definitely going to need to hit WW hard when I get home! For whatever reason I didn't really sleep well, I was up and down through the night and then up really early this morning...staring at the ceiling. We arrived at the train station without a hitch, taxi driver was so nice! People have been so friendly here! I immediately fell asleep on the train. I had intentions of staying awake and looking at the countryside...but could not stay awake. I slept for at least 2 hours. I woke up and Tim and I had the rest of our baguette and brie a banana and some coke and water. A lady came through the train handing out questionnaires about the train service...that was interesting...Tim and I worked on one together as it was entirely in french! Once we arrived in Paris, we found the taxi depot and got a taxi. Our driver wasn't extremely talkative but he was friendly and pointed out some landmarks along the way to our hotel. So, we stayed in Montmartre, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre a very risque area of Paris...the Moulin Rouge, also a place of artists and writers. The entire main street was full of sex shops and erotica...it was little bizarre to say the least...but our hotel was really nice! Also found out that the Pope will be in Paris tomorrow...interesting! We stayed in the room for a little while, resting...I wrote some post cards. We started out looking for how we'd get to Versailles tomorrow...and then headed up the hill to Sacre Coeur. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilique_du_Sacr%C3%A9-C%C5%93ur,_Paris It was a great walk and a great view of the city. We went through the artist's square with cafes, artists, and shops. We stopped for a banana split and then continued on to the church. There were tons of people there. The view of Paris was spectacular. This was recommended to me by a co-worker. I could see most things except the Eiffel Tower from this point. We walked into the church, high ceilings, huge stained class windows, incredible woodwork. Outside there was a band from Mexico playing Imagine and getting the crowd to sing along. We decided to make our way down the hill toward the cemetery to see if it was still open. It wasn't, but it seemed like it was going to rain. We picked our restaurant just as it started to POUR! Tim ordered frog legs and I ordered the onion soup with cheese (French onion soup...but it isn't called that here). It was really good! For dessert we got a creme puff, only it had ice cream in it instead and it was smothered in the most incredible chocolate sauce! We headed back to the hotel...thankfully the rain had stopped. We looked at the crowds going into the Moulin Rouge. We are headed to Versailles tomorrow!