Le jour bousculé!

So today was majorly touristic! This morning, our group of students met our program director, Céline (whose hair is ironically shaped like France, or at least we think so...) at the Hôtel de Ville (which, is not a hotel- it comes from the latin word "hospitus", where we got hospital- but that's not what it really means in Latin- anyway, I wont bore you with any of that nonsense [or dipthongs, etc. lol]). This building is phenomenal- especially to think that it's a replication! In the 1870's during one of the many revolutions (after France lost the Franco-Prussian war) it was burnt down. The reconstruction is larger, but modeled just like the old one, which dated back to the 16th Century! And that's young when you think that Notre Dame dates to the 12th Century!

It was spectacular. Then we had lunch on the famed rue de Rivoli. We came back to our foyer (the French equivalent of a dorm) and napped for a few hours, finished booking our trip to Amsterdam for next weekend and then headed out to see the Eiffel Tower at sunset.

We took the Métro 6 to Trocadéro to get that special view of the Eiffel Tower over the Pont d'Iéna. Check out the pictures. Since it was a Friday, every tourist that just landed at Charles de Gaulle went straight to the Eiffel Tower (since it was also so incredibly beautiful out), so we had to wait for an hour and a half or so to get to the top of the Eiffel tower- thus, we missed sunset. But it's still beautiful at night.

Also- at night, every hour on the hour, for ten minutes, strobe lights covering the Eiffel tower flash- really cool. One last factoid, then it's time for bed- the "lighthouse" light that is on the top of the tower that spins around at night is not one light! It's four lights that work in synchronization!! How cool. Next time you look at it (whenever that is,) look for it!

Well, I have to get up at 6h15 tomorrow to leave for Normandy for the weekend. We are going to see the Normandy beaches, the American Cemetery, the D-Day (or as we say in french, "deh-dayhe") Museum, then over to the fishing village of St. Malo for the night, and then out to Mt. St. Michel, a famed château on the English channel.

Alors, bonne soirée! (Well it's night time here!)

Bisous-