7.13.09 Paris

Today has seemed to blur in with yesterday, creating just one long, overfilled day. However, its been a great day being as it was our first day in Paris! Each transfer to a new city is different and takes adjustment, but I have already grown to appreciate this city after one day. We arrived at the train station this morning around eight thirty and immediately hopped on our "champions car bus"

Thank you USU study abroad for allowing us to ride in style and class.

...and made our way to our hotel passing sites like the Musee de Orsey, Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.


We made it to the Hotel Arley and threw our bags into the foyer, awaiting our rooms and headed immediately out on the town. We got some sandwiches from a little shop, and for our first meal in France, it did not disappoint!

First meal in Paris. Maginifique!

As a group we strolled over to the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower and did some sketching as a group.
Darrin let us work for about 20 minutes on a good one then had us do a 3 min, 1 min, and 30 sec. sketch of the tower. It was a good exercise for us.


We then had free time until the evening so we decided to do some laundry, a much needed activity after having been traveling for 12 days and not doing any yet. There is a little laundrymat across the street from our hotel we decided to use, which turned out to be quite and adventure. After a few minutes of trying to figure out how to use the machines, the man that owns it (as well as the bar next to it) came in and showed us all. For some reason he was determined that we were from California, regardless of what we said, so we finally agreed, which just delighted him.


We sat and waited for our clothes to finish for a while when he randomly came back asking to take our picture. We werent sure why, but he really wanted to take a picture of us in his bar, so we willingly went with him...


...and it turned out to be one of my favorite pics thus far. After our laundry escapade we settled into our hotel, then met back up with the group to go on a boat tour of the city on the Seine. Along the way we got our first encounter with the Metro! During the Art Nouveau movement the Metro was given a new look by Nouveau movement forerunner, Hector Guimard. He started designing Metro entrances all over the city, which are still all over the city today.

Guimards entrance

When we came out of the Metro we walked a ways and came upon a familiar site, Notre Dame. Thanks Disney and Esmerelda for truely capturing the magesty of this building. To honor the structure and the movie, we took some awkward high fashion model pose shots, mixed with a little Quasimodo action.

High fashion nonsense meets Quasimodo.
Strange how they are basically the same pose.

From there we headed to the river where we were supposed to depart from around nineish, but didnt end up boarding till ten thirty. We lost one of the lambs from the group and had to go round it up. However, the boat tour was great and made for some great night time shots of the city.

This was as good as Ali and I could do. We were proud though.

We finally made it home around midnight and now are finishing up our blogging for the day. Its was a long day, but I am way excited for the rest we'll be doing here in Paris. No more ciao, on to au revoir!