la vie en rose

We landed in Indy at about 7 this evening, Caitlin and her friend Emily came and picked us up at the airport. Our flights were okay, but getting through CDG this morning and Philly this afternoon was an absolute nightmare. Our flight was overbooked from Paris and I really wanted to take the airline's offer of a free night in Paris, a free plane ticket, and a flight back tomorrow, but Mom wouldn't let me stay. We ate dinner at McAlisters and got home about 30 minutes ago to find out that the air conditioner was broken and the house was incredibly hot. This has been an incredibly interesting trip, so much has happened and so many different things have gone wrong, it was amazing but completely exhausting. We sat at the Eiffel Tower last night and watched it light up-for ten minutes every hour it sparkles all over-but we didn't have time to go up, which is what I have always wanted to do. We ended up really only having 1 day in the city. We spent Thursday driving from Italy-the worst idea ever, by the way-it took somewhere near 16 hours, probably more. Friday morning was spent returning the rental car, Friday afternoon was spent in Chantiers, the town surrounding the Palace of Versailles, and Friday night is a completely different story that will have to be told later-let me just say that the only hospital in a small French town is a very popular place on Friday evening. We toured the Palace, which was really incredible, and someplace I have always wanted to go since I was born in Versailles, Kentucky. I lost my Greek symbol ring in the gardens, which was horribly depressing b/c it was one of my very favorite things that I bought and was part of a set. Saturday was our only real day in Paris, we had arranged for an 8 hour guided tour that covered the highlights of the Louvre-it was very cool-a bus tour of the famous monuments of the city, and a lunch cruise up the Seine-that was amazing and the food was incredible. After resting for awhile at the hotel we ate dinner at a creperie and then took a cab up to Montmartre to visit the Sacre Coeur, the Basilica was incredible and the view of the city was amazing;
it sits at the top of a hill overlooking all of Paris. After walking around the district for awhile and doing some souvenir shopping, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower, our last stop of the evening. On the metro from Montmartre there was a man and his son playing traditional french music on the accordian and singing. It was just a surreal day to experience, seeing all of the monuments and places I have dreamed about for so long, it was a good way to end the trip, but also sad because I didn't get to do several things that were important to me and also because I really had no desire to come home whatsoever. I really think I could have stayed in Europe and never come back, and been perfectly happy, but it was really good to see Caitlin again and to come home, even though I'm only here for another two weeks before I go back to school. I'm already planning my next trip, trying to figure out how soon I can go back and what I will do, it was the most amazing 7 weeks of my life, and it will be very difficult to top that experience. I've got to go to sleep now, because I am still on Europe time and it is 7 am there. I'll try and recap more tomorrow, I wish I could get my photos up on webshots but I cannot connect my laptop to the internet while I am at home. ~Rachel