... and now it's time for the grand finale: PARIS

The first thing we did in Paris was to go on our last NewEurope Free Tour! This time we met by the St. Michel fountain located near Notre Dame Cathedral. Our tour guide Spike was freakin' awesome. She was an Aussie and had a very unique knowledge of Paris. For example, did you know that Paris is home to 250,000 dogs. These dogs produce roughly 6000 tons of poo, which result in 600 hospitalizations each year.

• Paris was founded in 4 A.D.
• The Louvre was founded in the 13th century and it became a palace. After Louis XIV built and moved the main palace to Versailles, the Louvre fell into disrepare. Napoleon rennovated and turned the Louvre into a museum to house his thousands of stolen works of art. The museum now houses 35,000 works on display and has another 100,000+ works in the basement.
• Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame actually saved the cathedral. The church had fallen into disrepare but the novel sparked enough interest to save it and make it a tourist trap forever.
• The Prime Meridian ran through Paris until the 17th century when it switched to Greenwich, England; however, the stubborn French wouldn't recognize this fact until 30 years later.
• The Place Charles de Gaulle, more commonly known as the roundabout around the Arc d'Triomphe, averages a car accident every 30 minutes, due to the ridiculous 8 lanes of traffic. Insurance agencies will not even cover an accident claim if it took place within this circle.

After our tour, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Kjelsie was so soo excited to see that tower, it was hardly comparable to Mikayla and Mannekin Pis. We took pictures and then walked up to the Place de l'Alma and bought Eiffel Tower keychains from the hagglers. We returned to Montmartre, hunted down a kebab shop, ate, and put our tired asses to bed early...(but only after completely relishing in the fact that we were staying in a hotel--a nice hotel too!!).

Day 2 in Paris began with a full and FREE breakfast. We made friends with the lady tending to the breakfast. After filling our bellies and dressing, we ventured to the internet cafe to blog about Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Once our hour was up, we hadn't quite finished, but we were close so we journeyed down toward city center. We started out at the Concorde, a very beautiful plaza where a scene from The Devil Wears Prada was filmed. We mimicked the action of throwing a cell phone into the fountain, that Anne Hathaway made famous. Then we went to the US Embassy and tried to take a picture, but as it is the most protected building in all of Paris we were diverted from fulfilling our task. We found out the next day while in a souvenir shop that the Obama's were staying in the embassy at that very moment. We walked by and checked out the security at Pres. Sarkozy's house before venturing further down the Champs Elyssees, towards the Arc de Triomphe.

We grabbed some lunch and walked towards the park across from the Eiffel Tower where we sat for a while before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our NewEurope Montmarte District tour. We met at the metro station across from Moulin Rouge. Our guide's name was Frasier and he had a great Scottish accent :). He told us about the beginning days of Moulin Rouge and its can-can dancers before we made our next stop at Cafe des Deux Moulins, where the popular movie Amelie was filmed. We then saw the apartment where Vincent Van Gogh lived, Paris' last surviving windmill, Picasso's studio, Montmarte's Vineyard (Paris' last original vineyard), and Lapin Agile, or 'the Nimble Bunny', which is the cabaret/brothel/restaurant where 19-year old Picasso used to exchange his paintings for meals (Grandpa Ken had told us about this before we came!). Frasier also told us about an annonymous man who has dedicated his life to the completely obsurd task of strategically placing images of space invaders all around the city (and around Europe as well). When one looks at where these images are placed on a map of Paris, they create the image of gigantic space invader. I'm sure his parents are proud of their son's...umm, unique...accomplishments, if you will. After making the big trek up to the top of the highest hill in all of Paris, we were stunned by the beauty of Sacre Coure (meaning Sacred Heart), a church that was built after the first World War. We walked around and looked at the spectacular interior and then enjoyed the incredible free-view of the city before finishing the rest of our tour at the base of the hill.

Just as the tour began, Mikayla was starteld by a woman, none other than her friend Isabelle, attacking her from behind. It was thrilling! She had tried to find us in front of the Eiffel tower earlier in the day but we had just left when she arrived. She and MK talked and caught up on everything that had been going on since they left Granada, and then Isabelle parted ways to attend to some other obligations.

We ended the night by stopping into some shops to do some souvenir shopping and then made our way to Subway down the street from Moulin Rouge for some cheap subs-of-the-day... mmm! Our night ended when we returned to our hotel, contemplated journaling, and then crashed while watching a Rugby match on TV.

Days 3 & 4 to come later!........