Man have i been busy, its hard to find time to write with everything going on and of course homework but a lot happened this last weekend and I just have to share.

Its a pretty cool thing to be in Paris for Bastille day, or known to the french as La Fête Nationale, lots of people, lots of food, music and a whole lot of tourists. Bastille day is the day the french celebrate the storming of the Bastille fortress prison which was seen as a symbol of uprising. Of course I chose this weekend (that being Friday and Saturday) to visit the Louvre, bad idea? Probably. Another student whom I’ve become friends with and I headed off to the Louvre Friday morning around 9 mostly because the other tourists don’t think to go so early. We beat most of the crowds in and didn’t have to wait to get a ticket because of our student I.D’s. Yay for free entry! We decided to start with the Egyptian section, by the time we got through and decided to go on to the roman and Greek stuff the Louvre was swarming with tourists and strollers. After fighting through the crowds I finally get to enjoy things like The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Venus de Milo, The Dying Slave by Michelangelo and of course the Mona Lisa. Of course seeing the Mona Lisa isn’t anything you expect it to be, considering your lucky if you can even get close enough to see it or see it from the right angle so there isn’t a glare from the protective glass.

After surviving the mosh pit of people in front of the Mona Lisa it was time to return to my flat to get ready for what is known to the french as Les Bals Des Pompiers, or Fireman’s ball. Every year the night before Bastille and the night of (13^th-14^th) , the firemen in almost every arrondissement(districts of the city) hosts a ball. Most of the balls are free but donations are encouraged. Each ball has a bar, a Dj, live orchestra or band and lots of dancing. We went to one in the 6^th arrondissement, and although it was pouring rain and took place outside, it was a blast! Dancing umbrellas everywhere, but soon no one seemed to care about the rain and the umbrellas went down. One thing I was surprised about was the amount of American music that played. Old and new music, and they all sang along.

Then there is Bastille Day. To start the day off we decided to walk around the city and to our surprise we heard bag pipes in front of the opera. Sure enough there was a man in a kilt playing bag pipes, very well I might add. Something I didn’t expect to see in Paris. We were then off to lunch and had the bright idea to finally try the delicacy of escargot. We went to a restaurant on rue des italiens called Grand B Rotisserie. The “snails” were surprisingly not that bad, they really just taste like what ever they soak them in, in this case, garlic butter. The one thing I couldn’t get over was the texture and how chew they were, it made it hard to forget that you were eating snail. Luckily my lunch was delicious.

After lunch it was time to steak out a place to watch the fireworks. After walking around and seeing the crowds we decided to just go to the Eiffel tower, and deal with those crowds. But because of all the celebration and people in the streets they close all the metro stops around the Eiffel tower to minimize traffic and injury, so we had a nice long walk. Upon arrival we realized that it wasn’t actually that packed, probably because everyone else thought it would be too. And we found a nice spot on the curb to sit and watch the show. Every year the firework show at the Eiffel tower has a theme and this year is was disco. A giant disco ball hung from the tower. The firework show was set to a mash up of disco music and an occasional laser show. All in all a really cool thing to watch, I definitely want to come back some day to see it again.

i Hope your all having a great time on your trips and learning a lot!

-Lauren

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