Day 3

Today seemed bigger and longer than it was! I'm getting tired. It is important for me to remember that it is just as important to keep rested as it is to see everything I possibly can. I feel guilty being at the hotel right now, but its storming, and I'm getting sick so I don't mind.

It was a beautiful day today! Hotter than its been, and we walked around quite a lot.

Churches are a major part of our itinarary, and learning the history and architecture and art associated with them is a part of the credits we recieve. So we will see a lot of them, and I'm not sick of them yet! We started at a place called La Madaleine which is a church named for Mary Magdalene. As far as I can recall, this is the most beautiful church we see. It is built in the form of a Roman temple and the grandeur of this place has a feeling of power. The murals along the ceilings, and chapels with pure white statues, and precise detail of every tile in the floor create a space that practically breathes.

and onward! We saw another church called La Trinite, and either choir practice or a mass was happening and the acoustics were unreal. These spaces just fill with energy.

Then we ran around and tried to see the Opera house but it was closed. But not the box office!!! Wooo hoooo we're going to see a ballet on monday! I'm so excited! Then we had lunch, more sandwiches, and we sat in a little park area and fed pigeons. Some of them got brave and would take the bread out of our hands and I played tug of war with a big one. Then we continued to la Place Vendome which is a square with a pillar of melted down canons from the battle of Austerlitz. Also the Ritz- where Lady Di dined for the last time.

Just a skip away from the sqare is the strip with The Louvre at one end, the Tuilerie Garden between, la Place de la concorde, the Seine, the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe to cap it all off. The gardens were lame! Trees and mud. A few flowers and a fountain with a seagull floating around thinking he was a swan. I was on the brink of allergic reaction at this point and was poppin benedryl so that might have contributed to my lack of impressed. I hope that doesn't happen again. Anyway, the place de la concorde has a real egyptian obelisk in the place where the guillotine (rasoir national - national razor!! haha!) sat during the Terror.

Oh I forgot! We strolled through the Lafayette Gallery- There are a couple around Paris and they are a global fashion and shopping hub. We went fast though, which made most of us pretty nuts.

Now I'm fighting with being sick and I'm going to bed!