Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Davinci Code

What's been happening in the book I'm reading, the Davinci Code, is Sophie Neuveu, an agent in cryptology, left a message for Langdon telling him he was in grave danger and to meet her in the bathroom and to make sure Fache didn't follow him. He did what he was told and met her in the bathroom where she told him that Fache thought he was the one that murdered Sauniere and that they had to break out of the Louvre and get him to the Embassy, where he could have a fair American trial, if he got to the embassy he was considered on American ground where he would be safe for the time being. They were following Robert Langdon with a tiny tracking device to make sure he didn't try to make a run for it. They put the dot in a bar of soap and and broke the glass, immediately the sirens started to blare and they threw the soap onto a passing truck. Fache called for all the agents to follow the truck giving Langdon and Sophie time to escape. When they were about to escape Langdon figured out the code Sauniere had left which said:

Leonardo Da Vinci!
The Mona Lisa!

They figured they had enough time to go take a look before Fache got back so they went back to look for clues on the Mona Lisa. Written across the paintings protective glass, there was another puzzle that led to another painting. Before she could figure it out though, a security guard came in and told Langdon to put his hands up and get on the ground. As all of this was going on, Sophie managed to get to the painting and found a key that earlier in her life, Saunier (her grandpa) had told her unlocked unbelievable secrets. She pocketed it then turned and used the painting as a hostage, she told the security guard that if he didn't drop his walkie talkie and gun, she would smash her knee through the famous Da Vinci painting, horrified, he dropped his gun and radio and as they ran out of the room they took them. They left the museum and got in Sophie's Smart Car. The cops saw them but they managed to loose them in the maze of streets. Now they're trying to find a safe place where they can try to find out what the key will unlock.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Homeschool Acivities

Since we haven't been able to see our friends every day due to home schooling we've been doing various activities in home schooling.  Two days ago me and dad went to chareoke night where we ate wings and watched people sing.  It was fun but it seemed like I wasn't really in the conversations, you know just sitting there but it was funny watching some of the kids.  Yesterday we had park day where pretty much the same kids met at a park and just hung out.  It was kind of boring but I was more in the conversations.  They're going to have other activities including skatepark day which I'm looking forward to.

Monday, May 19, 2008

The Davinci Code

Although I haven't read a lot of it, I've been reading the Davinci Code which so far has taken place in Paris so going to Paris has helped me understand it a bit better. It's kind of confusing for me but this is what I think has been going on. Oh, another thing I'm not good with is names of people in books, I only remember 2 so I'll use nicknames. In the beginning there's a man trying to get away from a person trying to murder him. The murderer is some Christian crazy person (goes as far as wearing a belt that burns into his skin to simulate the pain Jesus felt when he died on the cross). The other man holds some kind of secret the murderer is trying to figure out. The victim runs into one of the galleries and rips of a random painting from the wall. In modern museums, they don't use lasers or anything to guard the paintings but when someone rips a painting of the wall, bars come down around the gallery blocking his/her exit. By doing this, the victim was trying to seperate himself from the murderer. He just aimed the gun through the bars and asked him the truth about whatever secret it was (it hasn't said the secret yet) and he lied so he got shot. He got shot in the stomach which makes it so he dies very slowly (over a 20 minute time period) and very painfully. Before he died he positioned himself to look like a star and drew a star on his chest with the blood from his wound. He also had an invisible ink pen which can only be read with certain light. Proffesor Langdon was planning on meeting him the next day so the police (not actually the police, more like the FBI in France) had him get out of bed to meet Fasche, the head of the secret service. They met at the Louvre where Fasche met him and took him to the crime scene. The star stood for a feminine god, it was one of the first symbols ever used. They paint it on American airforce planes. Right at the end of the chapter I was reading, Langdon read the writing the man had left and the last thing he said was "What the hell." so I'm guessing this is where the story starts, trying to find out what the writing meant.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Paris Compared to Granville

In this blog I'm going to write a compare and contrast about Granville and Paris. I'll start by saying that everything in Paris is small. Stores, appartments, restaurants, cafe's, pretty much anything, but still I'd rather live there because of the location. In Granville, everyone pretty much has a big house, if you don't have one you're considered 'poor' although I doubt that anyone living here is actually poor. In France they're a lot more earth freindly for instance, instead of driving a Hummer, like about 10 people in G-ville, everyone either drives a small scooter, motorcyle, or smart car. It's rare to even see a car as big as a Mini Cooper. People in France seem to also be a lot happier and nicer. We went to get our portrait taken by a drawer on the side of the road by the Pompadue (no idea how to spell it) and although he probably doesn't make a lot he seemed to love what he did and was really enthusiastic. This was a short blog because the main point is bigger isn't alway's better. I now want to get a small motorcycle when I'm older instead of a big car and want to be more eco-friendly. One thing I don't want smaller is a bathtub (certain things need to stay big for me.)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Last Day in France

Mom was sick today so we decided to just go get souvenir's and walk around, shopping day sort of. We took the metro to this church that's way up on a hill and when you walk to the top of it you can see all of Paris. It was a bit surprising because it's not a big hill and almost every building in Paris seemed to be higher than it but it gave a good view. Not a whole lot happened because dad wasn't really feeling good either but we got some gyro's from a vendor (Greek food) and ate them by the Seine where we watched cruiser boats go by. We were thinking abou taking a cruise ourselves but the girls talked dad out of it (I wanted to go but there's two of them and one of me so it's hard to win votes). I got my souvenir by a painter working by the modern art museum. I got it to look funny and I liked it, Amelia got a serious one. After that we went home and hung out the rest of the day. Yesterday we flew home, we got business class again so it wasn't so bad. I finished an entire book and slept for a while. We got stuck at the Chicago airport and we got home late.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Versailles


Today we took an hour long metro ride to the palace of Versailles which used to be the biggest power berore the French Revolution. It started when Louis XIV wanted to get away from the city so he moved his palace to Versailles taking the whole French government with him to live in the castle. When he died Louis XV took over and ruled until he died and he was probably the least significant ruler becuase nothing happened to him. Louis XVI ruled and married a woman called Marie Antoinette. She wanted to live in the country so she built a village right near the palace and pretended like she lived there and had a simple life. Louis XVI built a canal to remind him of Venice. When the French Revolution started they both got beheaded. When we got there there was a huge crowd of people heading towards the castle which couldn't be good. Of course there had to be like 7 switchbacks before the final stretch and the guy was yelling that it was a 2 hour wait. Mom and dad held our spot in line while me and Amelia went and got drinks and a sandwich. After that me, Isabel, and Amelia went and sat on the wall. When we finally got in it was an elaborate room which mom would describe as gawdy. The first king to rule there (Louis XIV) called himself Apollo after the sun god because he said he brought everyone light or something. The first room we saw was the cathedral where there was a big throne where I assumed the king sat. The first thing we walked through were the art galleries which had a lot of war pictures and paintings of the king. They were all different colors and seemed to all have a different mood to them like some might be light and some were dark. It seemed like the rooms went on forever but then again it was said to be the most magnificant palace in France. There were great chandeliers everywhere and marble staircases, gold railings. Mom said she wouldn't want to live there becuase of how big it was but I'd be more than happy to take it. I can imagine myself on a skateboard or go-cart or something driving or riding down the halls and all that. Nobody would even find out because the chances of 2 people running into each other in such a ginormous house are very minimal. Upstairs is where all the royal bedrooms were. Of course they had other rooms but I'd describe them all as the same thing, elaborate. The king's room was kind of dark but lined with gold and a huge canopy over his bed where he could completely close himself in. There were big feathers on top of it and royal chairs were for some reason facing the bed. He also had a second bedroom where he'd put on a show for the other people in the castle of him waking up in the morning. I thought that'd be a pretty boring show watching him go through his morning routine but I guess it was some kind of ritual. The queens room was even more elaborate I thought, maybe because it was lighter but it was pretty much the same thing. I was surprised that the king and queen wouldn't sleep together like most couples but back then I guess it was more of a delicousy maybe to have your own bed, of course I'm just making an obsevation and a guess. There were rooms lined with statues and chandeliers and war paintings. Finally, we got to the gardens outside. It was pretty hot out because there was barely any shade at all but it was beautiful. Everything was semetrical and there was a lake of in the distance from the palace. You could rent one but the line was too big and they were coming in too slow. We got Panini's for lunch which are a lot like baget sandwich's but on a different type of bread. We also got there on the day that they had the water fountain show which had different statues spurting out water. I would go into detail about all of the elaborate statues but that would take far too long. It would have been a lot nicer though if the guards wouldn't have been blowing their whistles for people to get off the grass.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Orsay Art Museum and the Catacombs


The Orsay is a famous art museum across from the Louve which has a lot of Monet's paintings especially. We walked there which was relatively short and when we got there there was no line or anything. It used to be an old train station and I liked the setup a lot more than the Louve. For one thing, there's too many people so sometimes you can't even see the paintings very well but at the Orsay, I think the art is just as good and there's no one never a crowd around one painting. I like how at the Orsay there's this big elaborate clock right in the middle of a wall which makes it feel like an old train station. My favorite work of art was the Polar Bear statue. It was probably really easy to make and everything but I just liked the smoothness and how real it looked. Another thing I liked was a sculpture of a Roman gladiator with his foot on another's neck looking up at the king to look for the thumbs up or thumbs down. If you didn't already know this, a thumbs down would meen that he'd have to kill him and a thumbs up was to let him live. Most of the time I think he gave a thumbs up but there were also a lot of thumbs down. There was a sculpture that one of Rodine's students had made because she'd loved him. She wanted to marry him but he decided to stay with his wife so she made a sculpture about it. There was her, a beautiful girl with a miserable look on her face and Rodine kind of looking like he was thinking if he'd made the right decision and then Rodine's wife looking like a witch dragging him along. She later went crazy and ended up in a mental institution. The Monet paintings were also interesting to me because he'd do the same painting about 5 times but in different colors according to his mood. I left out a lot of paintings I liked but there are too many to go into detail about. When we were done looking through the museum (dad made sure we 'bagged it' meaning we see every single painting in the museum) we hopped on a Metro to go to the Catacombs where we wanted to see lots of bones. When we got there there was a huge line so we were worried we wouldn't be able to get in but we barely made it. The descent seemed like forever so we had to have been really far underground and it was pretty dark with a creepy vibe. All I can say about most of it is a bunch of tunnels without any bones for a long way. It made for a really good picture though. When we got to the bones there were millions of them stacked neatly together. There was every bone there including a bunch of skulls. I touched one and it just felt like a rock. I'm pretty sure Isabel touched one too. Amelia was to chicken to even go near one. Unfortunately the camera wasn't charged so we didn't get many pictures at all before it died but it was amazing. There were also a few skull and crossed bones. It looked just like the ones on a pirate ship flag. It was a lot more fun than the sewer tour but much more creepy. Today we didn't go anywhere because I was sick and still am a little. I finished my whole 343 page book in 2 days which wasn't a surprise because it's my favorite series about the Olympian's of Greece. I did get out a little to go to the bookstore and out for an ice cream cone but that was later in the day when I was well rested. More tomorrow!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Le Louvre


This is one of the most important things to see in Paris mostly because of the Mona Lisa but it's the largest museum in the world. We walked there and it didn't take as long as I had expected. We got there before the crowds I think because there was hardly anyone there. I was feeling terrible when I went in and for the first part of our visit because I hadn't had a good breakfast and was really thirsty. I was feeling dizzy and spent a lot of time sitting down looking at the art. I know that it was because of hunger now because after we had lunch I was feeling fine. The first part was mostly sculptures of naked people and animals. They all have some kind of meaning which I understood in a lot of them. There was one famous sculpture we saw that was of Venus (or Aphrodite, Greek's called her Aphrodite and the Roman's called her Venus) and was famous for how her body was twisted kind of as if she were dancing. Both of her arms were missing but there was still a huge crowd taking lots of pictures. Aphrodite was the god of love. After we saw this we got lunch at a cafeteria because my head was still hurting and mom and dad ranted about the prices. I don't blame them because it came to about 64 euros which is over a hundred bucks in the states and it was just a little cafeteria. We then went to see the Mona Lisa. I appreciated the art a lot more then because I was feeling a lot better. Some of the statues were amazing. One of my favorites was the sphinxes which looked like they'd come from ancient Egypt and looked like a cat ready to pounce. Another was the lions just because of how much detail the artist added and how realistic they looked. Most of the rooms in the Louve are elaborate with gold everywhere and really good paintings. I recognized some of them like Icarus falling from the sky after his wax wings had melted due to him flying to close to the sun and his father watching. Another statue I liked was an angel-like figure standing on a ship which was made after a big naval victory. It haded tons of detail in the expression and how her shirt was kind of sticking to her because of the water. When we finally got into the room where the Mona Lisa was being held there were huge lines and the painting was behind bulletproof glass. The eyes of the painting are supposed to follow you wherever you go in the room but I couldn't really see because it was behind thick glass. The reason for this was because the Mona Lisa was stolen and not found for 2 years so they probably didn't want this to happen again. It's probably worth over a billion dollars. It's so famous because of how the colors mix and other small details that are apparently unique to the painting. There were tons of other paintings in the Louve that were similar and some that I thought were a lot better but critics probably see some kind of style that they've never seen before. We were going to go to a different museum but instead decided to go see some of the rooms they'd recovered from Napoleon's castle. I would love to live in a place like that. There was gold everywhere and it was all really fancy. His bed was also elaborate. The ceilings were painted with colorful images that gave the whole place a happy vibe. After this we went and some some more statues and my favorite one we saw then was the one with a man with his hand stuck in a tree trunk with a lion biting his thigh. The story behind it was a myth about a man who was a great olympic athlete and he made a bet that although he was getting old, he was still strong enough to break a tree trunk in half with his bare hands. He tried and ended up getting it caught in the tree. He couldn't get out so wolves came and ate him. There were also a lot of statues of horses and unicorns. When we got upstairs to look at more paintings there were lots that I liked but none that are famous that I could pick out. We kept looking at paintings until the PA told us they were closing. We then headed back to our appartment with a plan of picking up an ice cream on the way. I got a three flavor cone which was huge with whipped cream on top. It was way better than anything I'd ever had in the states. When we all finished our ice cream we went and climbed all over a sculpture in a sitting area for a while before heading home. Tonight us kids picked up dinner by ourselves again. We got a couple of pizza's and some Pan du Chocolat's. A Pan du Chocolat is a croissant with a small amount of chocolate in it.

A Gothic Cathedral (go down the page a bit and you'll see more pictures of it)


We finally took the trip to Notre Dame today. We'd passed it tons of times but we were actually going to the top tower and inside the church. The line was kind of big and we couldn't use our museum passes to get in so we were stuck in the line. There was a street performer that was really funny. He had a mask on and he'd hide behind stuff so we could see him but pedestrians couldn't so he'd scare them. It was funny to watch the French's reaction when he jumped out, they were all completely scared. One guy yelled really loud and ran into the street. When we got in Notre Dame it was a 400 step walk to the top and a little less to the middle. The middle was neat because you could see the gothic gargoyles and grotesques. Grotesques's are the same thing as gargoyles but aren't used as drainage system's so they're just there to look good. It was really cool to see because they all sent a different message by what they were doing. We could also see the Flying Buttresses really well because we were right above them. They are the things that hold up the church. Without them the top would collapse. The view was pretty good but not nearly as good as the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. I think these are the 3 tallest things in Paris. The next thing we went to was the giant bell. We climbed up just a few wooden steps to get here. I didn't know why but one of Notre Dame's bell was ringing but this one didn't. It looked like it could because it wasn't cracked. I thought while looking at this that this bell dates back 900 years ago when Notre Dame was built. It was built by mostly citezens who knew they wouldn't live long enough to see it themselves but their (lots and lots of greats) grandchildren would. It took 200 years to build. Next we went to the top where we could get a good view of the city and the awesome architecture below us. There were tons of gargoyles at this height and statues that we could see. We only had 5 minutes at the top even though it wasn't crowded so our visit was pretty short. The next thing we did was go into the actual church where they were giving a service. It looked just like a normal church and they were roped in so no one would bother them. We walked around the whole place and saw tons of different stain glass and statues. They were all gothic architecture like in one of the sculptures it showed death (a man with just a skull) killing a sick man, or at least that's what it looked like to me because he was holding some kind of vile which I'm guessing represented poison. It was really dark in there and it looked ancient. When we were done visiting Notre Dame we went to an underground place where there was tons of old architecture. They were stones with arches, stairs, doorways, etc. It was ancient Rome! It was really cool but it was really small because not much of it survived I guess. It was here that civilization ever began in France so Notre Dame is pretty much in the middle of France.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Military Museum


We decided that since we're visiting so many different places and leaving out a lot of details, me, Amelia, and Isabel are going to divide up the writing of what we do each day. For instance, Isabel's blogging about the sewer, Amelia's blogging about the sculptur museum, and I'm going to tell about the Military Museum and Napoleon's tomb. The outside of the museum is kind of midevil style. They have motes and canon's lined up around the perimeter. The motes just had grass at the bottom of them but in midevil times there was sewage and such to discourage the enemy from crossing into the castle. The museum's an old military academy so it's also military style. When we first walked in there was a big courtyard with canon's around the perimeter once again. The first thing we went to see was midevil armor. It was interesting looking at the designs and eyeholes and everything. Some of them had more architecture involved going into detail with a mustache, nose, ears, and other normal body parts engraved in the metals. They had tons of armor, two exhibits full and also an armory. It showed what the room was like where the knights would gear up for battle or prepare for a joust where two knights ride on horses at each other with long pointed spears trying to knock the other to the ground. It also showed the horse armor and I thought about how hot people and animals would get after wearing the bulkey suits for a long period of time. I wouldn't want to do it but it was considered a great honor to be a knight. It showed children's armor making you assume that they were probably taught to fight from a really young age. The next thing we planned on going to was the WWI and WWII exhibits which we were quite excited about given the fact that they had tons of different tanks. It was actually going to be the highlight of my trip but it was unfortunately closed. There were a couple of tanks sitting in front of the museum that we looked at and could tell that these were some of the oldest tanks to be used. One didn't even look like a tank but more like a big metal thing on wheels that you pushed and it would give you a certain amount of protection. I'm sure there's a real way to use it but I'm just guessing that's how by looking at it. I tried to lift it up but didn't feel it give at all. It might have been bolted to the ground but you'd probably have to be strong to lift it. The other tank was a little more modern probably used during WWI. It was actually a vehicle that you could drive and it actually looked intimidating. It had a big long gun in the front showing a technical advance from the other. The next exhibit we went to was Napoleon's tomb, obviously where Napoleon was buried. Napoleon was a military leader who lived during the French Revolution. He grew up in Corsica which is an island of the coast of France. He was somewhat a dictator but was one of the great military leader's of history kind of like Hitler but a lot older. I thought that it would make sense for him to be buried under the Arc de Triomphe because that's the memorial built in his honor but he was actual buried in the museum in a bit tomb shaped like a U on the top and kind of rectangular. It's in a huge room with the ceiling raised up really high and lots of good architecture and paintings. There are angel statues all the way around the tomb and a big seal under and around it. There's a giant cross at the back of the room with other stuff in the distant. He died when he was banished to an island after being charged for resistance against the enemy. The last word he was thought to have said was Josephine, his first wife.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

The Eiffel Tower


Yesterday we went to the biggest attraction in France, the Eiffel Tower or Le Tour Eiffel. We got up late and walked the whole way. It was a really long walk but there were sights we saw on the way. The most famous thing we saw was Notre Dame which we didn't go inside of or anything because we wanted to save it for later. When we got to the park next to the tower the first thing we noticed were how many people there were waiting in line to go to the top. We laid down for a while because we were tired from the walk and then waited in the long wait. On our way to the tower we had also gotten bagget sandwiches which I forgot to mention. The way it works is, we walk the first 2 floors and then they take us to the top from the second floor. The lazy people take an elevator all the way up but that costs more. It wasn't a bad climb and they had lots of interesting facts about how it was built and such. The most interesting fact to me was that 2 aviators tried to fly through the tower and both died but another guy made it. I didn't see how you could really crash because there was so much space but I guess it's hard to fly that low probably. The Eiffel Tower was built for the world fair by a guy named something Eiffel. I imagined it would take a really long time to build and was a bit surprised that they'd be able to build it for a fair. When we got to the first floor, we thought it was a really amazing sight but reminded ourselves that we were not even 1/3 of the way up. It also had a little restaurant and a place where you could look through the middle of the tower. The people looked like dolls. The same thing happened with the second floor, we thought it looked like the best view possible. We were already the highest thing in the sky other than the top. We had to wait in another line to go to the top and it cost extra but we knew the view would be amazing. When we got up there it looked like we were looking down on the earth from heaven. We could see the whole city and it looked beautiful. There were bars around the whole thing but we could slip our heads through for a better look. When we were done with the whole Eiffel Tower thing we went and got more baget sandwiches and ate them in the park by the Eiffel Tower. We also got chocolate crepes which are my new favorite food. Obviously we weren't going to miss the tower getting lit up at night. We were hoping for fireworks but instead the tower flashed. It was lit up goldish and the flash was white and there were tons of them giving the tower a sparkling look. It was magnificant. The only problem was that it didn't show up on the camera very good so I can't really post how it looked. We took the Metro back because it was so late and went to bed early. Today we planned on having a more laid back day and decided that going to the Luxembourg Gardens was a good idea. We also walked to this and got to cross the Seine River. First I'll tell you about the walk over. We stopped at the huge modern art museum and went in to check it out. What's cool about it is that all of the heating pipes and all that are on the exterior instead of the interior. It has about 5 floors and escalator's all the way up. Dad and Amelia were fascinated but the rest of us were kind of bored. I probably sound stupid saying that but I'm just telling the truth. Although there were tons of famous paintings, it didn't really inspire me. When we were done we had wraps and fries for lunch and then headed for the gardens. I liked the garden's because there are tons of people but it's still relaxing because there's a bunch of people reading and sleeping. We got ice cream or glace before going in and it was the best ice cream we've ever had because it actually tasted natural. In the garden's there was a huge play set, some stands and a pond in the middle with toy sailboats in it. We didn't get a sailboat but just sat there watching, enjoying the day. We also watched some tennis that people were playing and dad thought they looked as good as pros even though they weren't hitting nearly as hard. I've got to hand it to the guy, he's got amazing reflexes. There was an old man and a young guy and I thought the old man was better because when we thought he was done because of some amazing shot by the other guy, he would hit a winner back. We once again took the Metro home and stopped at a restaurant and got drinks. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant and that's it.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Paris (Day 1) Some of the pictures are at the bottom of the blog:)


We've been in Paris for about 2 days now so I'm going to start from the very beginning. We got to fly business class which was pretty awesome because we were treated like royalty. Of course it's a step down from first class but it's pretty much the same thing. It's a lot nicer than coach. The chairs recline almost all the way back so it's supposed to be easy to sleep and they gave us food all the time and drinks whenever we wanted them. We had our own personal T.V. and I watched the movie I Am Legend which was really good. It's about the last man on earth and all the food's gone. He has to hunt elk using a machine gun and protect himself against the evil human things. At first he had a dog to keep him company but then they kill his dog so he's alone. Later in the movie more humans come and think there's a place where tons of other human's are. The evil people attack right when he finds the cure to make them back in to normal people but when they keep coming he tells the other two to get in the safe so he blows up the creatures along with himself and no he doesn't come back to life or anything. The other two humans figure out there is a civilization with others so they take the potion (the cure to make the savages normal) and it's all happily ever after and everything. When we got to the airport it seemed really different because there were little tubes connecting you to different places and they ran on top of each other side by side and all that and they were moving walkways so you could just stand there and enjoy the view. The tubes were transparent all around so you could see all around you. The baggage claim seemed to be taking forever but they'd really just left them in Chicago. They were supposed to be delivered to our appartment today but they're still not here yet and are way overdue. My mom doesn't think they'll be able to find us because we're on a small street in a tiny appartment of many and I couldn't imgine finding it myself. We then got on the Metro which is a really fast train that takes you all over Paris. Of course there are so many trains that we sort of got lost and when we got out it was raining so it sort of sucked on the walk to our hotel. We were all mad at dad because we'd told him to get a taxi and he completely ignored us. When we finally got to the hotel we didn't have anything to change into because we didn't have our bags and we were really tired because of the time change. We were forced to stay up for an extra 12 hours so we got outside and went to the Arc of Triumph or the Arc de Triomphe. It was a lot bigger than I'd expected and we went under it. They had some fire going but we didn't stay long enough to find out why. On our way home we stopped by a bakery and got a few sweets and a Baget, the French bread. When we got back we didn't have any dinner for some reason but we were all tired and happy to go to bed. We also had a view of the Eiffel Tower which was pretty cool and we also had a view of it from the Arc of Triumph. Today we got up really late and went to our appartment. We went to lunch and ordered some stuff in French. I had an Italian bread with noodles, meat, and sauce in it which was really good. Isabel got a Crepe with cheese and eggs in it and I had a bite of it and it was way better than the ones we had in French class on food day. After that we went back to the appartment for a while and left again later leaving mom who was going to wait for our bags. We were trying to find a dry cleaning for dad but didn't find one and we stopped by McDonald's to get some juice because we were thirsty. Us kid's went in to get it and I did all the ordering and didn't even mess up. Now we're waiting in our appartment for the bags which still haven't come. Au Revoir.