Down to Southern France

I am currently on the train down to Marseille, France which is along the coast of the southern tip of the country on the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately the train passes were all sold out to Nice (which is our next destination) but we were able to get another train pass to Nice from Marseille departing tomorrow morning. So as for tonight we will just stay in Marseille. We had a jam-packed past few couple of days in Paris as there is so much to see. On Saturday we went to a famous street called Champs Elysees which is filled with shopping and food. We had the best crepe that I had been waiting for (Nutella & banana) it was mouth-watering J We walked to the end of the street which stands the Arche de Triumph. It is a massive arch towering over the strip that has history involving Napolean.

We then made our way to the “red light” district of Paris which is where the original Moulin Rouge is. We weren’t able to make a show but I think that the outside windmill is very historic and famous when imagining Paris so it was definitely worth the trip down there. Sunday we went to the Louvre Museum (I read it is the largest museum in the world). This museum, as I mentioned before, is the home to Leonardo Da Vinci’s original Mona Lisa painting as well as where a majority of The movie the Da Vinci Code takes place. I was so excited to actually see the Mona Lisa in person as I believe it to be one of the most classic and most globally-recognized paintings in history. Of course there were several guards around it and you could not go within about 10 feet of it, but I was able to get some great pictures.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Paris after on and off rain since we arrived. The perfect day to go to the happiest place on Earth- Disneyland!! It is about 45 minutes out of the city and probably took a little over an hour to get there with 2 different subways and a train. We started out in Disney Studios (similar to Universal Studios) and we were quite happy to realize that Disney must have a requirement of their employees to speak English. It was the first time in several days that I felt able to effectively communicate with another human besides Trevor. We checked out some of the studio rides/shows and then headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I was quite surprised at home similar Disneyland Paris is to Disneyland/World. There were a few small differences but other than that the day was filled with fun rides (Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain, etc), lines, fast-passes, Disney characters, souvenirs, and all the other great Disneyland usuals. Yesterday France celebrated their 4th of July with their “14th of July” celebration. Disneyland put on the largest most spectacular fireworks display I have ever witnessed or heard of before. It was quite extravagant and amazing.

We are planning on spending a few days down south and then heading to Venice, Italy. We have actually both had our fare share of France but did not want to miss out on the French Riviera. Maybe some things will be a little different down here? I hear it is beautiful and similar to Hawaii or Mexico.

XO
Shawnie