commentary with brandt and mari: Paris day one!

Brandt: We started our weekend away bright and early...not quite early enough because the underground train we needed was going to be twenty minutes later than expected. Luckily we found an alternate route and made it to the station just in time to get a stamp in our passport and on to the Paris bound chunnel.

Mari: The whole time we waited at the tube station Brandt and I just kept thinking that it was probably good that our mom wasn't with us because she would be having massive travel anxiety and would be freaking out that we were going to miss the chunnel. It worked out nicely however, because we made it in time but we were late enough that they rushed us to the front of security. No lines for us.

Mari: This is Sydney our perfect travel companion. She is obviously beautiful, she's fun, she hates museums as much as us, and she LOVES Disney as much as us. We formed a club. The DLPP. You're going to have to figure out for yourselves what that stands for.

Brandt: Hey syd.


Brandt: Arriving in Paris we found perfect weather, perfect Parisian streets with pastry shops and women shaking their rugs out the windows, and got to our hotel right in the middle of a perfect little neighborhood. We found our way here to the Arc D'Triumph (I speak spanish not french so be patient if thats wrong) and enjoyed the view down the Champs Elysee. It was bigger and more beautiful than I expected it would be.

Mari: Listening to Brandt attempt to speak French was a highlight....it was terrible. We walked down the Champs Elysee and enjoyed looking at all the high end shops that we could never afford and stopped in the Disney store to prep us for what was coming. We went up a side street looking for a cafe to eat lunch at and upon turning up it what should we find but an attractive guy leaning against his Vespa staring into the distance, just like every movie you've ever seen that takes place in France. Me and Syd both wanted to hop on the back and ride off into the sunset with him but restrained ourselves. We ate lunch at the most perfect French cafe with amazing authentic ham and cheese sandwiches on baguettes. Delicious. We then finished walking down the Champs Elysee and ended up by the Louvre.
Brandt: Mari and Sydney seemed to think this was an embarassing look. I was fine with it. My mom bought me the wallett to hang around my neck. A girl we met at the train station told me it was worse than a fanny pack. As for the Louvre...unfortunately we are not as cultured as we should be. After about an hour we didn't know what else to see...sorry to all those that think that is blaspheme.

Mari: Brandt was the world's best tourist. The outfit was amazing but the real kicker was when he pulled out his homemade, plastic wrapped peanut butter and jelly to eat on the train.


Mari: This is Mona. We saw her.

Brandt: She's still smiling.

Mari: After the Louvre we walked along the Siene and took in the gorgeous scenery. It was an absolutely beautiful day and lets just say that the Parisians were taking advantage of the sun. We walked down onto a cobble stone side walk beside the river only to find many sunbathers just laying on the sidewalk next to the river. "Odd," you might think, since they can't swim in the river, but it got weirder when we passed a man sitting next to the river in nothing but his underwear and weirder still when we passed a saggy old lady in a bikini...minus the top. It was truly a European experience.
Brandt: We found Notre Dame. All of Paris, but especially Notre Dame, was amazing to see. It falls in the category of incredible things you always see in pictures but is even more incredible to see in person. The stained glass was incredible, and the carvings and gargoyles on the exterior were equally impressive. It was a really neat experience.
Mari: We ate at this great French Bistro right near the Eiffle tower. Ordering was a little difficult since we spoke no French and the waiter didn't really want to own up to the fact that he knew quite a bit of English. The food was so yummy and for the record French food is much better than English food. After dinner we debated for about 15 minutes about whether or not the tip was included in the bill, needless to say we didn't leave a tip. It's no wonder Parisians hate Americans.
Brandt: We finally made it to the Eiffle Tower. It was beautiful. The sun was setting and we decided to go to the top. We waited in a pretty long line, and by the time we got to the elevator it was pretty dark out. We took the lift to the first stop about half way up. The view was amazing from there, but we got in the next line to go all the way to the top. Whilst waiting in line I noticed a clean cut kid about my age with his two sisters and parents. After observing for a minute I leaned over to Mari and Syd and said "that family is mormon." We talked about it for a minute, and they agreed. We just needed confirmation, that even half way around the world, waiting in line for the Eiffle tower, a mormon family is recognizable.

Mari: So, we decided that we would ask them where they were from and then maybe we would be able to decide if they were truly Mormon or not. When they snaked around by us in line we chickened out. We got to the top and we had a new plan that we would ask them to take our picture and then we could ask them if they were mormon. The first 5 minutes on the top of the tower were not spent admiring the view but rather searching for the "mormon" family. We finally found them and the picture plan failed so Sydney, the only brave one among us, just ran up to the kid and straight up asked him if he was mormon. Brandt and I were so mortified that we both ran in the other direction and hid behind a tiny gray box that was about four and a half feet tall. When we realized how ridiculous we were we went and found Sydney and discovered that sure enough, they were mormon. Not only that but they were from Sydney's stake back home in Washington and lived about 35 minutes from her. They were such a sweet family and we talked to them for a while and discovered that the boy was going to BYU. The mormon community sure is a small one. After that we were able to really look out and take in the spectacular view. It was absolutely breathtaking and it was honestly one of the neatest things that I have ever done. We finished up top and made it back down to the base where we went and got DELICIOUS crepes. Until you have had crepes in France you don't know what they are meant to be like. We got back to the hotel and slept quickly knowing that the next day was only going to bring more adventures.
Paris day one: a success.