Day 1

We arrived in at Charles de Gaulle Airport and took a bus to the Fiap Hotel in Paris. We then stored our bags, had a short orientation, and then headed to the Metro. Throughout the day we were pretty much walking zombie's bc most had not slept that much on the plane (i only got about 1 hour). A lot of this day was a blur for me, but we came back later in the trip anyway.



First we arrived at the Arc de Triumph, and then broke for lunch.




For lunch there were many different vendors that sold cold sandwiches and hot Pennini's. There were also always Cafe's to go in and sit down at. We were a little pressed for time, so we didn't really want to sit anywhere. I told Elizabeth that i would take some pictures of food, so here is a jambon, fromage, et tomate pennini.









We then returned to the Arc de Triumph and took pictures of the outside and inside. I'm not really sure what a lot of the sculptures on the outside represented, but i do know that all of the names where apparently French generals.

This flame stays lit all of the time and (i think) it's for all of the men who have died in battle








After checking out the outside, we climbed up to the top. There were about 300 stairs to climb (just an estimate) which would be the same as laketown beach. At the top there was a little museum and some models. The video monitor is a view of the ground right under the Arc (i thought that was kind of cute). I'm not really sure about the significance of the sculptures or stuff on the wall.

After the museum we went outside on the top of the Arc. In case you don't know, the Arc is in the middle of the a roundabout that is at the intersection of about 10 roads. It was really cool to see all of the traffic going everywhere. I have no idea how they don't get into more accidents. The main street that flows into it is called the Champs-Elysees (its the one with the big ferris wheel at the end of it. you might have to zoom in to see the ferris wheel). This street is a very wealthy and filled with many different stores.

After the Arc de Triumph, we headed over to the Trocadero to look at the Eiffel Tower. The Trocadero is one of the best places to view the Eiffel Tower. Side note: there were a bunch of guys trying to sell us Eiffel Tower key chains, and they were very annoying. (sorry if some of the pictures are a little crooked, i'm not a professional)