Friday morning we get up early and get on a three-hour train ride to Paris. We got on the Metro and headed towards the hostel that we had looked into before leaving. We called ahead of time and were told that they don't take reservations. What they really meant to say is that they were full and that they CAN'T take any more reservations. Well, great. Seven of us are standing in the street with backpacks without a place to stay in Paris. Okay, no problem. We will just get a hotel. Hotel after hotel was full. We found a single hotel with 1 open room, but they told us they might have more after 12pm. It was about 11 at this time and we hadn't eaten yet, so we went to eat and then went back to the hotel. Luckily they had 4 double occupancy rooms available, so we checked in. It turns out that all four had windows that faced each other even though they were on 4 different floors and in two different buildings. Only one was available at that time, so we piled are bags in there and hit the streets.

We hit some of the sites and got some good pictures. On to the Louvre. Went got reduced tickets because we went in after 3pm. I was on my guard while inside because another GTL student had their Passport and wallet stolen while he was using the restroom. We had no such bad luck. We were there until 6pm (closing time). We then went to find a boat tour for that evening. We found one that left at 8:30.

We went to dinner at a nice little restaurant a short walk from the river. I had some kind of beef and gravy with a type of baked potato. We headed back to the river and got on the boat. It gave us a nice view of everything that we had seen that day, and what we were going to see the next day. After the boat tour we went to the base of the Eiffel Tower. At 11pm they turn on strobe lights that are attached to the face of the tower. It looked really nice.

On Saturday we went to the Eiffel Tower in the morning. What a line! It took forever to get on the lift to the second level. It took just as long to get on the second lift to go up to the top. It wasn't the clearest it could have been, but it was good enough. From that height you could see most of the city. They also had flags positioned around the outside of the observation deck that showed you the major countries and their direction from Paris. After that we walked to the Arch de Triumph. We took pictures, and then headed downtown. We stopped in some shops along the street and then we split into two groups. My group went to Hard Rock Café for dinner.

On Sunday we went to Napoleons Tomb and the museum that was attached. What a museum! It had the history of the French army in one building. Clothes, flags, weapons, paintings... And the best part was an entire floor of relief maps made in the 18th century. Very impressive. After that is was 2pm and everyone except myself went to Versilles. I didn't go because I will be going with my parents and brother when they come at the end of the summer. Although those that went did not give it good reviews.

So I had the rest of the afternoon to kill and then get on a train for Metz. I decided to walk to the newer section of town La Defense. It was interesting to see how different the buildings were from the rest of the city. The Arch La Defense was pretty good. They could have had a better observation deck, but it was okay for what I wanted. It took a good while to walk there because it was a few kilometers from town. I took the Metro back to town to catch a train at 7:21pm.

I figured out this weekend my approximate schedule for my remaining time here in Europe. If I do what I have planned, I will spend a day at a city in at least 11 different countries. Depending on course work, maybe more!