Today has been so amazing. Seriously, I was happy enough after mass, but then we went to a museum and it was so amazing! We decided that maybe going to the 8:30 mass was a bit unreasonable considering how far away we're living from the city and the fact that we've never been to the Notre Dame before. So instead we woke up at about 8:30 so we could eat a small breakfast and actually get seats at the 11:45 mass. When we woke up, we found a surprise waiting for us. It seems that someone (or something) left us Easter candy, one for all of us that were staying at the apartment. When asked, everyone said that they didn't leave it. I think the Easter Bunny may have left us a present, which is just awesome! After that little surprise, we planned out our rout to get to the church and walked around, looking for what could possibly be the Notre Dame. We finally turned a corner to see the church rising above the buildings surrounding it, with a ton of people milling about in front of it. It was a pretty safe bet that we had found what we were looking for. Unfortunately, there was a line to get in regardless of if you were going to mass or just a tourist wanting to see the inside. We waited in the long line, and just when we were at the front door, the gates started to close. We sort of freaked out thinking that they would close us out, so all six of us rushed forward, pushing to be a part of the group that made it inside. We made it. Once inside, we admired the stained glass windows and tried to find a spot where we could sit down for the next mass. The previous mass was still going on and there were scores of people lined up on the sides for both the actual mass and then next one.
Finally, the mass ended and the three of us wanting to stay for mass grabbed some seats while the others wandered around. Mass was awesome! The bishop was there to help say the mass and it was beautiful to listen to all the French being said around us, even if we didn't have a clue what was being said. Well, not until we found the English translation in the little booklet that they gave us. Throughout the mass, there were people both walking around the church looking at the architecture, and people within the actual church taking pictures of the church, mass, anything that looked cool. I was absolutely giddy about being at the Notre Dame for Easter. Eventually, mass ended so we walked around a little bit and acted like the tourists we were. Once we got outside, I spotted point zero, which is the official marking for "Paris" and everything that's measured to Paris is done at that point. We met up with the other half of our group to go for lunch and found that they had found the Lock Bridge and bought a lock, engraving "Aggie Family" on it so we can show that the Aggie family bond will last forever.
We got some crepes for lunch and stopped at a bakery where I tried and eclair...in Paris. Then we headed over to the Lock bridge and locked our lock around the bridge and threw away the keys. Across the street, there was a couple that had on what looked like wedding clothes doing a whole ceremony, so that was pretty cool. After that, we decided that we wanted to go to the D'orsay Museum, which is a huge museum filled with all sorts of art, from Monet to Van Gogh and all sorts of other famous painters. Once again, we got in for free. Goodness gracious, I love my Visa. We walked around for hours until 6 came around, at which point we decided to go get some groceries for dinner that night to have a good filling cheap dinner. We ended up getting ingredients for pesto pasta with chicken and salad, with baked brie for dessert. When we got back to the apartment, I was able to call my family and wish them a Happy Easter, and to say that I would be home in two weeks. Yes, I'll be home in just over 2 weeks and I'll be able to see my brother and family in person. I'm both excited and dreading it, because even though I'm having a ball here in Europe, I'm ready to be back home.
We had dinner and brie with honey, and we were going to go climb the Eiffel tower at night, but by the time everything was said and done, it was about 10:15 and we didn't have enough time to get to the tower, get tickets, walk up, enjoy ourselves, and walk down before the tower would have closed, so we stayed in. It's alright though because this is the first night we'll get to sleep at a semi-reasonable hour and we'll be able to sleep in a bit tomorrow so we can check out. We move to another hotel tomorrow, one closer to the train station so we can wake up early on Tuesday. We are also planning on picnicking at the tower, climbing up it in the day and at night, as well as maybe going to the Moulin Rouge area. We want to make sure that we get as much into this trip as possible, and I'd say that we've succeeded so far. It's also out last day here in Paris before going back to school on Tuesday, and none of us want to think about it that much. One last thing before I sign off: Paris is awesome!!
Happy Easter!
Erin Z
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