We've Arrived!

Wow - what a whirlwind we've had for the past 24 hours! We had a nice uneventful flight from Anchorage to Salt Lake, then boarded another loooong flight - 10 hours from Salt Lake to Paris.

We were met and taken to our hotel, and were then met by our lovely tour guide Alexandra. She is great and will be with us the whole time we are here! We stored our bags at the hotel, and Alexandra put us on a train and took us to the Louvre - what a way to begin!

We had time to get through just 1 wing (there are 6 or so) in a couple of hours - but we hit the highlights. All the Renaissance painters - and sculptors. Naturally highlights were the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. What impressed us as much as the art was the massive courtyards of the Louvre. As we rested under a statue of Napoleon, staring out at the massive courtyard and famous glass pyramids, we kept repeating to each other, "I just can't believe we're seeing this!".

Later, we met more of our group - a small bunch of 5 from Ohio, and a larger group of 12 from California. We all joined together for a scenic stroll across the famous Pont Neuf (very famous bridge over the Seine)

and then over to the beautiful cathedral of Notre Dame.
Looking at it from the outside kept us plenty occupied and our jaws hanging open as we waited in line to get in. The line moved quickly and soon we were staring at the most famous example of Gothic Architecture in the world! What struck us more than the vivid details of the stained glass, the rose windows, the vaulted ceilings, and the flying buttresses was the history. The cathedral of Notre Dame was completed in the 1200's! That kind of close-up history is going to take some time for us to get used to! "Point Zero" of France is located in the cathedral courtyard - it is a brass disk and it marks the point from which all distances from Paris are measured. Superstition has it that if you touch the disk it means you are coming back to Paris - of course we all made sure to do just that!

Finally we met the rest of our group - another group from Ohio of 18. We all went to dinner together at a buffet place, then hopped on the Paris Metro for the ride back to the hotel. Everyone is exhausted. I have to say, I almost skipped writing this because I was falling asleep fast!

Tomorrow is another fun-filled day - a city tour of Paris in the morning, an exciting afternoon of sightseeing and shopping, and a Paris by Night tour that our tour guide added which sounds really exciting.

More tomorrow - everyone is having a great time - did you expect anything less?!