uly 3, 2012
Rachel went to Versaille today without me since I've been there once before. I feel like it's a place you go once and it's good enough. So I slept in until about 10:30, got up and took a shower, then slowly headed out. My mom told me to go find the Statue of Liberty here, so that's what I did. It's actually quite far. I took the train for almost half an hr getting there.

I got an awesome picture of the Statue of Liberty in front of the Eiffel tower. It was such a nice day too so I walked around. The island that the statue is on is a man-made one and it was just a long strip. I ate my lunch on the island and continued walking to the end of it. When I stepped off the island, I thought everything looked kind of familiar, but I've never been to this part of Paris before. I look around and realize I'm at one of sets of Inception! At least I think I was. It was the part where DiCaprio introduces the girl to the dream world and she flips shit upside down and sideways and then gets killed by his ex-wife. Remember that part? Even the buildings on either side of this bridge looked like the ones in the movie.

I arrived at the Eiffel tower and just hung out for 10 seconds before the smell of garbage gets too much for me. So I decided to explore Paris! I had no map but I did have a destination which was the Gallerie LaFayette. I walked by the architecture museum which was closed on Tuesdays =( and then headed towards what I think was the direction of the Arc du Triomphe.

The arch is the endpoint of one of the largest, most famous (and expensive) shopping streets in Paris, the Champs de Elysee. I walk down the street and ended up in a Renault showroom, where I got to sit inside one of those one seater electric cars that are slowly getting more and more popular in Europe. I can see why. It costs 7000 euros, doors not included. Well, if they had this car in Canada, I may have thought to get it briefly, but at that price and impracticality, I rather go get my motorcycle license.

I continued walking and then I  was totally lost in a side street. I walked in the direction of where I thought LaFayette was and then end up at some giant temple that I didn't even know existed. It looked like a replica of the Parthenon from Athens, but it was called something Madeleine. The good thing about tourist attractions are that there are usually maps around the area, so I went and looked to see where I brought myself. Not too bad, I was going the right direction the whole time.

After about another 10 minutes of walking, I finally get to LaFayette. I went in and did some shopping! Everything was like 30-50% off! Big luxury brands too! I got a Lacoste hat and I almost bought a pair of shoes.

I went back to the flat but not before getting some food to make from the market. I took a nap and waited for Rachel to come back from Versaille. Ate dinner and then went out at 9 to meet one of her mom's friend. We met him at a train station and he took us to this place where a bunch of locals sit by a canal and get drunk. This guy was in his 30s and was fricken hilarious. Well, I thought he was, Rachel didn't seem too amused. I guess partly because we were laughing at her expense. You see, Rachel just came back from a 5 week class in Quebec learning French, so she was very confident about her ability to conversate with people here. What she didn't know is that some things we say in English directly translated to French is hilariously inappropriate. What I got the biggest crack out of was this; in English, we say "I'm good" to say we are fine. When directly translated in French, "je suis bon", it means something along the lines of "I like sex". Rachel wrote that to our new friend, Joseph, in her email. After a few hrs of cracking jokes that probably made Rachel feel uncomfortable, it was time to head back to the flat. We need to catch a train at noon the next day to Caen. I added Joseph on Facebook.