On my own

Last day of the trip. Sadness. Went with the rest of the group to the airport. While they were trying to find the US Airways desk, I was making my way to the RER, then the metro, then the Gare Austerlitz. Eventually made it there in time to buy a ticket, buy a steve berry book, and sit for 2 hours. 

After getting on the train, I figured out that I wasn't in the right seat. And then the people whose seat I was in figured out that I still wasn't in in the right seat, but I eventually made it there. 

Changed trains, again, frantically (c'mon, I am my mother's child after all. I will also be paranoid about having travels in order).

Then arrived in Les Eyzies. Oh Les Eyzies how I had missed you. 

Even though it is a tiny town, I was surprisingly lost at first. Probably because we never walked to the train station or Hotel Des Roches. But eventually I made it back to the main street. And after walking back and forth for a bit, I asked some people standing around (the town was surprisingly deserted and things were closed (even restaurants) so it made me nervous and is the main reason I didn't change venues) where the hotel was. She pointed but then told me to get in her car and she'd take me! How sweet! The Frenchies do have some kind ones.  

She dropped me off, and I checked into the hotel. It is so quaint! Soothing. My room faced the cliffs and shelters, and the nice cool night air was the perfect thing to fall asleep to. 

Last Day

Well today we went into Paris again. Went to the Museum Dorsey? Then went and saw Saint Chapelle. AH! BEAUTIFUL. Oh my goodness. So amazing. So much so that I changed the background of my blog. 

Stunning. Colors everywhere. Lights everywhere. It all combines and the feelings of both explode in the air. 

We went to a funky little neighborhood next, got a bite to eat after climbing stairs at a 75% incline, it was awesome. We then went back to the hotel. However (I hope I'm not messing up the times here…I think this happened on the last day on the way back to the hotel), on the way back we had to stop on the RER for a little while. Stopped. Completely. Luckily in a station. Lucky for the person who was on the tracks. That's right. Somebody decided to get on the tracks, so we waited until they decided to move. 

Mind you, this heat wave is still going on. And the French still don't have any air conditioning. We all thought being from Arkansas and such we would be tough cookies and the "French" heat wouldn't affect us. We were wrong. Just like the mosquitos. Although it wasn't like Arkansas where you burn your legs and hands when you climb into your car and drive (I love/miss that feeling), it was still purdy darn hawt. We just let the sweat drip, do the pit dance, and patiently waited for the person to get off the tracks. I was surprised by how patient our whole group was. Impressed. 

We then went back to the hotel. I gave the girlies some hair wraps, and frantically booked a hotel and figured out train times and rented a bike. 

Hello again!

We are in Paris and boy is there a heat wave!!! Whew! Man it is crazy here!!! We arrived in Paris by car, but had to return the rental and then travel to the train station with our bags to leave them in lockers there and then walk around paris and then take our bags on the train to our hotel and then a taxi. We stayed wayyyyyyyy outside Paris, even though the hotel said it was in Paris. Everybody was packed into the metro and trains like sardines and there is absolutely NOOOOO air conditioning in France people. Zip. Zelch. Nada. It was bad. But we finally made it to a train station that had lockers available. 

Dropping off our bags, we zipped off into Paris. We, naturally, had saved THE most touristy thing to do in France for the last day. LOUVRE. SO MANY PEOPLE. Of course we mapped out the main things we wanted to see (couple Roman statues, da Vinci, MONA, medieval stuff, the usu(how do you spell the abbreviated version of usual?)), and began our trek. We got lost several times, but our inability to navigate museums actually led us to see a bunch of stuff and things we wanted to see but thought would be towards the end. Hot diggity dog. 

Of course we saw the Mona Lisa. EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM SAW THE MONA LISA. It was actually BIGGER than I thought it would be, and the glass pane didn't seem to affect it. EVERYONE was there though. They kept taking pictures of themselves with it. Some dude even whipped out an Ipad and took some pictures. WHAT IS THAT?!

We made it back to the hotel after that and some dinner and other site seeing. Our shower had one of those heads where the water comes straight down on ya. Ya know what I mean? Our parents have one in their shower. IT'S SICK. Best shower ever.  Yup. I also got Robin to watch Master and Commander. Favorite. Movie. Ever.  It always makes me feel better if I am feeling homesick. I think it's all that water.