day 21 - adventure walks and a great cafe

Today was a wonderful day. Maybe I'll just end it at that.
...
Okay, I guess I'll post ;)

We had a free day today, a chance to do whatever we'd like. We had a relaxing morning and then headed off to go see Sainte Chapelle. We ended up getting off the wrong stop (oops) and had to walk a pretty long ways to get to the chapel. I'm so happy that happened though. It was a gorgeous day and being Sunday, everyone was out and about. It was so fun seeing all the life in the streets and parks of Paris.
We walked through the Luxembourg gardens and there were so many people hanging out, sunbathing, playing with boats in the fountain. There was a jazz band playing and people eating ice cream in the shade. It was wonderful to be a part of.
After walking through the park, we found the great and awesome Pantheon by accident. How dandy is that? And of course we went inside :) It was beautiful and big of course. We even saw Victor Hugo in the crypt. Swell guy. And even better, we also saw Courtney. What a lovely lady. She's been a fabulous teacher.
We then headed back on our venture towards St. Chapelle and wow that church is "incroyable". There are amazing, tall stained glass windows with beautifully painted ceilings. It's honestly breath taking. A must see if you're in Paris.
On Sundays, the flower market right by St. Chapelle also turns into a bird market so of course we stopped by that. So cute! Birds and flowers every where, I was so happy and such a girl haha :)
We (Mirielle, Tia, Conner and I ... Clark and Rick took off) decided to get food at a great little cafe by the bird market after our adventures were over. A little secret? I've been kind of splurging on food out here. It's so good! The pastries and the food and the baguettes, yum yum yum. I haven't been splurging too much, but definitely way more than London. Everything just tastes so delicious. I got a great sandwich and split a creme brulee with Mirielle. Oh heaven. It was delicious. It was such a relaxing and fun evening just talking and enjoying our food. I am so in love with the restaurants in Paris. Almost all of them have the majority of their tables outside and the whole environment is so relaxed and pleasant. Eating out takes a long time, usually almost 2 hours. It's chill, it's fun, it's relaxing. I love love love it.
Oh! The best thing yet? I spoke french with the waitress the whole time. Huzzah! I was so excited that I understood her and was able to respond to her questions. Oh man. Those 6 years of french paid off in that one evening haha!
Another thing about Paris. There are street performers everywhere. And they're usually pretty legit. While we were eating dinner, there was a skating group performing in the square. They wore cute little cliche french outfits and skated to Amelie music. It was adorable to watch :)

We finally got home and hung out in our hotel. For some reason we were super hyper and giggly. Tia, Mirielle and I just could not stop laughing, it was super fun and very unproductive in the homework area ;)

That was my wonderful day! Not really too much to write about, so you'll just have to trust that it was amazing.