The Eiffel Tower Is Ugly and I Do Not Like It

Bonsoir! So just real quick I want to just mention the meals I ate today because the food here is so incredible I don't give it enough credit.

Breakfast: a croissant with nutella and some grape juice in my room, then a pain au chocolat and a café (double espresso) outside the train station.
Lunch: a four cheese pizza (Camembert, Parmesan, bleu, et chèvre (goat)) with tomato sauce.
Dinner: Kebab (like a gyro, I think) with fries and a grape soda.

Today we spent the day in Paris! After taking the train from Le Mans, we arrived in Paris, bought our metro tickets, and took the metro the the Eiffel Tower. It's of course a very important landmark, of course, but as a structure, it's so ugly. It is not pleasing to the eye and originally, it was supposed to be only a support. It was supposed to be covered so I'm shocked that the French allowed it to stay, but now it is internationally adored. I find it overrated, but when in Paris, you can't not visit it. From the Eiffel Tower, we walked over to the Arc de Triomphe (my favorite monument in Paris) and then we started walking down the Champs-Elysées. We jumped on the metro and took it to Place de la Concorde, which is at the end of the Champs-Elysées. The Arc de Triomphe is the start of the street of shops, and Place de la Concorde is the end of it. When we crammed ourselves back onto the metro, there was a performer with a speaker and a microphone singing the song Les Champs-Elysées; he was surprisingly good! Eventually we made it over to Notre Dame, where we got ice cream after eating lunch, and then walked over to the Louvre. We didn't go inside Notre Dame or the Louvre, but we were able to walk around and take pictures of it all. Before heading back, we stopped at a local micro-brasserie who made their own beers. I had a glass of the lightest one, La Blanche, and it was really good! We then hopped on the train and headed back to Le Mans.

By coincidence, a group of us went straight to dinner after getting off the train where we met up with some of our American friends eating with some of the French students we'll be in class with and their friends! So we ate and spent the evening talking with them about the differences between the countries and the different stereotypes we had about each others countries. It was also interesting to ask them about French culture we learning in class, like what high schools are like in France, and here what an actual French student's perspective was. For example, French students don't move out of their parents' houses until they're about 25, so moving out at 18 seems so early to them. All the French students are so friendly and it's awesome that we both get to practice the other's language!

Tomorrow is the market in town, where there is local produce and meat, which I cannot wait for. Then we'll have a picnic with the American and French students and then possibly a get-together with the other students who are living in the dorm this summer. There are people from all over the world in this dorm, so I can't wait to get to know some of them!