benedetto. felice. amato.: Paris, Disneyland, & Versailles

Ahhh, Fall break! On Saturday the 27th I boarded my first RyanAir flight (not quite like Southwest Airlines) and headed off to Paris! We arrived in the late evening, had dinner, and turned in early to prepare for the long weekend ahead of us! We got up early Sunday morning and went to Mass at Notre Dame - it is SO beautiful there! Senior year of high school in yearbook class our teacher who was French taught us how to pray the Hail Mary in French. I distinctly remember one day in class turning to my friend Ashley and saying "When am I EVER going to be in a situation where I will want to pray the Hail Mary in French? I can pray it in English, Spanish, and Latin and I'm pretty sure that's plenty of languages for one prayer." Welp, I was sure excited when the priest began Mass with three Hail Marys and I knew all the words! Thanks, Madame Godret! That was the only part of the Mass that I understood. Anyways, after Mass we had a few hours before our walking tour began so we walked around in Notre Dame and then made our way to the outside to check it out from there. While we were walking around some nice strangers came up to us and asked me to take a picture of them so I did and we started making some small talk and I asked them where they were from and guess what they said... New Mexico! What are the odds! After that we made our way over to meet our walking tour. The tour lasted about 4 hours and we saw so much! Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon's tomb, Tuileries Gardens, Pont Neuf, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and so much more! Our tour guide Billy was great and I learned a lot from the tour! After the tour we explored and made our way over to the Eiffel Tower to get a closer look - I took an obscene amount of pictures of that thing. That evening we did a walking tour of the Montmarte District with our same great guide! The highlight of that tour was definitely the Basilica Sacré Coeur. It was such a beautiful church and there is perpetual Adoration which added to its beauty! When you walk out of the Basilica you are at the highest natural point in Paris and there is a beautiful view of the city. On the tour we also saw the Artists' Square, the last windmill in Paris, the last vineyard in Paris, Picasso's studio, Van Gogh's house, the Moulin Rouge, and lots of other little things along the way. After a long 14 hour day, we finally made it back to our hostel to recharge for the next day...DISNEYLAND! Monica and I spent the day filled with the joy of a 5 year old in Disneyland! We had so much fun and it was a really really great day! I kind of forgot that we were in France until the Disney characters would speak in French or I would see a Snow White poster that said "Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains". We were there from open to close and enjoyed every single one of the 600 minutes we spent there! Tuesday morning we got up early again to make it to morning Mass at Notre Dame. Mass was on the other side of the altar in the choir stalls and there were only about 15 people at Mass. It was neat to be at such an intimate Mass in this beautiful Basilica. The homily seemed really great and people kept laughing at things the priest said - I wish I knew what was so funny. It was great though! After an Adoration hour at Notre Dame I embarked on a final tour to Versailles! We saw the Château and the beautiful Gardens there! It is already really cold in Paris and everything was still green and beautiful - I cannot imagine how beautiful that place is in the summertime. I learned a lot on that tour but I was so thankful to have learned so much about the things I was seeing in high school - thanks Coach Hillsey! We heard lots of stories about King Louis XIV, the "Sun King". We saw the Hall of Mirrors, the Grand Canal, the fountains, Marie Antoinette's estate, and lots more. After the tour I made my way back to Paris and we boarded our flight back to fair Italia. I could not believe it when we landed in Pisa and the flight attendants played a happy little tune and everyone started cheering... Oh Italians! After nearly 7 hours of travel I was thankful to be back at our lovely little villa! Also in case you were wondering, here is the Hail Mary in French :)

Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâce. Le Seigneur est avec vous. Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes, et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni.

Saint Marie, Mère de Dieu, priest pour nous, pauvres pécheurs, maintenant et à l'heure de notre mort. Amen.

On the airplane to Paris!

Lovely Notre Dame.

Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Crucifix in Notre Dame.

The nice random strangers I met from Cedar Crest!

Ohhh Johnny pretending to be the hunchback.

We found this great little park by Notre Dame!

Notre Dame from the back.

Love this place.

One of the stops on the tour... Starbucks! Hooray for a Pumpkin Spice Latte on a cold, cold day!

The first of many Eiffel Tower pictures I took.

So around the area of the Eiffel Tower they have these "Buddy Bears" and there is a bear representing just about every country. Some how they left out the United States but they did have Lebanon!