Paris!

What. A. Day. We woke up early, said our goodbyes to Roger, and left Le Luot at 7:15 am. We didn't have a map but we had looked online at a route that would avoid tolls and planned on taking that. After three turnarounds, we found the road and all the stoplights and round abouts that came with it. Dad immediately got back to the motorway and paid the tolls instead. It saved us an hour of drive time.

We arrived in Mantes la Jolie where Chad is currently serving, got lost again, and eventually found the church which is actually an old red house. We went inside and the first person we met was the bishop and his wife. He was very kind, spoke English (thank goodness), and directed us to Sunday school (dad) and young women's (me...haha). We asked him if Elder Sorensen was around and he told us he was teaching a different Sunday school class. We chatted with Chad's companions and then sat through the second half of sunday school...in French...we understood nothing. After it ended, many men came and shook our hands and welcomed us. We kept turning around looking for Chad, waiting for him to come in. I finally saw him, we made eye contact, and I heard a "what the heck?!" and saw a smile an heard a laugh. He walked over and shook my dad's hand and then gave him a hug. No hug for me since that would have looked funny to ward members. :) The first thing he did was tell us about the baptism they had yesterday. They're rare so also very exciting! We got to see the little girl get confirmed...Chad and his companions stood in the circle. It was awesome! I loved hearing him speak french to the members and make plans in his planner. About four different people offered translation for us (via a missionary), and we turned it down three times. The fourth guy was very persuasive and Chad's companion was sent in to translate...so he sat behind us and translated the talks into English for us. We were able to chat with Chad for a little longer after sacrament meeting and he told us about the area and how they have no investigators and what not :( It sounds tough out here. They're working so hard!We took a picture and said our see you laters and headed on our way.

We somehow made it to Paris without a map. As dad and Forrest Gump always say, stupid is a stupid does, and we should have got a map. We went through a tunnel and dad said, "I bet we'll go through this tunnel and the Eiffel Tower will be on the other side!!!" He was right, and i got my first glimpses of the tower. We somehow made it to the Arc de Triomphe and dad can now officially say he has done a victory lap around it. It was crazy, scary, and dangerous. The round about is like ten lanes wide only there are no lines. Everyone just goes wherever they need to...cutting everyone else off in the process. We were able to get out after just one lap (I was worried we'd be stuck going in circles for hours). We went down the Champs Elysees, enjoying ourselves for one last time before being lost for the next 5 hours.

Still no map. We decided to find our apartment just so we'd know where it is.  It was probably ten minutes from where we were, but it took us an hour and a half to get there. Dad would be going towards one place and I'd be going to another and it wasn't until I asked him where the heck he was going that we realized we were not navigating towards the same place...which definitely didn't help. We finally found the apartment and then had to find a gas station. Paris is huge, and busy, and super populated. We hadn't seen a gas station in a loooong time so we headed to the outskirts thinking that would be our best bet. Thirty minutes later, we found one. Thennnn, we had to find the car rental return place. This was the worst of all our travels as it was now about 3 o clock and we were tired and hungry as well as lost and frustrated. One way streets, no map, lots of traffic, and just unkown streets made it really hard to get around. Once dad listened to me, we found the right place ;)

We then took the metro back right across the street from the apartment.  There was a French lady waiting for us. She spoke no English except "thank you," but I was able to understand almost all of what she was saying. She was pretty much just saying the basics, but still. It was the best Frenglish conversation I've had here. Hahaha. We're living with the locals, and my dad likes to lean out the window every once in a while. We're on a pretty busy street, but it's not so bad.

We didn't even get settled in before heading out to find food.  We got the apartment so that we could save money on food by having a fridge and the ability to cook our own meals. So we went to look for a market, but could only find the small ones with the basics. The big ones were closed on Sundays. We passed a street market and bought my sister a Beatles record for 5 euros. She's pretty stoked about it, I think.  We got some things at a small market and then got dinner at a Chinese restaurant that had been tempting my dad every time we passed it. We took it up to the apartment and enjoyed our Chinese food as our first meal in Paris.

We watched The Bourne Identity, and we feel as if we could see Matt Damon from our window any second.  We FaceTimed with a lot of family today...cousins, brother, sister, mom and little sisters. My niece and nephew are next! They're due for a hello!  We have some plans tomorrow...Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, the Louvre, etc. It should be a great day! (Especially compared to today)

Place de la Concorde

My first glimpse of the arc

The Eiffel Tower and small Statue of Liberty

Lauren's record

Old record player on the street shops

Dad and the window

Dad living his dream, victory lap around the Arc de Triomphe

Champs Elysees

Our living room/my bed

We're on the top floor

Arc de Triomphe

Our kitchen

The Eiffel Tower

Records records records

My missionary cousin

Church building