wow, i've completely been sucking at updating this! anyway, i've been doing too much to get it all down in the 30 minutes i have at this internet cafe, but i'll do my best. Pretty much, since the last blog, I've hit most of the major touristy things, took over an irish pub with 3 other americans for the US/Italy game (and ended up going out with a random bunch of UVA kids afterwards, 2 of which were from mclean and knew Laura Warren!) and took day trips to Versailles and Rouen, both of which were cool but in very very different ways. After missing my first 2 attempted trains to Rouen yesterday (turns out I was reading the arrivals board instead of departures . . . oops!), I finally got there. Lizzy -- you were right about it being straight out of beauty and the beast! I had to hold back from bursting out into song about needing much more than this provincial life more than a few times! The past 2 nights I've just been completely exhausted from everything, and I found out the shocker this morning that if you stay in for a night and sleep late the next morning, you won't be exhausted anymore! who knew? So today, I finally figured out how to get my train tickets from Nice to Milan to Venice to Florence to Rome, which was one of the things that had been stressing me out the past few days. Oh, and this morning I attempted to do laundry for the first time in france, and had such a blast figuring out the machines in the laundramat with this awesome french woman. Lets just say both of us were very dramatically acting out spinning washers and dryers and such, just cracking up and being goofy! speaking the same languate is completely overrated! Then I went to Saint Chappelle, which is this completely breathtaking old church made almost completely from incredible stained glass windows. It quite possibly may be my favorite thing in paris now. Then, it was around 4ish, and I decided to have my first (and probably last) real french meal, at a place that advertised "cuisine traditionelle" or something like that. I ordered a glass of wine and what I thought was a big salad with different types of cheeses on it. Turns out it was a little salad, with 4 huge wedges of cheese, and a basket of different types of breads. The cheeses were brie, mozzarella, blue cheese, and some cheese that was sharp and crumble-ly and almost too salty, even for me! anyway, it was all incredible, and i think the people walking past could tell how excited i was and a freakish amount of people stopped to say bon apetit or some variation. After that, I strolled along some small alleys that were packed with cafes and bars and shops, all of which were playing the world cup game with great happy hour deals. I think I finally found where the french people go to watch the soccer games. Then, while strolling through an alley of pubs and cheesy tourist shops, I completely unexpected emerged directly in front of Notre Dame, which is such a bizarre experience to stumble into. Now here I am, and I think next I'm going to this big icecream cafe that was showing the soccer game, and they had happy hour specials on this delicious looking sorbet/fruit bowl thing, so yay for world cup happy hours at icecream shops! Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, and then its on to Lyon for 1 day, Nice for 2, and then a whirlwind tour of Italy. Woohoo!!!