Today we went on the high speed TGV train from Lyon to Paris. The ride was about 2 hours because the train can go up to 300 km/hr. The scenery was definitely flying by as I looked out the window. When we got to Paris we went on a tour of the famous Notre Dame cathedral. The detail in the carvings of the sculptures on the inside and outside of it was magnificent. There was beautiful stained glass inside as well. While we were in there, mass started as well. Afterwards we went to the Louvre. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and seemed to know what every painting or sculpture was about. Finally we saw the famous Venus de Milo sculpture and the Mona Lisa. I got right to the front of the crowd to see them. Thankfully the Louvre wasn’t busy since it is the off-season right now. Apparently during the summer there is humanity everywhere.
We then came back to the hotel and decided to do some shopping in the nearby mall since the winter sales are on right now. The shopping was absolutely crazy though with people EVERYWHERE. The crowds were worse than our boxing day shopping back home! It made me not want to shop, which is a big thing because I LOVE shopping! After some shopping where we hardly went into stores, we got ready to go to the Moulin Rouge to have a dinner and show!
The Moulin Rouge was AMAZING! The whole setting of it was very classy with dim lighting and live music in the background while we ate dinner. The only problem most of us had was the food. Most of us ordered vegetable soup thinking that it would be a safe choice, but it ended up being a cold soup, which tasted like mashed up peas. It was rather gross. I ordered the quinoa for my main entrée which was very good, but most people got the roast beef. My mom said that it was the worst meal she had ever had because not only could she not cut the meat, she couldn’t chew it at all either. At least the chocolate pudding dessert we had was good!
During our dessert the show started and I was blown away by it. Even though there were A LOT of topless women on stage for a lot of the show, the dancing and acts were phenomenal. The costumes were very bright and extremely sparkly on stage while the performers danced and sang. There was a guy that could juggle 7 boutons at a time, and a couple doing an acrobatic routine. The one guy was standing straight up and balanced the women on his head from her head so that her feet were pointing straight up. They definitely were one of my favourites. Another act involved one of the women jumping into a tank of water full of snakes that randomly appeared from below the stage!! At first I was grossed out because I couldn’t believe that she would jump into it, but then she did and she would wrap them around her while she swam in the clear tank. There was a routine involving a few people from the audience, which was hilarious, and one routine involved a man and woman literally moving ABOVE the audience while singing and dancing since they were being suspended in the air. The whole show was extremely well done and I didn’t want it to ever end!
