Rugby and Moulin Rouge

Today was yet another beautiful day in Paris. We went into Notre Dame, stopped by the memorial by the Seine river for the 200,000 French Jews sent to concentration camps, and saw the Palais de Justice. Oh, and the Pompidou Center as well. And probably something else.

But yesterday was truly a great day. After we visited Sacré Coeur (with a BRILLIANT view of the city), we saw the Place du Tertre (where a lot of artists paint), the Opera house, and ended up in the major shopping district.

Sacré Coeur

We went to the Hôtel de Ville that afternoon to watch the U.S. play Tonga in the Rugby World Cup. It was great- a few hundred of us sat on turf watching a huge screen placed in front of the building. Even the statues on either side of the screen were dressed to support France in the cup! The U.S. lost, of course (For heaven's sakes, they were playing Tonga!), but at least they tried.

me, Becca, Janna, and Russ

I couldn't help but laugh at the contrast between

the majestic building and the gigantic screen.

Anyway, back to today. After our walk with Prof. Fry, we went off to see the Moulin Rouge. I know many girls love that movie, but I still haven't seen three-quarters of it, and thus was not nearly as excited as the others about seeing it this afternoon. But it was nice, I suppose. I met this nice girl who asked me to take her picture with the Moulin Rouge sign. I ran into her again in the metro below, and we realized we were going in the same direction. She is a Ph.D. student studying electrical engineering in China, spending the few weeks she has off traveling around Europe. Wow. I would love to have that kind of direction in my life.