ENGAGED!

WE ARE ENGAGED!

Yes, you read that right WE ARE ENGAGED!!!!!!!!! I was completely surprised and completely unsuspecting. Absolutely had no idea and was getting impatient while waiting for Jeremy to try to find someone to take our picture. So I'll start with the end of the night and describe as best I can what happened.

After walking around the entire city (we finally decided to start using our travel cards after our feet were about to give out), Jeremy wanted to go to a very scenic point of an island on the Seine River that we had seen on the boat cruise last night and both commented on how much we enjoyed it and thought it was beautiful (the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame could be seen from this point and were both lit up at night and it truly was very beautiful). So we rode the metro to the closest station to this point and finally got to it. Jeremy snapped a few photos and we decided that it was beautiful even in the daylight (and since the sun was setting, even more beautiful then). He wanted to walk around and see some other views from this point, but it started raining. Fortunately, I had brought our jackets in my backpack (against Jeremy's will because as it turns out, he didn't want the backpack in the pictures and that was the only thing that truly needed carrying). We threw on the jackets and waiting under an awning for the rain to stop. It finally stopped and we proceeded to walk along the river and over SEVERAL bridges (each one less beautiful than the first...but still beautiful). Finally we came back to the first bridge (it was completely dark now) and Jeremy kept talking about wanting someone to take our picture. It was 9pm and I was getting hungry and inpatient and told Jeremy to take a self-picture (like we had been doing most of the day). We kept waiting and Jeremy was anxiously looking for someone to take a picture (NO ONE was around). Finally, these two kids (come to find out they had ran ahead of their family) came across the bridge and Jeremy asked them to take our picture. They were probably 10 and had no idea how to speak English and began to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower WITHOUT US IN THE PICTURE. So finally they got the point after hand signals and a-ha moments and took a picture of us. After they left with their family and Jeremy and I were looking at the scene, Jeremy got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was completely surprised and started crying. It was really sweet and couldn't have been more perfect. Immediately after he had given me the ring, it started POURING down rain. Literally, POURING. We were a mile away from our hotel without a close metro to take. We didn't care and took some more pictures in the rain and walked home in the thunderstorm. After calling our families, we still hadn't eaten and the restaurants around were closed, so thankfully, there was a Kabob place across the street where we ordered kabob sandwiches with fries topped with coke and water. It was very romantic : D

So to recap the minor details of the day...

We slept late because we were exhausted from all of our travels up to now and missed the breakfast. This great little cafe was across the street so we went there for breakfast, I had a quiche and Jeremy had a panini. Both very good! Then we made our way to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. Um...it was impressive, but I wasn't as surprised by how much I enjoyed as I thought I would be. I'm glad I saw it though and I think Jeremy was glad he saw it as well. Afterwards, we walked around the museum briefly (it has 35,000 exhibits and is the largest museum in the world, so there is no way we could see most of the museum at all. We heard that if you went every day for 3 hours a day, you wouldn't be able to complete it in a year!!). We left and walked through the gardens in front of the museum leading up to the Arc de Triumph and walked around this. It was amazingly huge and pretty neat, but I know Jeremy enjoyed watching the debacle of the traffic pattern around the arc. No lanes and 12 roads joined by a circle. Cars, mopeds and vans were out for their place in the circle and trying to get from one of the 12 roads to another. Horns were blowing, tempers were flaring and tires were screeching. It was pretty funny to watch and was amazing that no accidents happened. It's amazing that it functions, to say the least.

Afterwards, we decided to use the subway to get to the Eiffel Tower. Before we went though, we stopped at another cafe and got sandwiches and a pastry to picnic in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was spectacular! Our view was great, the sun was out (briefly) and the food was good. Near the end of our lunch I started to get uneasy about going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I HATE elevators and the top of the Eiffel Tower seemed ridiculously high!!! The wind was blowing and there were a few raindrops. NOT ideal for being ~300 meters high. I could barely talk to Jeremy and tried to convince him that I shouldn't go up to the top. He told me he really wanted to go and said that I can't be scared because I'm in Paris at the Eiffel Tower and I NEEDED to do this (turns out, he was going to propose up there, but thought that I was too nervous for him to do it). At the top, the views were great and the wind/rain held off. We were up there ~15 minutes and then came back down to the bottom (and made it safely!!). I'm glad I did it, but don't really think I'll do it again.

Then we went to Montremartre to see Saccre-Cour (a church built on the tallest hill in Paris that we had seen on top of everything we had been on). The church was nice and the views nice, but the tourist merchants were very aggressive and made us both feel terribly uncomfortable. We were there as it was nearing dark and Jeremy was upset that we weren't able to catch a view of the Eiffel Tower that was on top of the hill and we decided to move on to the next place.

This is where we decided to go back towards the bridges along the Seine River.

All in all, Paris has been ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR, as you could imagine : ) We've enjoyed ourselves. Jeremy likes London a lot better, but has a great reason to come back to paris again ; ) I think I like Paris better. It is romantic (despite the aggressive tourist street merchants in Montremartre) and has a quaint European feel about it. AND who wouldn't love saying bon appetite, au revoir, oui, FIANCÉ etc. It's so fun to say and great to hear! It is dirtier than London and not as modern, but that's what makes Paris, Paris, right?!

Alright, we have to wake early to make our train tomorrow morning. We will be leaving here, traveling back to London and then flying to Rome from London tomorrow afternoon. We'll post more tomorrow. Hope all is well and you are enjoying our adventures!

The Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

The arc de Triumph

A nice view of the Eiffel Tower from the gardens in between the Louvre and the Arc.

Our picnic lunch, laying down looking at the Eiffel Tower, not believing we have been to London, are in Paris and are going to Rome...

A GREAT picture of Jeremy in front of the Eiffel Tower from our picnic spot.

Me, trying to convince Jeremy I didn't need to go to the top on the first level of the Eiffel Tower. Note the wind blowing my hair out of control. Who'd want to go all the way to the top of a building built in 1900 in 2 years in wind gusts of 100+ (okay, I may be exaggerating about the wind gusts, but it was strong).

Jeremy on top of the Eiffel Tower.

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

The clearer sky AFTER we got down.

Jeremy in front Saccre-Cour.

The pastries and desserts are amazing here! A-MAZ-ING! bon appetite

The view from our favorite bridge in Paris at sunset (take 1)

Our first rain encounter. We're waiting for it to stop to continue on.

The picture the young boy finally took two minutes before Jeremy proposed.

The immediate downpour after saying YES! It was great and I absolutely loved every minute of it!

The RING!

The celebratory dinner !! : )