Gotta get me one of these

After we arrived in Paris, we checked in to our hotel, then took a walk down the river Seine towards the Eiffel tower. We stayed near the Louvre, so it was like a 45 minute stroll, past shops and neat building and such. We were meeting a group there for a nighttime Segway tour of Paris. We were early so we hung out and ate dinner under the Eiffel Tower, and took some pictures, until our group got there. I was a little nervous about the tour, I thought Segways looked kind of weird and hard to maneuver, but I was amazed at how much I loved it. It was seriously the best. The best tour ever.

First we walked over to the shop where they do the tours, they just have you meet under the Eiffel tower cause it’s easier. But we went back to the shop and tried on our helmets, and learned to ride the things. The shop is owned by a guy from Texas, he’s a graduate from Texas A&M, so all the tour guides are from there as well. Our guide Dimitry was pretty cool. This first picture is John in front of the Texan flag hanging in the shop. He’s making the little “hook’em horns” sign for the University of Texas cause that’s who his sister cheers for when she's not cheering for BYU, and they are the big rival to Texas A&M. I’m in front of the A&M flag cause that’s where my brother goes.


This is me learning how to ride the Segway. It only took a couple minutes. I don’t have any pictures of John cause he wouldn’t give me the camera.


Here we are in front of the Eiffel tower. And this is another one when it was all lit up later that night. It was a nighttime tour, but Paris stays pretty light until like 10 at night. I was really surprised. Dimitry said it was cause they are so far North. Like Canada.

We cruised around town taking in the sights and learned lots of neat stuff that we might not have learned if we hadn’t taken a tour. One thing I wish we had gotten a better picture of was this giant Egyptian pillar with a real gold pyramid cap on the top of it. They put it where the guillotine once stood and beheaded thousands of people. At first I was confused why a French sculptor would carve Egyptian hieroglyphs, but then he said that it was real. I guess there’s some confusion as to whether the French stole it from the Egyptians or whether it was a gift. I was just amazed that it was out there in the elements. Getting rained on and stuff. I’m still confused why an Egyptian relic is used in remembrance of the revolution and all those beheadings. Oh well. It was cool to see anyway. This picture has the bottom of that pillar right behind us, I think Dimitry was trying to get the Arc de Triomphe in the shot (he took the picture). That was as close as we got to that, I hear it’s pretty cool, and you can climb to the top, but it sits in the middle of a massive intersection that has something like 16 roads all converging around it. Supposedly there is an accident every 9 minutes or something.

We stopped about halfway through at a café and I got some hot chocolate and a lemon tart which was so good. I am in love with real French desserts. They are geniuses. John loves the bread. Maybe I’ll have to Google French Bakeries in Phoenix.

So those Segways were so stinkin’ fun. I totally want one. I’m not sure where I’d ride it, but I think everyone should have one. Forget flying cars, the transportation of the future is the Segway.You go forward by leaning forward on your feet, and back up by leaning back, and stopping by stabilizing yourself. And you just turn the handles in the direction you want to go. They go like 10 miles an hour, nothing crazy, but we kinda zipped through town. So much fun. I loved it. Probably the best part of the trip (so far). Oh and PS, my hair seems to go a bit frizzy in France, so most of these pictures I’m gonna have my hair in braids FYI.