Saying Goodbye and Church Hopping

So remember how Karin and I have really good ideas? K this time we seriously did have a fabulous idea. There was no way it would turn out to not actually be as fun. Here it it: we decided to rent bikes and bike around Paris! Most just from our place to the Eiffel Tower. Our host mom kept telling us about the Velib bike system which is really cheap (1 euro basically for all day) and there are bike stands everywhere to return them. So she told us we had to do them! So we put on our biking shoes (open toed ballet flats) and headed out the door! We walked to the closest rental and probably spent a good 25 minutes in front of the things trying to figure it out, then figuring out one part and getting stuck. Nothing about it was working! We found out later that apparently you have to have a French credit card, so we unfortunately had to throw out that idea.


Fortunately, the day still turned out fabulously! It took us long enough, but we finally got around to going to the Orangerie at the Jardin de Tuileries with Brooke and her family. The Orangerie holds some of Monet's huge water lily paintings. I was in heaven!

Then we went back to our favorite cafe for the last time! We enjoyed our very favorite tiramisu for the last time, and talked about some of our favorite moments on our trip. Then we planned our weddings. Hmmm...

I think this hat belongs to Brooke's family. We couldn't help but take a picture with it. Karin said "It's kind of like two sets of siblings..." And basically yeah it is :)

And of course we got some gelato in the Latin Quarter too! We still have one or two more gelato trips in front of us though, of course.
The lighting here was too perfect for us to NOT do scary faces. This is also Notre Dame at night!
Today was a day for a little church hopping! Karin had the brilliant idea to go to Easter Mass at Notre Dame! It was really interesting. Luckily we got their earlier than everybody else, because after our mass was over, we walked outside and the whole courtyard was PACKED. I guess that is what happened when you attend mass on one of the two days a year that most Catholics actually go. It was definitely different than our church though, that's for sure! We had a hard time breathing with the incense flying around, and our hair all smelled bad even after we left. Then Aly and I got water thrown at us by a priest. I'm supposing it was holy water, but we both kind of flinched and tried so hard not to giggle when we all got sprinkled in our seats. I managed to ruin this picture, 1. by laughing, and 2. by closing my eyes.
We made it back to our church just in time for Sacrament Meeting and it was packed! We were a tiny bit late and there were a lot of tourists in town so I don't think any two of us sat by each other. It was our last Sunday in this ward so we said some goodbyes! This is a picture of Elder Rowley and I. He is probably the funniest and happiest guy ever, and we found out that we went to Little Roo's preschool together in Sammamish, Washington! Small world!
Next church, Sacre Coeur! I absolutely love this church. It is so beautiful! I was looking through my pictures and realized that I had no pictures of Sacre Coeur from the bottom of the big hill, so we decided to head back there with some of the other students and get a few more. It was really crowded, but not so crowded that we didn't get to fully enjoy the dance that some crazy lady was performing on the steps.

I'm headed home in just 3 days now! Crazy! We have a tightly scheduled next couple of days because we're trying to fit in all of the places we have neglected to see before, and then revisit some of our favorites. And then I get to sit on a plane for about 12 hours straight. Yippeee! Also, we thought that it was a good idea to race from Sacre Coeur to our Professor's house going on different metro routes. And actually it WAS a good idea, and it made our metro ride a lot more fun! Problem was, I'm an idiot, and while running along the quai, a bench came out of no where and hit me really really hard right below the knee cap. Pretty sure walking down stairs and standing up are the two most painful things right now. But that is what I get for running around in an underground tunnel! Unfortunately, we lost. Mostly because I turned into a cripple halfway through and they had the one boy on their team. Meaning he was not wearing a skirt and Sunday shoes. So obviously the one without heels is gonna win!