Dart de Triomphe!

See that tree on the left side of the picture? I've been there.

This is L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. I'm not positive what kind of tree that is.

When your mom was 16, she went on a trip to Switzerland as a summer foreign exchange student. During that time, the host family took me to Paris. It wasn't that far. In fact me and Marianne (my host sister) took the train from Neuchatel, Switzerland, to Paris to meet up with another family that was hosting one of my schoolmates.

We did a lot of sightseeing and I am sorry to say that, even though I loved getting to go to all these places, I didn't take full advantage of it. I'm blaming it on my age. We went to The Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, Moulin Rouge (just the outside), Notre Dame (also just the outside since it was being restored indoors), Sacre-Coeur and many other historical landmarks. One of the highlights was Printemps, a huge department store, and d'avenue Champs-Elysee, the most famous street in Paris with tons of fabulous stores and cafes. Of course, we also went up Le Tour Eiffel.

My story of l'Arc De Triomphe goes like this:

Marianne sprained her ankle the second day I was there so she was on crutches. When we were in Paris, we toured all around and she never complained. Then, Me, Marianne, Michelle and Marie approached l'Arc de Triomphe and were preplexed as how to get to it. You see, there is a multi-lane round-a-bout circling the arch. Cars whizzed by us, round and round and round. We stood under that tree (up there in the left of the photo), and we saw other tourists on the island where the arch stood, but we could not figure out how they got there.

So...

Marianne climbed up on my back (your mom used to be a lot more fit in those days), and Michelle grabbed her crutches.

Then...

We waited for a break in the action and we ran for it. Cars honked and swerved as I dashed in and out of their path with Marianne on my back. (It looked like Frogger, not that you know what that is.) Since it was Europe, nobody really slowed down. Not even for four dumb teenage girls.

Once we made it there, we noticed stairs coming up from an underground tunnel.

Of course. That makes more sense.