sickass: a word used to describe very few things on our trip. it means awesome, approaching legendary. first, it was used in reference to the Charles Bridge in Prague. second, the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (do not judge until you have seen this train station. seriously, it is sickass). after today, we have a third: the spot from which we watched the final stage of the Tour de France. to give a general idea of the setting, the final stage of the Tour involves a ride into Paris, and culminates in 8 laps up and down the Champs-Élysées from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe and back. we were right across from Claridges, just down the street from Louis Vuitton, and had a clear view of the oncoming riders. also, we were next to a very sweet French couple, whom Kat befriended and who gave us lots of helpful advice about how to get to Versailles. it was so, so awesome. my camera died of exhaustion from taking so many pictures. by which I mean, I hadn't charged the battery recently enough. it bravely survived through 7.5 laps before it gave up the ghost. Kat and I (and, I imagine, our photography equipment) are tired from exertion and too much sun. a quiet night is in order.

as you might have guessed from all of my landmark-dropping, we are now in Paris. after a truly lovely 3 days in Bordeaux, we arrived in Paris veeeery early yesterday morning (OK, 10:30. but we left Bordeaux at 6:59!), whereupon we ditched our bags at our hotel and took a very nerdy daytrip to see the cathedral at Chartres. then, of course, the Tour took all day today. all good fun. tomorrow, our Parisian sightseeing begins in earnest. we are, needless to day, ridiculously excited.

ps. we can see the Eiffel Tower from the window in our hotel room.