What the French do with their free time

First things first: I'm going to Dublin tomorrow, along with Jonah and a couple friends. It should be an interesting little adventure getting there, as Ryanair flies out of an extremely inconvenient airport. Basically, we have to catch the first metro train of the day, which gets to our stop at 5:32 am, and take it to a bus/train station about 40 minutes away. We then have to take the first shuttle bus of the day to the airport, which should take a little over an hour. Kind of annoying, but as long as we make it to Dublin, it'll be a more than tolerable adventure.

I went to the Arc de Triomphe and the associated Champs Elysees a few days ago. Much more impressive than I thought it would be. Although it appears to just be a large arch-like structure, its intricate carvings and inscriptions make it much more interesting than it appears on postcards. Still, it's kind of stupid that Napoleon had it built for his troops to walk through upon their return to Paris from war. But hey, I guess when you work five hour days, four days a week, you have a lot of free time on your hands to build random structures.

The coolest part about the Arc is it's location: it's on its own little island in the middle of a busy rotary. It marks the end of the famous section of the Champs Elysees (which, although is just shopping and dining, for the most part, is quite beautiful), and provides a view of another, more industrialized area of Paris. Also, the Arc can be climbed. We didn't climb to the top for the 10 euro fee, but we later realized that it's free for students.

I need to make dinner, and I really don't feel like typing right now. Dublin reports to come this weekend.