July 8: Day 2 in Paris. We started off with a walk to church, just a quarter of a mile from our apartment. We sat in on the French side; they also had a large room for English speaking without translation headphones. And even better, a Chinese branch across the hall.

Small world. Friends from our home ward in Gilbert, the Choules, were at the same ward in Paris as we were. Makes it feel just like home. What a treat.

After lunch, we went on a bike tour that we had scheduled with a fun outfit called, you guessed it, Blue Bike Tours.

A statue in honor of Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who lead the French Army to numerous victories during the Hundred Years' War. Once captured, she was exchanged to the English for money, tried for heresy and burned at the stake. All before her twentieth birthday.

Another little note, anything you see in these pictures of Paris that looks like gold, is real gold. Gold leaf, but still gold. This whole statue is gold leaf covered.

These little mosaics are put up by an anonymous group called The Invaders, after the 80's video game Space Invaders. They complete the mosaics at home and post them around towns around the world in under a minute. A total of over 1,000 have been put up with over fifty in Paris alone. Look for them on your corner of your town. 

The kids getting instructions for the bike ride. We all wore helmets, we were the only ones.

Tanner contemplating his fate.

Each bike had a name, Brittany got Coco which was fitting.

Tanner got macaron, which is a cookie, very fitting too.

Todd said he didn't pick his bike, his bike picked him. He didn't even know they had names until I asked to take a picture of his. Sound familiar?

Our first stop took us to this square with a homage to Napoleon, The Colonne Vendome. He built this monument to celebrate his victory in Austerlitz in 1805 in what is now some of the priciest real estate in Paris. Rumor has it that the tower was constructed from 1200 cannons that he confiscated in battles won. All along the sides, he commissioned the architect to reconstruct his favorite battle scenes from the Napoleonic wars. The monument was torn down during the French Revolution but put back up after.

Napoleon I thought very highly of himself. Even though it was not the dress of his era, he had himself appear as a Roman Emperor.