Sunset Skies

Chapter 7 - The City of Love

We took a taxi to the hotel that we would be staying in and as soon as we got into the room I jumped onto the bed. By that time it wasaround 11:00am and I was starving. 

After unpacking we decided to go to a cafe for breakfast. We ordered croissants and a hot chocolate. Delicious. 

Over breakfast we started to discuss what we were going to do while we here. Our eventual decisions were to visit as many landmarks as we possibly could. The landmarks we wanted to visit were:

The Eiffel tower (of course!!)

Champs elysee

Arc de Triomphe

The Louvre

Notre Dame

Sacre Coeur

I was so excited! I had only been to Paris once before and that was when I was 9, so I don't have an amazing memory of it. Josh told me he had been a few times before so he knew it quite well, which I knew would come in handy while we were trying to get around the city.

Straight after lunch we headed to the sacre coeur. I had never been to it before and to be truthful I didn't really know what it was. It was only a short walk to the sacre coeur but to get there we walked through many wide,traditional French allyways with shops selling colourful things all around. We didn't have time to shop so we just walked through them, trying not to be convinced to buy anything. 

After eventually reaching the sacre coeur itself, I finally realized what it was; I had seen pictures of it before. It was some sort of cathedral which was lined with tourists. To get to the top we walked many uneven stairs and by the time we reached it I was exhausted. Josh was out of breath too. At the top it wasn't so busy. In fact, I saw no one else around. It was just me and Josh. The view was beautiful. I saw streets of French houses, the Eiffel tower, the busy champs elysee with it's Arc de Triomphe. 

Suddenly I was surprised with a kiss. Josh put his arm around me and we both just looked out of the tiny stone window into fairytale in front of us.

I couldn't take it all in.

I was in the City of love with the person I loved standing right next to me. 

Nothing could have beaten that moment. 

Nothing.

************

It was hotter than I had expected. I felt the sun slowly burning my face. 

Josh and I had managed to get the seats right at the front of the double decker tourbus which was taking us to the Louvre.

We hopped off the bus when it was our stop.

We had to walk through a large square and into a cool museum in order to get there though after finally arriving, we realized it was worth it. We must have picked a good day as there were people dotted around everywhere. We walked over to the large clear pyramid and walked inside. 

It was like walking into a sweatbox.

We walked down the spiral staircase into the insides of this weird monument. 

We stayed inside for a while though decided we couldn't stay in as it was crowded and humid. We stepped outside and it was so refreshing.

 That's two monuments ticked off  the list. 

We started to get hungry again afterwards the Louvre so we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower as there were supposed to be tons of cafes around there. 

When we arrived it was surprisingly empty. I wondered if there was sort of event going on or something. I asked someone in a little shop and they said no, because eveyone was at the champs elysee for a festival. Lucky us! 

We walked to the lift and went to the top. There was only one other person at the top. She turned around when she noticed that more people were coming up. 

It was an older woman. She seemed familiar for some reason. Suddenly the realization hit me. 

It was Doris! The woman who gave me advice when Josh kissed the other girl!

"Doris!" I shouted. She turned around again on the call of her name. "Lily, is that you?" she squinted. She suddenly noticed Josh on my left. She grinned at me, as if she was saying congratulations about Josh. 

"Who's Doris?" Josh whispered in my ear.

"Oh, she's just this really cool lady I met back in America" I replied.

"Ok.........right, um, I'm going to the toilet" Josh said and walked off in another direction.

Doris took her chance when she saw Josh leaving.

"Sooooo, what happened?" she asked, sounding like a gossiping teenager. 

"He broke up with that girl the night I saw them, then we talked through it and now we are..........dating, I guess".

"Oh, honey, that's great!" Doris said. "Right, I have to go now, but, don't forget to kep me informed".

Then she walked away. 

*********

After walking back to the hotel after the Eiffel Tower, I started to get ready for the evening ahead. I decided to wear a patterned skirt with a white T-shirt. I also pickd out a statement necklace which looked perfect with the outfit. Before I got dressed I showered. I used myfaourite shampoo and conditioner and a delicious smelling shower gel. After I finished I carefully hopped out of the shower. I dried myself and walked out of the bathroom with my towel wrapped around me. 

Josh was out in the room. He smiled at me and I smiled back. 

"I'm changing, don't look ok?" I said to him. 

"I wouldn't count on it" he replied.

I gave him the evils.

He raised his hands in the air to show that he was innocent and said "Only joking".  He laughed to himself a little then turned his back to me.

I grabbed the clothes I had picked out earlier and started to get dressed. 

Afterwards I did my hair. I blowdried it then brushed all my knots out. I put it in a high ponytail and looked back at Josh to see his state of readiness. 

He was sitting on the bed, completely ready, just watching me. 

I wondered how long he had been there for.

"Why are you watching me?" I asked, blushing.

"Cause your beautiful" he replied, making me blush even more.

"Um, thanks, um, so are you?!" I replied, then realized what I had just said.

"Did you just call me beautiful?" he asked me while laughing. 

"Um no, I just, um, well -". My confusion was interrupted by a kiss. 

"You can call me anything you like" he said after his rude but satisfying interruption. He smiled. 

Then he linked my arm with his and pulled me out of the door.