Day 4

The longest walk yet! But We went to the Luxembourg Garden and it is by far my favorite place. The Luxembourg Palace was built for the Queen of the Midici family, but she wasn't alive for the completion of it. It later turned into the headquarters for the Luftwaffe, and then used as a prison. Currently it is being used as the Senate building. The sun was out while we were there, which made the gardens and the building extra beautiful. We went into 2 old churches, but sorry Paris, you don't have anything on Rome when it comes to gorgeous ancient churches... We saw the cafes where the existential authors Sartre and Camus used to hang out at all the time. I want to go back and have lunch at one of them another day. We also went to the major shopping district and saw the top designer stores, which were so fancy I'm too scared to even touch the door knob.
For lunch we went down this alley way that has a ton of walk up restaurant windows, probably equivalent to an outdoor mall food court, but 10 times more aesthetically pleasing.
After our walk we had time to nap or do whatever. France was playing Spain in the Euro Cup so in the park behind the Eiffel tower (not the Champs de Mars) there was a big screen set up for the public to watch the game. We set up camp in the grass and away from the amphitheater because the crowd was a little smaller. There were thousands of people at the game! And as France wasn't playing too well and about half the crowd was rooting for Spain, things got a little crazy. It started with some guy lighting his cannon off multiple times after France subbed out 3 of their players and then the flare guns started. We didn't have to go through security to get into the park so there was literally no telling what would come next. We thought it would be a good idea to get out of the park before anything worse happened when a stampede came running down the hill and we had to run for our lives basically. Luckily a few of the guys in our group started locking arms with everyone so we wouldn't get split up. But what we thought was beer and wine bottles getting thrown everywhere (which they could've been too) we found out that the SWAT team that came into the park was breaking up the fights and riots with tear gas canisters. To avoid the crazies, our group walked out of the way to another bridge to cross the Seine. As we were walking back to the hotel we walked by a bar that was packed with people and so we stopped to see how the game had progressed and at that moment Spain made their second goal off the penalty kick and the crowd outside the bar started yelling and screaming. We were not about to wait around for another riot! People were all the way out in the middle of traffic and the street watching the tv, It was wild. Definitely an experience I won't forget.

The cafe de flore that I want to go back to

The falafel sandwich I had for lunch

An old American bookstore

Me outside the Senate building and in the Luxembourg Garden

My view of the soccer game. The tree was a nuisance because people started climbing it to get a better view.

One of the many flares that were going off all over in the crowd. I'm not sure if they were for Spain or to say France needed help.