Day 7: Paris, France

Day 7   Paris, France    6/29/11

We got up a little later as compared to yesterday and still had some breakfast before going to town. Some of the group went across the road to look for a bigger continental breakfast. We took off for the Louvre and it took about 45 minutes to an hour to get there. We spent two and a half hours looking around. It was very crowded, especially around the Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, and Winged Victory. Something new I had not seen before was artists demonstrating how the painters actually painted the picture by copying certain paintings throughout the museum. The rest of my group was content so I explored a new wing of the Louvre, the top floor of the Richelieu wing. I have found that I enjoy the paintings quite a bit, marveling at how realistic some of them could get. I was also pleased that I could get 80% of the explanation on the cards next to the painting. I had not forgotten too much french.

After the Louvre, We went to Notre Dame and Chris gave a brief history of the church and an explanation of all the statues that decorated the front. Some of our group went in, while Betsy, Ashley, and Jeremy went shopping for some last minute souvenirs. We ate at Subway and I took advantage of the all you can drink Coke dispenser that was there as we ate out 31cm subs (we could have had a 15 cm sub also, but we were hungry).

Steve at Notre Dame

We met at the rendezvous point and then took our hour long trip by rail and metro to the hotel in Grigny. We got their at 4:15, 15 minutes late for our bus driver. We got our bags loaded and took off for Paris, at the Austerlitz railroad station. We arrived and kept our tuff on the bus as we had our last meal in Paris, flams. Flams have always been a big hit with the students, as they are like pizza. They consist of a think crust with different toppings. One of the main ones had a cheese/onion/ham combination, while the other had a mushrooms/onion mix. For dessert, the flam was either an apple slice or chocolate.

Betsy and Ashley enjoying flams

We got our stuff to the train station and ended up waiting for a few hours before getting on the train. We all bought water and snacks that would keep us for the night on the train. We loaded at 9:00 pm and the train left at 9:56 pm for Perpignion, France. We met other EF tour groups on the train too, as they were going on another tour that happened to be at the same time as ours. They were from the west coast, Washington, Oregon, and California. They had arrived in France three days earlier. I made sure the kids were okay  and then settled into the top bunk of my couchette.

Ashley, Betsy, June, and Sharon in the couchette