Paris Day 1.5

Fantastique!  What a day!

The kids woke up today at 7am ready to go.  Again, after a breakfast of assorted breads and cereals (and cheese!) we jumped on the bus for a tour of Paris with our tour guide Caroline (from England, but lives in Paris). 

  We drove by a lot of places that we don’t have time to explore, such as the Arc de Triomphe, L’Hôtel des Invalides, L’Opéra, and Champs-Elysées.  Our bus tour also took us to Trocadero, where the students were able to get off the bus for a bit to take pictures (some very creatively) of the Eiffel Tower.  

The next stop on our tour was L’Hôtel des Invalides (a military hospital where Napoleon’s tomb it located), also allowing the students more photo opportunities.  The last and final stop on the bus tour was Notre Dame (not the one with the football team), a gothic cathedral with wonderful stained glass windows, flying buttresses, and rich history.  Legend has it that if you step on the bronze star near the entrance (also the geographic center of the city…well, it used to be), that you will return to Paris someday.  Guess what?  They all stepped on it (you’re on your own for that trip :^).   

After touring the inside of the cathedral, the students went to the back courtyard and learned how flying buttresses work with an activity from Ms. Huff.  Across the street from Notre Dame is a wonderful line of cafés that specialize in sandwiches, hot dogs, and croque-monsieurs (a toasted ham sandwich smothered with…yep, you guessed it… CHEESE, GLORIOUS CHEESE!)*  After browsing the stores nearby, we walked to the Louvre (pronounced Loov…not Loov-ur…those are slots on closet doors), where we saw classic masterpieces such as Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and the coop de grass (that’s French for pièce de resistance)**, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.  The students also saw the “basement” of the Louvre which contained the original foundation of the Louvre, built during medieval times.  

 After our adventure in the largest museum in the world (and trying to find a bathroom), we exited by climbing the staircase under the glass pyramid.  From there we walked to Pont Neuf to take the students on a Bateau Mouche (French for big boat :^), for a cruise around the Seine (Say, that reminds me of a joke, “to jump off a bridge in Paris, you’d have to be inseine.”  Say, that reminds Andrea of another joke, “What do you call a dehydrated Frenchman?   Pierre.”)*.  We hope you are laughing harder than the kids did, and please, no eye rolls.  The cruise pointed out all of the sites visible from the river, and talked about the history behind them, including the “kissing bridge” (Ooh la la). 

  Our evening ended at a fabulous Crêperie.  We had a salad for an appetizer, our choice of several different dinner crêpes, and ended with our choice of a dessert crêpe.  We successfully navigated the metro (without any pick-pocketing incidents…Ms. Huff won’t let Mr. Beckett carry anything in his pockets anymore) back to the hotel for an early night as we have a 630am wake-up call in the morning.  At the end of our day, Pauline asked the kids, “What do you think?  Do you like Paris?”  And they all answered with a resounding “Oui!”  Some even said they “love” it.  A couple of them are planning their honeymoons here already (I’d make them pay for that on their own if I were you).  

Tomorrow, for our last day of adventure, we are visiting Versailles, Monmartre, and are going on the Eiffel Tower in the evening.

Dormez bien.