Today we visited the Concergerie, the Saint-Chappelle, and Notre Dame. The Concergerie is where Marie Antoinette was held for her last days before she was beheaded at the guil
lotine. We entered the building into one big room with columns lit up and then went through to see representations of what the cells would have looked like. And then we saw the room set up to look like the one where Marie Antoinette spent her last days. Then we went to the Saint-Chappelle which had been built to house the "authentic" crown of thorns that Jesus wore that were brought back from the Crusades. It was amazing stained glass everywhere. And since it was a nice sunny day the windows were all lit up. It was breath-taking. And finally we went to Notre Dame. We had a guy, who wasn't the best picture taker, take our picture and ended up having to get it retaken after leaving. Inside Notre Dame we saw all the prayer
candles and again the stained glass windows. We sat for awhile to listen to the organ concert during mass. Before we all dozed off we went to a little cafe for coffee and milkshakes and then went to do some light shopping. On our way Jess and I ran into a Japanese family looking for the Concord. We grabbed our map since theirs was in Japanese and showed them how to get there. After they said, "Thank you, Oraegato, and Merci we said de rien. They go "Oh, de rien! Italianos!" We had a good laugh about us Italians speaking French. When we got back to the apartments we ate dinner and then, like Amanda said, went out to see the Eiffel Tower glitter. We also walked over to the Louvre for some night pictures. It's been a long day so I'll say good-night. Au revoir!
ut 8. We took the Metro over and got in the long line to go up. We took the elevator up to the 2nd floor since that's where it stops first and got our first view. It was a very windy and cool day. For me this was the best weather yet, but I seemed to be the only one who thought that... It seemed like we could see everything! Except for Sacre Coeur. Which kind of disappeared. But we soon realized that from the very top you do see everything. We took our time to look around and then met Dr. Donovan at the bottom. From there we got on the Bateau Mouche. This is a boat tour along the Seine River. We learned all about the bridges from the oldest to the most romantic. I had fun with the phone/club like audio graph. It reminded me of those
old school spanking sticks where they wrote the names of the kids on them. After the ride we went back to the apartments for a big lunch and then headed to the Hotel de Invalides. Before we could get in though, the Dome was evacuated. This is whe
re Napoleon is buried. We later found out that there had been a bomb threat, but it turned out to just be a child's backpack. It also had an exhibit on Charles de Gaulle and the World Wars. I was able to make into an exhibit about armor of the different royalty like Henri II who had 2 suits; one for his wife Catherine de Medci and one for his mistress Diane de Poitiers. After the museum we left for home, but me and Jess stopped for some shopping and I bought a fancy black hat! Another early morning tomorrow so Au revior!
stairs to the top since the elevator was closed! Afterwards, feeling extremely tired, we headed back, took a five minute break and then headed down to the Monoprix for some grocery shopping. They had the most amazing strawberries! Once we got back we put it all away and then headed up to Dr. Donovan's apartment to eat some crepes! I love nutella! I also like Orangina apparently. Go figure. It's been another long day. Goodnight. Au revoir.
Versailles. We took the train from the M
The furniture was so ornate that I was awestruck. The ceilings were even painted with murals that were absolutely stunning. We saw the Hall of Mirrors and the Royal Chambers and took endless pictures until our batteries ran low. Once finished with the palace we went to the gardens. The design that went into them is astounding. Versailles is 800 acres of land! We took the little train to the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon and then walked to Ma
rie Antoinette's hamlet. It was something out of a fairytale. I couldn't get over the beauty of it. The flowers were in bloom, it was perfectly sunny and there were plenty of wildlife. We had a little fun watching the ducks and the hundreds of fish fight over bread. After taking the train back to the palace we left for home, almost to fall asleep on the train. Now we've eaten dinner and are getting ready for bed. Au Revior!
on III apartments, The Winged Victory, the royal jewels, and several others. We went through all three wings and even managed to make a stop at the Starbucks for some needed caffeine. We also had a little sing along to "I Will Survive." By the end we were all pretty sore, hungry and tired. We did a quick run through the French paintings and the Egyptian and Greek art. We couldn't stay long in the Egyptian part since Stepan was freaked out. Afterwards we had some down time to watch an episode of Dr. Who and then headed up to Dr. Donovan's apartment. We had a nice spaghetti dinner and salad. We also had some real French deserts which were delicious! Au-revoir!
egas! It was surreal. Afterwards we decided to walk a few more blocks to visit the 
ugh the woods and finally decided to wait for them. No sooner then I call my sister-in-law do they come running out in different directions. I on one in to the house and the other one took off again. So we got the captured one on a leash and paraded him around knowing his brother would taunt him, but he took of back into the woods. We went in hoping to grab him, but to no avail so we headed back towards the house. There he was sitting on top of the hill. Through some persuasion and the possibility of a new human friend we caught him. After the dog chase we finally took off. The car ride was rather eventful, too. First we stopped in Hinckley for some food for the plane and not soon after getting back on the highway we heard this thumping noise. We stopped again and it was the mud-flap hanging on by a thread. We took a stretch break at the outlet mall in North Branch and realized that it was a really good thing we left with extra time to spare. We were almost out of the woods when on the way to Amanda's friend's house we took a wrong turn. Amanda stopped and called for directions and we made it to the airport wit
h time to spare. Dr. Donovan had warned us that the flight was delayed because of the volcano eruptions in Iceland. We met with Dr. Donovan at the gate and then went to eat at the only restaurant in the Humphrey terminal (the one with ridiculous prices.) When time neared for us to board there was an announcement that the plane was having mechanical problems. Amanda and I headed over to the shop to buy a deck of cards which we preoccupied ourselves with until we boarded the plane. We played a game of musical chairs to ensure we were all sitting together and prepared for the 6 hour flight and for me it was a sleepless one. When we landed in Reykjavik we had to rush through security again and on to out next flight. It was a three hour flight and thankfully this time I got a little sleep. Flying over France was beautiful. We met up with the rest of our group who had been at the Paris airport since early in the morning. We made a dash for the bus and took a nice long ride to Paris