A Superior Trip!

What a privilege it has been to travel with Chelsey, Jessica, Amanda, and Stepan!  We pulled together quickly as a team and worked well to share many visits to museums and monuments, to learn Paris's metro system, and to navigate shopping for food in French.  This trip will hold many pleasant memories for me in the years to come.  What a fantastic group of students!  Thanks, everybody!

The Bells, Bells, Bells, Bells, Bells, Bells, Bells of Notre Dame!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv4W0VkoUfM Today was our free day where we got the chance to do whatever we want. So us girls went to Notre Dame and stood in line for over an hour. It didn't seem so long since we met some friends from opposite ends of the US. The lady in front of us was from Pennsylvania and the lady and her granddaughter were from California and Arizona. It was a long climb up to the top, but it was worth it! Being so close to the gargoyles was absolutely amazing. The different expressions and animals was very cool. We also got to see the Grand Bell which is only played on special occasions. We walked back down and went to the little restaurant across the street and I had a delicious strawberry milkshake! I almost cried when it was gone. Afterwards we took the metro and walked a little more to see the French Statue of Liberty. We got a little tired getting home, but once home we had dinner and then like Amanda mentioned headed out to the Tuileries and walked to the Concorde. On the way back we had a little jog under the covered sidewalks while covering our eyes because of the wind. A little wet when we were home, but now we've had some ice cream and are ready to go to bed. Au revior!

Running in the Rain

Tonight was exciting for me (maybe not so much for Jessica or Chelsie). We decided to finally walk the Tuileries Garden from start to finish and go to Place de la Concorde to see the Obelisk and the fountains. As we started going through Jessica and Chelsie noticed the clouds were looking a little ominous... so we picked up the pace. I got some AMAZING pictures and had so much fun and excitement on the way back. Thunder, lightening, and rain, OH MY! It was beautiful and exciting for me. Something to really remember for years to come! We were a little wet when we got home but not totally drenched just a little wind swept. The looks that strangers share as we all tried to avoid the rain really give way to a wordless understanding.

An Evening Dash

Today we went to the Pantheon museum which has an amazing crypt that has so many famous people buried there such as Rousseau and Voltaire. For those who do not know, Rousseau and Voltaire philosophers who were always disagreeing with each others ideas. At the crypt in the Pantheon these two amazing philosophers were across from each other with tomes as different as their personalities were! There was also a really interesting thing there that was supposedly one of the first things that helped people realize that the world spins. It was a really cool thing to see the pendulum swinging back and forth over the dial.

After that museum, we brought into small groups and we went to the Luxembourg gardens. We got to watch some kids playing with sail boats in the fountain there. Since it was such a gorgeous day we spent some time there walking around and enjoying the views that the garden could offer us.

After a quick lunch, we hopped aboard the metro and took it to the business district of France where the Grande Arche at La defense. We had some fun taking pictures of it and got to see some great views from there as well. We could see the Arc de Triomphe from there which was an amazing view. On the way back to the metro station saw a sign for a Monoprix and thought we'd go see what sort of things they had there and when we walked in, we discovered that there was not only a Monoprix there but a mall! even though we did not stay long enough to buy anything, it was a pleasant surprise to see. Then we got on the metro and headed home for dinner.

After dinner, we decided that we had enough time to go see the Eiffel Tower up close and lit up. So off through the metro we went again. When we got off the metro we hurried to get to it as fast as we could because at the top of every hour after dusk the tower lights up for five to ten minutes. We made it in time to see it glittering and got some really good pictures of it. Then, amidst the pictures we saw lightning from behind us and we realized that there was a storm quickly approaching. So we half walked half ran under the Eiffel Tower, stopping occasionally to take a few more pictures. We made it to the metro just as the first few drops of rain began to drop. When we made it back to our stop close to our apartments, it was sprinkling pretty good and we got inside before it began to rain more. It was a wonderful excursion to have even with the rain this wonderful night!

Sacre Coeur and Paire Lachaise

We started off the day by taking the metro to Montmartre. We took the funiculare up to Sacre Couer. We were there for a few minutes during mass and then headed back down to eat lunch. We did a little souvenir shopping and then ate at a creperie. I had a delicious banana and chocolate crepe, but we had a little difficulty with splitting the bill and paying with cash and a card. We then went back up the funiculare to the artist quarters and heard a few street musicians and Jess and I got our caricature drawn. Afterwards we did a little more shopping and then we split into two groups Jess and I going to Pére Lachaise, a famous cemetery, and everybody else went home for some much needed rest. The cemetery was huge and had these grand above ground graves that were extremely ornate and beautiful. On the way back we had a little adventure on the metro. First it started smoking, but apparently it was really only steam?, and we got off pretty quickly and then once back on we sat forever at one stop and the longer we sat the more people got on. Then every stop had a million more people get on. Once we got to our stop we had to push our way out. Back home we had a nice dinner and we are now ready to end our night. Au revior!

Rest

So today ended up being a French holiday so a lot of things were closed today. We had hoped that the museum we were supposed to go to would still be open so off to the metro we went and headed to the Musee Carnavalet and the Place des Vosges. We had to ask someone to verify where the museum was because it did not stand out like other museums did and once we found it, we discovered that it was closed for the day due to the French holiday. So we went to the Place des Vosges which is a park surrounded by theses hotels which used to be places for rich people to stay. This place was so nice to just sit and look at. Everyone in it was comfortable and relaxed and just enjoying the sunny day.

Since we could not do the museum we ended up haveing a lot of down time were we both rested and walked around Paris. We did some shopping and a late dinner and an early end of the night watching Beauty and the Beast on Chesley's computer. Tomorrow we go to Montmartre!

The Chateaux and the place de Vosges

Yesterday June first 2011, all of us got up at 5am to get ready to go visit the majestic chateaux! It was an early morning for all of us but we made it to the train station with extra time to spare. Once we got our tickets sorted out and actually made it it on the train, all of us were ready for a short nap on the train ride there. After that we were refreshed enough to go to the first chateau Le Clos Luce. This wonderful chateau was my personal favorite because it was smaller than the rest and it felt homey. This chateau called home by the amazing Leonardo Da Vinci who lived there for three years before he died. A fun fact about this chateau is that it has a secret tunnel that leads from the Clos Luce to another chateau!

After that we went to the chateau called Amboise. This amazing chateau had amazing views of the surrounding area and was right along a river. This is the place where Leonardo Da Vinci is buried in a small separate castle. Amanda was trying to get a picture in the chapel with the right light, and then suddenly the light disappeared! She told us that she was not going to leave until she got the light for the picture so we wanted about a minute for the sun to come back out and she got a great picture. I really enjoyed seeing the chapel where Da Vinci is buried, it was a moving experience to be that close to someone who had done some much in his time.

The third chateau that we saw was Chambord. This chateau had the most amazing roof! It was almost fairy-tale-like designed. This chateau also has this really cool double helix staircase. We talked in our prep class that if one army went up one side and another went down the other side, the two army's would never meet on the stairs. I think that is was really cool to see. There was a lot of room in this chateau and a lot of really cool fireplaces.

The final chateau that we saw yesterday was Chenonceau. This is a beautiful place that is built out over the river! I loved the hallway that was over the river, it made me feel at home like by Lake Superior. It was such a wonderful feeling, this was my second favorite chateau because I felt at home. It had the kitchen in the lower level and windows that had windows that had a decent view of the river as well. Overall I felt that the Chateaux was not over the top like I expected them to be, but more of a place that I would expect that the royal families would enjoy a little rest and relaxation in one of these beautiful places.