Day 6 in Madrid: Saturday

We started our day with a 9:00 am arrival in a Madrid train station. The overnight train was more fun and comfortable than many of us expected. Since our hotel rooms would not be ready until the early afternoon, we started our day with a guided bus tour of the city of Madrid and a visit to the Royal Palace (Palacio Real).

There were some "let's-all-stand-still" street performers who were quite interesting, such as this "invisible man":

After touring the city of Madrid and the Royal Palace, we checked in to our hotel and freshened up a bit. All the students were surprised to find they had a bidet in their bathrooms:

 Here's a picture of Jordan and Alexa on the rooftop of our hotel in central Madrid:

Then, students went to the Prado Museum:

Finally, we met for dinner and had a special, truly Spanish tapas meal (all items presented in order, as they were served):

 Mancheco Cheese (local to Madrid)

Madrid dried ham

 Madrid cooked ham

Spanish potato tortilla

 Croquettes with potatoes and ham inside

 Salad with lettuce, onions, carrots, cucumber, tomato, white asparagus, tuna, and Mediterranean olives.

Fried Calamari with lemon juice

The meal was very filling and wonderful. It was a great cultural experience and everyone enjoyed it immensely!

Day 5 in Paris, Part Two: Friday

After visiting Suresnes in the morning, we had the rest of the afternoon to explore Paris. We began at the Panthéon --- France "Hall of Honor" (so to speak) for all the great people throughout French history. There are graves and memorials in this building for all the great writers, philosophers, scientists, politicians, and leaders of France. The building was initially intended to be a church for St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, but it never really served as a church. The walls are lined with murals telling the story of the history of Paris and France. It was built to fulfill a promise made by Louis XV when he was ill that if he recovered, he would build a more worthy church for St. Geneviève. It took some fifty years, but the church was finally completed in 1790 as France was in the throes of the French Revolution. So, total it honors France's legacy of great thinkers. IN the very center of the church is Foucault's pendulum with which he proved that the Earth rotates around the Sun. It is a glorious building, located in the heart of the Latin Quarter on Paris' Left Bank.

We saw the graves of great men such as Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Voltaire, Léon Gambetta, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean Jaurès, Jean Moulin, André Malraux, and Alexandre Dumas (père). We also saw a memorial for St. Antoine d'Exupéry. Here on the left are the graves of Nobel prize winners for Science and Physics, Marie and Pierre Curie.

Next to the Panthéon is the beautifully eclectic St. Étienne du Mont church, so we stopped in for a look:

We met up with the rest of our group for a late lunch on the left bank and then we caught our train to Madrid at the Gare d'Austerlitz. We took a night train to Madrid, sleeping in couchettes for the 12-hour trip.

Day 5 in Paris, Part One: Friday in Suresnes

Our day began with a trip to the American Cemetery in Suresnes, just on the western outskirts of Paris. We began in the office of the site overseer. We were given a brief presentation about the history of the cemetery and memorial as well as some of the people buried there.

This was a solemn experience to honor the lives of Oklahoma soldiers buried on French soil --- part of the ongoing Oklahoma Soldiers Project which Madame and her students have been working on for several years. Please help us honor these soldiers whose lives were far too short and whose courage and sacrifice humbles us all. You can begin to do this by thoughtfully reviewing these images:

   

We honored the graves of the 15 soldiers from Oklahoma buried in this cemetery:

Grant A. Jarman

Frank Kamm

Barney Sammons

John N. D. Boyd

 Grover Foster

 Charlie Hays

John A. Butler

 Robert Y. Price

John Murphy

Sidney H. Pickett

Ira A. Gray

 

Harmon Maxwell Gore

 

Joseph Cobb

[more to be added as the pictures get sent to Madame by those who went to the cemetery.]

We also honored the names of soldiers from Oklahoma whose names appear on the tablets of the missing (usually missing at sea). These tablets hang inside the chapel at this cemetery:

Casey Lonzo

Fred E. Wood

Charles H. Fisher

Manuel Shaw

Jess C. Michael

The American Cemetery and Memorial at Suresnes is the only such cemetery to serve for both of the World Wars. 

Visiting this cemetery, honoring these soldiers' lives, and pausing to reflect on the immense loss for their families and communities was a very sad and poignant experience for us all:

From the cemetery, there are views of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower.