Day 1 in London: Sunday

We arrived safely in Heathrow, a bit too tired because none of us could really sleep on the flight, but grateful for a safe journey. We met our WONDERFUL tour directors Marcello (who is Dutch, despite his Italian name, but he lives in Spain) and Ursula (who is Polish & German and also lives in Spain).
Since the hotel rooms would not be ready until 2 pm, we left our luggage at the hotel and headed to Westminster by subway or "The Tube" or "The Underground" for sightseeing and lunch. The Underground is a lot like in Paris, although the Paris Métro is so much more cultural. We are getting a kick out of British expressions here and one of our favorites is something we hear over and over again in The Underground: "Mind the gap!" Of course, this means "Watch Your Step" (because there is a gaping space between the subway train and the edge of the platform). As Americans, the expression "Mind the gap" evokes many images, all of which are hilarious to us now!

Westminster was very impressive, especially Big Ben. This is where the Parliament meets. The architecture is stunning and imposing. We stopped to look around and find a place to eat.



We ate lunch at a typical British pub called "The Red Lion" that dated back to the early 1800's. It reminded me of eating at Durgan Park in Boston, just on a smaller scale. It was all oak lined walls with a marble fireplace behind our table. I had fish & chips for £10 (crazy expensive!)

Alexa & Jordan play around with a London phone booth.



Then, we returned to the hotel for some much needed rest and a wash-up. A couple of hours later the entire group went to eat and Madame accompanied a student to the airport to get the C-Pap machine a student had left on the transfer bus from the airport. Since it was just me and this boy out and on our own, we made the most of the evening by walking around the main road in Chiswick, a small city town outside of London (but really part of London) and right near our hotel. The famous painter William Hogarth is from Chiswick and here (on the left)is a statue of him that we found as we wandered around Chiswick together. We ate a great meal (also expensive) at a Thai restaurant.


Exhausted and seriously in need of sleep, we returned to our rooms and hit the sack! A big day on Monday awaits!

Midtown Manhattan

With five travelers in my flight group (me, a mother named Lisa, her daughter Alyssa, and two students named Alexa and Jaci), we decided to take advantage of our 8.5 hour layover in Newark by taking a shuttle to Midtown Manhattan so we could see the sights for a few hours.

Thanks to my good friend and trusty substitute teacher, Marijo Hennagin-Mazur, a former Manhattan resident, we had a clear itinerary to follow that allowed us to make the most of our short time there. I don't have a lot of time (the tour continues and I am behind on blogging), so here's a quick list of all we saw and a few pictures:

• NYC skyline

• Grand Central Station

• New York City Public Library

I loved this library and especially this Great Reading Room on the 3rd floor.

• Fifth Avenue

Notice how the old blends with the new, the religious blends with the profane.

• Rockefeller Plaza

• St. Patrick's Cathedral

Important Note: The weather was beautiful for this fast visit to Manhattan. 

And, there was a wedding going on at the cathedral while we visited it.

• Bryant Park

This are my travel companions (L to R): Lisa, Alyssa, Jaci, and Alexa

(My fifth traveler, Thaïs, flew with another group, so missed seeing NYC with us)

• Broadway (alas, no picture for these last two --- I hate pictures from bus windows)
• Times Square

We stopped at a typical New York "by-the-slice" pizzeria for lunch. The pizza and a soda cost less than $5.00 and it was delicious! The girls were stunned by how goos the pizza tasted and how large the portion was. I think I've ruined them for Mazzio's for life. (Mission Accomplished)

That's pretty good for just a four-hour visit! The return to Newark and the flight thereafter was all very smooth. The Adventure has begun.

Le Voyage 2011

The 2011 Spring Break Trip to Europe will begin on March 12, 2011. We will travel from OKC to Newark, NJ. Since we have a really long lay-over, we will take a shuttle to New York City for a 4-hour visit of midtown Manhattan. Then we will catch a flight to London where we will spend two and half days before taking a train through the Chunnel to Paris. Once in Paris, we will see all the sights and three days later catch a night train to Madrid.

London to Paris to Madrid.

There will be a lot of new experiences for me, as I have never been to London or England and I have never been through the Chunnel. I have been to Spain and Madrid before, but never as a tourist. Since I will have experienced England and Spain travelers with me, it will be fun to see the sites and let them teach me about the places we will see.

I am excited to be going with a great group of ladies: Lisa and her daughter Alyssa, Jaci, Alexa, and Thaïs. We will have a very memorable time!

Home Sweet Home

We made it safely home on Thursday, June 11th. We were all tired and glad to see our families. Madame has one last request for allthe girls: Please send me pictures from the trip --- or post them online and tell Madame where she can go to see them. Thanks to the girls for being great ambassadors and to their families for trusting them to Madame's care and for making this trip possible!

Our Last Day in the City of Lights

Our morning started off slowly when Jessie, Cate, and Madame overslept! We quickly gathered ourselves together and we all enjoyed walking through the open-air market right outside our hotel. Then, we took the Metro to our first site, the Opera Garnier. As we came up out of the Metro, we found ourselves completely surrounded by a mass demonstration by people who want their work contracts respected. Yikes! It was an interesting experience. They were a pretty tame crowd and the girls got to see a real French display of democracy in action. We quickly made our way through the crowd to the entrance and the girls went on an hour-long exploration of the interior of this beautiful theatre-palace. Jeannie was most impressed at the thought that The Phantom of the Opera is set in this beautiful site. After touring the Opera, the girls had free time to go shopping and eat lunch.



Then, we took a city bus (nicer than the Metro because you actually see the city, but slower getting around) to the Cluny Museum. This is one of Madme's favorite museums, a former Cluny Abbey built on the site of former Roman thermal baths. We made a bee-line to the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries and then quickly moved through the rest of the museum because we were pressed for time.

Then we walked past the Sorbonne and up to the Pantheon where France honors its heros, writers, and most accomplished citizens. We saw Foucault's pendulum and wandered through the crypte where we saw the tombs of such famous people as Rousseau, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Pierre and Marie Curie, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, and Jean Jaures. We also saw commemorative mention for Antoine de Saint-Exupery who wrote Le petit prince and Guillaume Apollinaire whose visual poetry from the WWI era we studied in AP French.

Next, we took another city bus and the Metro to the Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Venus de Milo and the Wedding at Cana. The Louvre was huge and impressive with so many works of art to see!



With all the walking we were pooped! But we needed to go to a grocery store to buy goodies to bring home, so we trudged our way through the Metro, bought what we needed, and returned to the hotel around 8:30 pm. We had hoped to take a boat ride on the Seine as our final farewell or to go to the top of the Arc of Triumph, but by the time we ate dinner, it was too late to either thing. So, we returned to the hotel and hung out in Jessie, Cate and Madame's room to watch the Eiffel Tower shimmer from the hotel window. Then we packed our bags....

Napoleon, The Thinker, and Tired Feet

We started the day with hot chocolate and croissants at the bistro near the hotel. Then, we rode a Paris city bus to Les Invalides where we saw Napoleon's tomb. In touring the artistic friezes in the crypte around his tomb, the girls learned a better appreciation of Napoleon's place in history.

Then we took a short walk over to the Musee Rodin where we walked in the gardens and saw some famous works on display: The Thinker and The Gates of Hell. Then we toured the inside of the musuem, which is located in the pre-Revolution manor called Hotel Biron. We saw more version of the The Thinker and the rough drafts made in preparing for The Gates of Hell, as well as other great work by Rodin such as The Kiss and The Man with the Broken Nose. We all greatly appreciated Rodin's work as well as the sculptures by his sometime lover, Camille Claudel.

Then we traveled to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. On our way up the hill, we did some extensive tourist shopping (get ready for the trinkets!) and stopped for a pizza/pasta lunch. We toured the interior of the church and took pictures from the outside, then the girls walked the winding 294 fat-burning steps up to the very top of the dome of the church. Once they reached the top, they were treated to a fabulous view of the city of Paris. While they were doing this, Madame waited in a nearby cafe, sipping Earl Grey tea. Then we spent more time buying random trinkets of Paris and Melissa got her portrait drawn by a street artist. Jessie chose to sit out the shopping portion of the program and she sat with Madame at the cafe and read from Madame's new edition of Petit Nicolas voyage.

We were all exhausted and burdened with purchases, so we headed back to our hotel for a brief rest. Then, we returned to the Left Bank neighborhood called Saint Michel for a traditional French dinner. Jessie ate raclette, while the rest of the group tried a variety of gourmet dishes. Madame argued with the waiter and won (because she was right and he was rude). :-)

After dinner, we went on a walking tour that led us back to Notre Dame, which was illuminated as it always is after dark. Then, we walked around behind Notre Dame to appreciate the Gothic architecture, gargoyles, and the gardens. In crossing back over the Seine to the Left Bank, we stumbled upon an Italian movie set and we got to watch what appeared to be an seriously cheesy heist scene as it was filmed. Finally, we took the metro home and tomorrow will be our final day of touring. We have many ideas, but we know for sure we will go to the Louvre.

Oh, Paris, Paris!

We left Lisieux this morning around 10:30 am after another pain au chocolat breakfast at a cafe. We arrived in Paris just after noon under a light drizzle and grabbed some sandwiches of grilled meat with fries at a Turkish sandwich shop. We ate these standing up in the hall of the St. Lazare train station. While we were there we finally saw our first American Veteran GI. He had on a maroon beret and a uniform loaded with medals, including an Airborne badge. We were so lucky to get to speak to him! Turns out his name is Bill Coleman Jr. and he is from Orlando, FL. He parachuted into Normandy the day before D-Day and he was in Paris to receive the Medal of the Legion d'Honneur from France's President Sarkozy. He got the medal yesterday at Les Invalides (the Military School and the place where Napoleon is buried). They gave him and his buddies a gun salute, a military parade and the President of France pinned the award on him personally. This man is 89 years old and he looked like he was a very fit 70. We got to see the pin he was awarded and we got to hear his personal story first-hand.

After we got settled at our hotel, we made a bee-line for the Eiffel Tower. Everyone went up except Madame and Jessie, who hung out together at the base waiting for the others (in the rain and cold!) We met some nice people from Chiapas Mexico and Madame got to use Jessie as a translator for Spanish! Then we walked up to the Esplanade for Human Rights at the Palais de Chaillot and got some great pictures of the Eiffel Tower. We took the Metro over to the Arc de Triomphe just in time to see a full military parade there, related to the Battle of Normandy.

We walked down the Champs-Elysees under a steady rain and then took the Metro to the Place de la Concorde, which we visited under a torrential downpour. That's okay, because the obelisk and the hieroglyphs are impressive in any weather.

Completely exhausted, we returned to our hotel, had a quick, warm dinner, and settled in to rest and relax.