Day 4 in Paris: Wednesday

TOUR OF PARIS
This first full day in Paris began with a morning bus tour of Paris to see all the sights. From the Eiffel Tower, to the Arch of Triumph, to the Champs Élysées, to the Place de la Concorde, and finally Les Invalides (All pictured in order below), students had a wonderful overview of the city of Paris with the educational and informative input from our local guide.

The Eiffel Tower                            The Arch of Triumph

               The Champs-Élysées                   The Place de la Concorde

Alexa at Les Invalides (site of Napoleon's Tomb) and 

at the wall of love where "I love you" is written in hundreds of languages

VISIT TO VERSAILLES
As soon as the tour of Paris was complete, we headed by coach bus to the palace in Versailles, just outside of Paris. This palace was built by Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King. It is spectacular in it grandeur and dimension. The same tour guide who took us around Paris guided us through the palace at Versailles and we had time to wander through the very beautiful gardens. The consensus among the students was that Marie Antoinette's bedroom was the most impressive and it was awe-inspiring to stand in the Hall of Mirrors where countless balls took place and, most importantly, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1918, ending World War I.

Marie Antoinette's Bedroom

The Hall of Mirrors

WANDERING IN PARIS

We returned to Paris and said farewell to our tour guide in front of the Hôtel de Ville (the Paris Town Hall). This impressive building is built in the Neo-Renaissance style and it was completely destroyed during the fight by government forces to regain control of Paris following the Paris Commune in 1871.

Here's a picture of the Hôtel de Ville after it was destroyed:

And here is the Hôtel de Ville today:

From the Hôtel de Ville, it is a short walk over to the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. We had about an hour to tour the cathedral and wander in the area. 

Madame and several students made a quick trip over to Shakespeare & Company, an English-language bookstore that has been a Paris landmark since the 1920's when it was a popular hangout for great writers like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other writers of the Lost Generation. The tradition is to buy a book there and get it stamped with the seal of Shakespeare & Company ---- which we did!

Thais and Jaci in front of Shakespeare and Company

Right next door to Shakespeare and Company is the café many students know from the huge poster in Madame's room of a French café, so Madame, Thaïs, and Jaci got their picture taken there:

We then had a typical French dinner with our entire tour group and following dinner, we met up with Hélène Lieuré, a student from Montdidier (where Westmoore has a partner high school) who will be spending three weeks living with Madame in July 2011. Her parents traveled with her to Paris to meet Madame and the students from Westmoore. They joined most of the tour group in visiting the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum in Paris named for a former French President:

There are all kinds of interesting shops and cafés surrounding the museum, so a fun time was had by all and several students visited the free exhibits at the museum. Madame paid an African wire sculptor to make a cat sculpture for her daughter. Here is a link to some of this sculptor's work.

Day 3 in Paris: Tuesday

Our day began with a very early wake-up call (4am!!!), a sack breakfast, and a coach bus ride to the trains station. Apparently, the train station we were taking the Eurostar from was used to film the exterior train station shots for the Harry Potter films.

It was quite a logistical feat, but we got all 56 travelers and their luggage on the train and off the train without a hitch. The Chunnel was an exciting thought but a rather boring experience. Since the Chunnel is essentially just a tunnel, even if is does run under the ocean floor of the English Channel, in the end, it is just a tunnel. And a tunnel, once you're in it, is not very exciting. Your ears pop and when you look out the window, everything is dark. Ho hum.

But the train, known as the Eurostar, is a very high-speed train and once it hits an excess of 200 miles per hour, the countryside just whirs by, but in the train you don;t really feel like you are going so fast after all.

We arrived at the Gare du Nord (Paris' North train station) and made a bus transfer to our Paris hotel with all our luggage. Since it was early in the day, our rooms weren't ready, so we stored our luggage in a safe room at the hotel and headed out to get cash in Euros at an ATM and buy some lunch. Most of us had pizza at a very authentic pizzeria. It was delicious! (Madame loves pizza in France.)

After lunch, we went to the Sacré Coeur Basilica in a part of Paris called Montmartre. From there, we say amazing views of Paris and found great shops for buying souvenirs.

There were musicians playing on the steps to the basilica and the students loved the artsy atmosphere.

L to R: Sarah, a street performer, Jaci, and Thaïs

Thaïs enjoys the view of Paris from the base of Sacré Coeur

Alexa and Jordan on the steps of Sacré Coeur

We ate a dinner of quiche which everyone loved. After dinner, we went to ride a bateau parisien down the Seine. The sun had set and the night views of Paris with all its important buildings illuminated and its city lights was really beautiful. We got to see the Eiffel Tower by night. At the top of the hour, it lit up with sparkling and flashing lights for a full ten minutes --- a joyful and exciting sight to behold!

After this, we returned to our hotel by way of the Paris Métro for what will forever be known as The Long Night of the Hotel Crazies. Here's all I have to say about that: I'm glad it was solved efficiently and thoroughly. Long story short: We changed to a new and better hotel (a Mercure hotel) the next day.

It's great to be in Paris!

Day 2 in London: Monday

Our day started with a guided bus tour of London. We saw the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and countless other sights along the way. At each place, we only stayed long enough for a photo shoot and a tiny look around. Our tour guide was a British man named David who appeared to be at least 65 years old. He was a former journalist for the BBC and ABC and he has decided to work in his retirement as a certified tour guide for London. He was very knowledgeable and friendly.

Our tour ended at Trafalgar Square. From there, we all dispersed to eat lunch. Madame had a wonderful meal in the crypt of the St. Martin of the Fields Church with Mr. Allison and some students. If that place sounds familiar to you, perhaps you know of the choir from this church which is world-reknowned. The crypt has been turned into a first-class cafeteria buffet dining experience. Madame had the most delicious comfort food: pot roast, new potatoes, boiled red cabbage, and crême brûlée.

After lunch, we split into four groups. Participants could go to the activity of their choice:

• A tour of the National Gallery art museum with Caleb Allison

• A tour of St. Paul's Cathedral with Kris Earle

• A shopping experience with Whitney Stafford

• A tour of the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels with Madame Robillard

Of course, every option was great. But, since Madame is writing this blog, the best option was the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels. Our tour guide David stayed with us (quite generously on his part and quite luckily for us) and guided us from Trafalgar Square through the Tube to the Tower of London. He briefly shared the history of the Tower of London, all of which is very tragic and sad. This is where Anne Boleyn and Jane Grey were executed. It is also where St. Thomas More spend four years imprisoned before he was executed and martyred. The entire place is still guarded by "beefeaters"who still also live in housing quarters within the Tower of London gates. We even got to see a changing of the Beefeater guard outside the building where the Crown Jewels are kept!

Alexa plays at getting the axe in the Tower.

The Crown Jewels were very impressive. The jewels and gold and fine handcrafting were all very admirable. Yet, I found it hard to really embrace the sight of them with awe. I just kept hearing the question: "What would George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Samuel Adams have thought of this excess?" In a weird way, I felt very proud to be an American and grateful that our forefathers fought against such excess. It was impressive, however, to see the largest diamond in the world:

The Great Star of Africa Diamond

embodied in the Royal Scepter with the Cross

504+ carats

Here are some birds that begged to share a teatime snack with Madame at the Tower of London:

We then went to dinner and we ate an English classic: bangers and mash. This is what Americans would call grilled sausage with mashed potatoes. We learned from David the tour guide that the sausages are called "bangers" because during World War II, when meat was scarce, sausages were made with a high content of water. As the sausages were fried up, the water would expand and the sausages would burst with a "bang". Hence, "bangers and mash". Ha!

After the dinner, we split into groups again. Some went to see "Wicked!", the musical production. Others went to see the play "The Woman in Black", a crime/suspense play. Still others went on a boat ride down the Thames while the final group went shopping and people watching. This last group got to see the unveiling of the Olympic countdown clock at Trafalgar Square.

Finally, back to the hotel so our feet could get some much needed rest. We have to pack tonight, because we will be up at 4am to catch and early train to PARIS!

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!