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.

Day 5 in Paris: Thursday

We began in the morning with a visit to the Louvre Museum. The weather had been very warm and spring-like yesterday. Today, it has been much colder, damp and windy. Students were free to wander the Louvre for about an hour and they made certain to see the three "hallmarks" of a visit there:

• Venus de Milo (and Alyssa)

• Winged Victor of Samothrace

• Mona Lisa (aka "La Joconde")

Yes, this is the Mona Lisa...and all the insanity of the people trying to get a picture of her.

The kids agree: The painting is smaller than one would imagine and the crowd made it hard to see and appreciate.

We all met up at the Starbucks in the shopping mall called the "Carousel du Louvre" which is located underneath the Louvre:

Since there's a post office down there, we took a moment for a French lesson and practiced mailing letters using just our French speaking skills. Chouette!

Then, we went on a walking tour to see the Opéra Garnier and the original Galeries Lafayette. Unfortunately, the Opéra Garnier was closed to the public for two days for renovations, so we couldn't go in. Here are some of Madame's group in front of the Opéra:

L to R: Becky from Shawnee, Thaïs, Lisa, Alyssa, and Jaci

So, we walked all around the outside of the very impressive Opéra Garnier building. Then, we took a short walk over to Paris' most famous shopping experience at the Galéries Lafayette. We admired literally millions of dollars of luxury goods at the counters for Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Tiffany's. The most impressive part of shopping there is admiring the décor fro the Gilded Age. Here are the amazing domed ceiling and galeries inside the store (hence, the name Galéries Lafayette:

We came out of the Galéries Lafayette and continued out tour around the outside of the Opéra Garnier. We did get to visit the Paris Ballet gift shop there. So, here is a picture of som of our group on the steps of the Paris Ballet shop:  (keen eyes will notice Alyssa has a Tiffany's bag from the Galéries Lafayette!)

L to R: Alyssa, Madame, Thaïs, and Jaci

To complete our "fashionable' visit of Paris, we stopped at Angelina's, the salon where Coco Chanel had tea and cake every day (it is right around the corner from the Faubourg Saint Honoré where all teh fashion houses are located, including Chanel. We had hot chocolate and decadent desserts at Angelina's:

 

Thick and rich hot chocolate, for which Angelina's is famous and 

a decadent berry, almond paste and liqueur-doused trifle

Jaci enjoys her rich, chocolaty dessert --- notice the typically French décor around her.

We had our dinner at Montparnasse where the only skyscraper within Paris' city limits is located:

We ate a traditional Alsatian meal of flammekueches at Flam's. This dish is a lot like pizza, but with a thinner crust and no tomato sauce:

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!