Kings and capital

This morning, we had a bit of a late start due to our bus driver's 12-hour limit so we finally got going about 10am. We drove straight from Beuzeville to Versailles where we had extended time in the gardens to do some exploring. Most of our group had a 3:10 booking and we finally entered the palace just after that with a local tour guide. We saw the famed Hall of Mirrors, the chapel and the king and queen's bedrooms (separate). Then at 4:30, we got on the bus again to drive back into Paris for dinner at Flam's where they served flammekueche, a traditional Alsatian flatbread pizza of sorts. Not exactly that but it's hard to explain.

After dinner, we climbed the stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the Champs-Elysées... I lost count after 200 and something. It was quite the hike but the views were amazing, especially since the sun was low in the sky and starting to set. Afterwards, we had more time to shop on the Champs-Elysées before meeting at 9:30pm to head back to the hotel. Upon our arrival, we cleaned out the bus and got our suitcases since we will no longer be with Stéphane, our bus driver for this past week. And so now the groups that we've been with all week go separate ways: one goes home, the other stays but has different plans than us. We have one more full day in Paris so let's get some sleep so we can enjoy it!

Battle on the beach

We headed out on the road about 8am this morning to start our day covering sites linked to World War Two. It was cool, overcast and breezy today which was the total opposite of what we've experienced since we arrived last Saturday. We had a little bit of bus time before we arrived at the Omaha landing beaches. Some of us took time to gather a little sand or stick our feet in the water while others just contemplated the events that took place there in 1944.  After knocking the sand off our shoes, we headed to Pointe du Hoc, where the U.S. Rangers landed as part of the operations. We were able to walk between huge craters left from bombings and look out over the cliffs that just help us to realize and understand the difficulty of the task the Americans had to successfully take over that land from the Germans. Then we stopped at the American cemetery to pay our respects to 9,387 Americans buried there and to the 1,557 whose final resting places are unknown and whose names are inscribed in the Garden of the Missing.

Omaha Beach:

Pointe du Hoc: 

American Cemetery:

We then took a lunch break in Arromanches, where we able to see concrete blocks still out in the water as part of the artificial bridges or mulberries that the Allies used to get supplies from England to the troops - everything from tanks, gasoline, ammunition and food. 

After lunch, we drove to the Caen Peace Memorial and Museum to see artifacts and history from the eras before, during and after the Battle of Normandy, including a short film with footage from wartime.

Then we were able to make a stop in Honfleur, which was not on the original itinerary. We got to spend some free time exploring this cute little town on the mouth of the Seine. It is home to the oldest wooden church in Europe and the only wooden church in France. Then about 7:45, we headed off to our hotel for the night in Beuzeville. It's again kind of in the middle of nowhere so the kids are still bonding, playing games and hanging out. It's still light outside at 10pm so we are taking advantage of the long days.

Honfleur: its wooden church and its harbor

North coast news

This morning, we left Tours about 7:30am because we had about 3 1/2 hours in the bus to head north to Mont-Saint-Michel which is a monastery built on an island in the English Channel. This UNESCO site has been around for hundreds of years and is still inhabited by a small group of monks. It's quintessentially French with small, narrow streets lined with tourist shops and restaurants catering to the tourists. (By the way, last time is was here, it was cool and cloudy to the point we had jackets and long pants - today, even though we were north and on the coast, it was still in the high 80s. Got to be breaking a record of some sort.) So in the heat yet again, we climbed our way to the top of the hill to explore the famous fortress-turned-monastery. Luckily, it was a little cooler inside so we had a chance to escape the heat for a little while.  So after our visit, we had a chance to explore the little shops and grab something for lunch. Packed like sardines, we took a shuttle bus back to the parking lot and it was so hot my pants were sticking to my knees. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was good to sit in the AC on the bus. 

Our next stop was just down the road at a cookie shop where we got to taste-test a few kinds and then of course buy some. So maybe you'll get to try some... that is, if we don't eat them first. ;). 

Just over an hour later, we got to Saint Malo, which was so much cooler and breezier. What a relief. So Mario took us on a quick walking tour to get a lay of the land and see the cathedral where Jacques Cartier was blessed by the bishop before he left here to discover Canada. Then we had a little free time to explore and go up on the city walls. Then dinner of "moules frites" (mussels and fries) or steak and fries if we didn't want the mussels and vanilla ice cream for dessert. The annual fête de la musique had just started as we were leaving so we only got a little taste of it before we had to leave. Now tonight our hotel is pretty much in the middle of nowhere so a good deal of bonding time happened this evening. So on this longest day of the year, where it's finally getting dark about 11pm, I will say good night. 

Shopping and castle-hopping

This morning, our tour director gave us a free morning to shop our way through Tours. So personally, I hit up the grocery store and pharmacy for those products that I can't find at home and most of the kids hit up clothing stores and whatnot in search of that one special thing to bring home.

So after that, we hopped on the bus to head to Amboise to meet a local guide, Aurélie, who took us on a tour of the castle at Amboise, which is only 1/5 the size of what it was at one point. It is also where Leonardo daVinci is buried.  (He was François I's friend and lived a mile down the road at a castle called Clos-Lucé.).

So after we saw the castle, we trekked back down the hill and through town to catch the bus again to Chenonceau, "the ladies' castle."  It stretches out over the Cher River so it's known for the one with the arches over the river. I love this castle and its gardens but it seemed like this heat wave of almost 100 degrees is affecting everyone's experience because we can hardly move without dripping sweat.

But we did find some respite from the heat when we had dinner in a troglodyte cave. I was proud of the kids for trying "rillettes" which is warm, fresh bread with yummy butter and pork spread. The idea of pork spread may turn some people off but I told the kids to at least try it and they did for the most part.

After dinner, back to the hotel for an early night because we are going to have an early start to head to Mont-Saint-Michel tomorrow. So time for bed and you'll hear more from me tomorrow hopefully...depending on the wi-fi situation.

Canicule (n.f.) = heat wave

This morning, we left Paris for the countryside. For about 2 hours, we were in the comfort of our air-conditioned bus on our way to Chartres, which is known for its cathedral. Really, for a Monday morning, the town was rather quiet. A lot of the students said that they really liked it after the touristy hustle and bustle of Paris.  So we toured the cathedral and explored the little town until 12:30pm.

It was starting to get warm so we were happy with the idea of getting on the bus for a little while longer to get to the castle of Chambord, which was built by François I, the king of the French Renaissance and the one responsible for bringing Leonardo DaVinci to France. It has 444 rooms, 365 fireplaces and the famous double-helix staircase supposedly designed by DaVinci. It wasn't really occupied for very long because it was really only used as a hunting retreat for the kings and their buddies. The heat of the afternoon had hit and we sought the solace of the castle to try to keep cool. But we did venture out to explore the rooftops and get a view of the beautiful, newly-restored gardens (thanks to a very rich American). It was 94 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. (It was hotter here today than in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in Africa today... don't ask me why I know that. Haha) so we are trying to keep cool, trying to keep hydrated as much as we can but it's going to be even hotter tomorrow - 100 degrees or above. 

So after Chambord, we had a little ways to go to our hotel in Tours, one of my favorite French cities. We had a short rest/ freshen-up time before we walked to dinner. Dinner was ham steak, fries and salad with a chocolate torte with crème anglaise. Then we went on a walking tour of the old, medieval part of Tours. A lot of the kids were so excited because they recognized from pictures in our textbooks. "It's real! It does exist! And we're actually here!!!!"

So we sauntered our way through the narrow streets and finally arrived back at the hotel. I gotta admit, the kids are bonding and mixing and chatting more, both within our group and with the other groups. I told them before, we may be strangers at the airport but we'll be family by the end.

Louvre me, Louvre me not

Okay, just to clarify something that I'm finding disappointing: my app for this blog keeps crashing (because my iPhone and this Google blog don't like each other anymore) so because I'm having to write these a different way, it's not letting me post pictures. Grrrr. (Update: I think I figured a way to finagle it! Photos at the end!)

So today was another full day of Paris.  And I have to admit, I had a funny adventure leaving the hotel: most of us were on the bus except for Mario, the other leader and a few girls hadn't gotten downstairs yet. So the bus driver takes off and most of us thought he was just going around the block because we were blocking the road. So we're driving farther and farther from the hotel and finally, after about 15 minutes, I asked the driver if we were going back to the hotel to get the missing people... NOPE! So after I explained the situation to him, we finally made a big circle to get Mario and the others. Whoops!

So anyways, first thing was a bus tour with Ariane, a local guide. We jumped off a few times for photo stops at Napoleon's tomb, the Eiffel Tower and the Opera Garnier. After busing all over the city to see the big sites, we ended up at the Louvre where we had some time for lunch before going into the museum. So we herded around to see the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and of course, the queen of them all: the Mona Lisa. After, we had more time to explore the Louvre and Tuileries gardens on our own before meeting back up to go for a walking tour to a different neighborhood. We crossed down Rue Saint-Honoré to the Les Halles shopping district and ended at Centre Pompidou, the city's exposition center and modern art museum. After a few minutes to explore, we trekked down to road to finally go inside Notre-Dame since we didn't get to go inside yesterday. Then it was dinner time! Turkey, rice and tarte tatin in a restaurant in the Quartier Latin. Then we hopped another bus for a night tour, which included taking the elevator up to the roof of Tour Montparnasse (the only skyscraper within city limits) to get awesome panoramic views.  Then, we got to take a boat ride on the Seine River to see the sites that way. It was just at sunset so it was beautiful! Then after the boat, our next stop was at Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tower a few minutes before 11pm so we could buy a Nutella crepe and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle!  The best way and most quintessential moment to enjoy Paris! 

Now we're back at the hotel and going to be leaving the city tomorrow for Chartres and Tours. Castles, here we come!

We came. We saw. We sweat.

Phew! Well, we are here. And we've had a jam-packed first day. After traveling through Cleveland and Newark airports, we finally arrived in Paris about 8am this morning. We got through passport control, got our suitcases and made it through customs without a hiccup. We did end up waiting a little while for Mario and the bus to come from the other terminal but we finally joined up with the others and we were on our way. After dropping our suitcases at our hotel, we had our first metro experience and made it in time to our reservation the tour Sainte-Chapelle, the beautiful gothic chapel of Louis IX.  Then we had a quick lunch and then tested our jet-lagged stamina by climbing the stairs of Notre-Dame. Coming down with shaky legs and sweaty brows, everyone admitted that the stairs were definitely worth the view of the city (and our first official glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!) Then we got back on the metro to the Montmartre neighborhood to explore Sacré-Cœur and do a little souvenir shopping. Back down the hill for dinner which just happened to be out on the restaurant's terrace looking across the river to Notre-Dame. And to top it all off? Crème brûlée for dessert!

So we made it back to the hotel eager to wash airport and city grime off of us and hit the hay.

Sainte-Chapelle:

Sacré-Cœur: