Study Trip (France: Paris and Reims)

(Read this after the other study trip entry...right below this one)

On Sunday, we went straight to Versailles from Bruges. It was amazing to see the castle and everything in it. The old art work, furniture, and architecture was spectacular. I went to venture through the gardens on my own and found those to be even more breathtaking, and wished I could've explored for much longer. The high hedges, ponds, and flowers were so carefully placed and went on as far as the eye could see. It makes me wonder if Louis XIV ever saw everything, both in the house as well as throughout the massive gardens. There is just so much! We left Versailles and checked into our hotel and had a quick shower before we headed out to the group dinner at Le Vauban, a restaurant right across from where Napoleon is buried. 

Sidenote: We were a little disappointed to go from our first hotel room to Bruges, as it was your typical European hotel room: two beds smashed right up next to each other, and a shower that you can barely turn around in! We had even a smaller shower in our hotel in Paris, BUT WE WERE IN PARIS, so it didn't matter!

We had a great three course meal, and the program even paid for it, usually all meals were "at your own expense," so it was nice to eat what we wanted on the program! I started out with a caprese salad (can't beat that), then had steak and fries, followed by some ice cream that I barely touched seeing how stuffed I was! After dinner we headed over to Pont Neuf for a boat tour on the Seine. We saw the Eiffel Tour and Notre Dame as well as the rest of the beautiful city all lit up. It was finally nice to be able to practice some of my french in France, and a French woman even told me that my french was pretty good!

The next morning we had a highlight tour of Paris on bus and got to see most of the city and all of the buildings. The next activity was an optional tour of the Louvre, but Becca and Annika are not at all intrigued as much as I am by art and old things, so they opted out. I would've gone with the boys or by myself, but I knew that I would be coming back to Paris with mom and would be able to OOOO and AWEEE much more with her! So I have been to the Louvre twice now, but never been inside..impressive, huh?! The girls and I decided that we wanted to explore Paris on our own, and set out. We walked up and down side streets as well as the Champs d'Elysees. It was really fun and quite charming to see everyone enjoying the beauty of Paris on a normal day. We stopped for lunch at a small cafe and in the french fashion we enjoyed lunch outside with great people watching. We started the journey back to the hotel, and on our way we decided to try our luck with the metro, because the program had given us a days pass on the metro. What we figured could turn into one giant headache, actually turned out to be a great success of an adventure. We were all quite proud of ourselves, and made it back to the hotel much quicker! After a bit of a rest at the hotel, we went to the market to find some dinner. We left with cheese, salami, and baguettes. At the hotel we set up our dinner and turned on the music video channel for some great European entertainment. Diving into the cheese, we realized they were both quite STINKY and we all enjoyed one much more than the other. We offered what we had left to the boys, but got it back within five minutes on accounts that it was just too smelly!! So what do you do with stinky cheese?? Throw it out the window..of course (I know, I'm such a rebel)! First we tested out the distance down with a piece of salami that landed on the window of a parked car and bounced off into the street. Next came the soft, gooey, stinky cheese!!! One toss and the anticipation was killing us...finally with a satisfying SPLAT we all three fell to the floor laughing until we couldn't breathe. But we still had more! Piece by piece, cheese came falling from the window and splatting below. There was a false panic attack as we thought we saw security when yet it was just a curious person inspecting the splatted cheese! then we heard a British accent telling us to "stop throwing cheese." We panicked! QUICK, close the window, shut the curtain, wash the plate, throw away the rest of the cheese..but don't put it in our room. We ran out the door and threw it in the boys trash, which was conveniently outside their door. Then ran into their room to tell them we had been caught, just to find out that it was one of the boys, Taylor, who had been practicing his British accent (as those have become quite useful for the boys...as they pretend not to be Americans all the time). We were safe..phew! The boys told us to get ready and then we were off to the Eiffel Tour by way of metro. Once we got there, we decided to get tickets to go to the top, which is something I have always wanted to do, seeing that the Eiffel Tour is something that has always mesmerized me. Once at the top, we snapped pictures and starred out at the city and all the lights twinkling at us. Back at the bottom, we saw the light show of the tour. What a great day..stinky cheese and all!

On Tuesday, we packed up our things, and had to say goodbye to Paris. We headed to Reims where we got a tour of the Pommery champagne caves. We were a little late getting there, so we couldn't have a complete tour, but it was still really neat seeing the cave,s the bottles, and trying some of it. Down in the caves it is very cold (I think it is 50 degrees) and very dark! They had bottles every turn, and they even showed us their oldest bottles, coming from the 1800s! Then we drove over to Notre Dame of Reims and walked inside and around the cathedral..BEAUTIFUL. The stained glass was breathtaking and so intricate. Becca, Annika, and I found a small crepe restaurant for lunch and were extremely satisfied. Then back to Maastricht we went.

What a great trip!