The group visited many of Paris' best-known sites on Friday. Starting at
9:30am, we proceeded to the Rue de Rennes and walked to St Sulpice, St Germain,
to the Académie Française and the Pont des Arts, before visiting Notre Dame cathedral.
After seeing the beautiful stained glass of the cathedral, we went to the Sainte Chapelle,
which is probably the most beautiful Gothic building ever built.
After lunch in the Latin Quarter, we began our trek across the Pont Neuf onto the Right Bank and the Louvre; we crossed the half-mile-long Louvre lengthwise, walked through the Tuileries Gardens to the Place de la Concorde. With the summer heat and accumulated miles, the group started to tire; so we took a bus up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, where we learned the elevator was not working. We climbed the 284 steps to the top, and were treated to an unusually clear view of the city and of our next destination, the Eiffel Tower.
Walking down from the Trocadéro, we arrived at the Eiffel Tower in good time. This year, none of the students elected to climb its 1789 steps on foot; so we took the elevators up to the windy and cool third level, 320 meters (1000 feet) above the city. We broke for dinner, to meet again at 9:45pm at the Pont Neuf for a night-time boat ride on the Seine. As we sailed on the 10pm boat, we waved bye-bye to Patty, Laura, Mary, Shelly and Shane who had arrived some twenty minutes late and, in a manner of speaking, missed the boat.
We set out at 10am on the now-familiar Métro, and headed for the Marais district, where we saw the emplacement of the Bastille, the late 16th-century Place des Vosges, and numerous other beautiful buildings that have been carefully restored in the past few years. We were caught in a spectacular thunderstorm just as we arrived at the Place des Vosges, and found shelter under the arcades that run around the entire square. The rain came down in buckets (or "hallebardes" to use the French expression), so that we chose to stay under the protective arcades. We huddled there with dozens of locals who evidently had adopted the same strategy. But the storm left as quickly as it had come, and the sun shone brightly for the rest of the day.
We then walked down the Rue Rambuteau, past the Pompidou Museum and the numerous tourist boutiques of the area before breaking for lunch. Irene, Pearl, Shelly, Pam and Grace joined their teacher to meet with some French students and their English teacher for lunch in a café-restaurant called The American Dream. We discussed the décor, made up of a garish assortment of stereotypical images of America: pictures of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and '57 Chevies, while eating allegedly American food; While tasty, the dishes had little in common with the American dishes of the same name...
The group had free time on Saturday afternoon for individual exploration. Some went shopping (at the FNAC, France's biggest bookstore, and at Tati, a clothing store); some went to the Louvre or the Musée d'Orsay. Most returned to the hotel late afternoon to rest before going out on the town; our dancing enthusiasts were so tired by our heavy-duty touring that they did not go dancing on Thursday or Friday nights despite their earlier claims that they would do so!
Sunday is a free day; most of the group members are planning to visit the Louvre and/or Versailles.
We are catching the TGV back to Annecy on Monday morning, and classes will resume on Tuesday.
Next report, after our return to the Alps, probably Wednesday.
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