Epilogue, Part 1

In the last two posts, I didn’t have much of an opportunity to go into detail about our experiences. I’d like to do so now.

Monday morning, students, host families and teachers met to board the bus to Paris. This was the final farewell. Of course, there were tears. The host parents are accustomed to the departure rituals. But the students and the host children are not so jaded. Embraces lasted minutes and were repeated.

Lili’s family has three daughters who are 13, 10 and 7. Those girls wormed their way into the hearts of many of our students. I think our departure was harder on Amandine and Alizé, the two oldest, than it was even on our students. Davia picked up and held Valentine, the youngest for a long time.

Finally, we had to insist that it was time to go. The students climbed into the motor coach, and we were off with waves back at the families in the car park for the beach at Moulin Blanc. The sniffles continued for quite a while.

We arrived in Paris at the beginning of rush hour(s), so it took a while to arrive at the hostel. It is located in an area just adjacent to the Marché aux Puces, the flea market. It’s kind of a wild area.

But we arrived at a wonderful facility. As it turned out, it was much more like an hotel than a youth hostel. Each room had its own bathroom complete with shower. Towels and soap were provided - unheard in a typical youth hostel. We were all most pleasantly surprised.

Victoria had booked us reservations at a restaurant not terribly far. But we still had lots of time. So we decided to visit the Montmartre area first. Looking online told us that it was just 10 more minutes walking than taking the Métro (subway). So we walked.

We walked the length of the Marché aux Puces, which was an experience. There were people from all over the world selling everything and more than you can imagine. (Two Pierre Cardin shirts for €10 - I’m sure that was legal!)

And it was a hot late afternoon in Paris. There isn’t hot like hot in a big city. The kids didn’t seem to mind, but I was sweating and had to find a bottle of water when we arrived at Montmartre. We sure climbed a lot of stairs to get there.

Montmartre is the big hill that overlooks the entire city of Paris. It is the site of the basilica of the Sacred Heart. It was this area where the Impressionist painters lived and worked while they were poor. There are cafés and shops and crêperies in abundance.

This time, I photographed Lili’s tears because she was so happy to be in Paris, and Cendy’s tears because she was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the church.

We actually arrived about 40 minutes early for our dinner reservation. But they good-naturedly accepted us a bit early. We were a larger group than they were used to having, but were obviously happy to have us. We had lots of choices, and the waiter was quite gracious.

The walk back to the hotel seemed to take a long time, but we were tired. In the end, it was just 30 minutes. It was quickly to bed on arrival.

Somebody knows how to make a good
first impression on Versailles.

City Hall, Versailles

I don't think they quite understand.

The Luxembourg Gardens

Tuesday morning, we took a five minute walk to the Métro station. The Métro would take us to the Montparnasse station where we would catch the train for Versailles.

Our group of Indiana high school students was not prepared for rush hour on the Paris subway. Since our hotel was located pretty far from central Paris, we joined the crush of commuters coming in from the suburbs to go to work. When the train pulled in, it looked as if there was no more room in the cars for us. But we squeezed in. We were packed tight.

I think our students were surprised when more people packed in at subsequent stations. Luckily, quite a number of people disembarked at the stop for the Saint Lazare train station. It was easier after that.

Versailles is an interesting place. We speak of the 1% here in the USA. Versailles is a demonstration of .01% of the population controlling 99% of the wealth of the country in the 18^th century, from Louis XIV to his great-great grandson Louis XVI. Seeing this incredible palace, one understands why there was a French Revolution.

During the summer months, it is incredibly crowded with tourists from all over the world. So many people pack into this amazing edifice, it is impossible to stay together as a large group. So we sent the students in groups of three to six. I parked myself at the entrance to the Hall of Mirrors to try to get a photo of each of our groups as they passed. I did not catch them all.

After viewing the majesty of this amazing building, that has almost no furniture because of the Revolution, we intended to picnic in the gardens. However, during the summer there is an additional charge of €11 (almost $14) to tour the gardens. So Victoria found a beautiful garden behind the city hall for us to have our picnic. And it was free.

Once back in Paris proper, we went to the Montparnasse Tower, the only skyscraper within the center of Paris. We went to the top viewing deck to enjoy the vast views of Paris.

The Montparnasse Tower was Paris’ only experiment with skyscrapers in the 1960s, when New York and London were going crazy with them. Parisians hated it. As recently as 2015, it was voted the second ugliest building in the world by Lonely Planet subscribers. So by going to the top, there is no wait (with our reservation), and you can see all of Paris without having to see the Montparnasse Tower since you are on it. (We couldn’t get an advance reservation for going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, so the wait would have been three hours.)

The Montparnasse Tower will be receiving a facelift over the next couple of years, so she may not be thought of as so ugly.

It was after the ascent that we divided into two different groups just because of the logistics of maneuvering a group of 23 people through the Latin Quarter. Refer to the earlier post for a description of our differing strolls through the Latin Quarter and Île de la Cité.

That night was our boat tour of Paris on the Seine River. This is the absolutely coolest thing to do at sunset on a summer night. We saw all the amazing sites from river level. The students loved it!

Abby on hearing English