History Field Trip in Paris, France

6 June 2015

Well, after we were rested from our very busy day and a half of traveling and walking and taking in, we had a fabulous breakfast at the hotel (Novotel, btw) that included croissants, cereal, (American) bacon, sausage, eggs, fruit, yogurt, and a myriad of drink selections.  It was a great way to begin the morning, which was very good because we were going to be fairly busy once again.  LOTS to see this day – it’s a good thing I wrote much of it down.

So, after breakfast we loaded up on the bus and departed to meet our tour guide, Brian, just a few blocks from our hotel.  We picked up Brian and he started off right away with his bus tour intro and speech.  And WoW, he was fabulous!!!  By far the best tour guide I’ve ever had – he was so knowledgeable about every building we passed and could talk for hours about Parisian history and art.  He was full of random facts and jokes and definitely helped make history come alive for the kids.  I asked so many questions, too!  We all loved him. Later, I will put up pictures and descriptions of many of the places we passed and talked about so be looking for that in the coming days.  About halfway through our bus tour, we stopped at a small café (Le Vauban) for coffee (caffe) and toilets, which was just across the street from Napoleon’s resting place, (Musée de l’Armée in the Hôtel National des Invalides – the Army Museum section of The National Residence of the Invalids).  Pretty stinkin’ cool.  I had a caffe au lait (coffee with milk) and enjoyed every second of the cooler weather.  

Hotel National des Invalides, where Napoleon Bonaparte has been laid to rest

We boarded the bus again and made our way to our next stop – near the opera house.  You know, the one that inspired The Phantom of the Opera?  Yeah, that one.  I didn’t go inside because we were taking a tour of a perfume museum. 

Hold up.  Did you just say perfume?

Yes.

But Aimee, you’re highly allergic to perfume.  As in, you puff up and get really bad rashes and hives and redness and ick when even a little bit touches your skin.

Again, yes.

So… why the museum?

1. History
2. France is famous for their perfume
3. It was something different

Now, I didn’t WEAR the perfume and I tried really hard, when they gave you the smelling stick, to grab the end that DIDN’T have the smell and I didn’t have a problem.  It was fascinating, though, the museum.  I had always wondered why perfume was so freaking expensive – and I found out why.  Basically, they take flowers, pulverize them, take the juice and then separate it in a special bottle.  During that time, the oil will rise to the top and the water will sink to the bottom.  Perfume, or parfum, is the oil that is on the top and it takes hundreds of pounds of flowers to make one bottle of perfume.  ONE bottle!  And the bottles come in different sizes.  The cheapest one, the “travel size” one, was 29€.  I also learned that perfume hates light, humidity, and heat.  Which means, ladies, that if you rub your wrists together when you put perfume on, then you’re actually ruining the scent and making it not last nearly as long as it would if you just dabbed a little on.  You’re supposed to put it on your wrists, yes, as well as behind your ears, but you NEVER rub wrists together.  Never.  After that, I visited the gift shop, of course, and made out with some great stuff.  If I had had time for the opera house, I would have loved to go inside.  If I ever make it back to Paris, I think that will be one stop I’ll be making.  The history and the inspiration of the Phantom won’t be too good to pass up the next time.

After the Musée de Parfum, we got back on the bus and went to Versailles!  This was one trip that I had not been able to make my previous go-round, so I was excited to get to see it in person.  As a child, maybe 5 or 6, I went to an exhibition of the Palace of Versailles and absolutely fell in love with it.  I made a decision as a kid that I would see it in person one day – and now I have. Yay!  The only critique I would have is that I wish we had more time at the palace.  We had roughly 4 hours, during which we ate lunch, visited the gardens, and went on a short tour.  Now, for most people, 4 hours might be enough time to visit a museum.  Not me.  I could spend all day in a place like that.  

The front gates of the Palace of Versailles, France

Ok, so here’s how it went:

1. Get off the bus.  Great step.  We’re heading in the right direction.

2. Get our ear phones and transmitters to help us hear our tour guide, Brian, in the palace since there were LOTS of other people there.  Those transmitters were crap, btw.  Mine started off fine and then gave out about half of the way through so I had to make sure I stayed close to Brian so I could hear what he had to say.  My transmitter started growling at me.  And I really mean growling.  It was painful!  But I did learn a lot about the palace, the rulers, and the secrets.

3. Get put in group 1 or group 2 for the palace tour.  I was put in group 2.  Our traveling group was so big that we had to split up so we didn’t take up so much room in the palace with all of the other tourists walking around.  It sounded like a great plan at the time.

4. Since I was group 2, the next step was to get our tickets for the Versailles Gardens.  Got ticket, now enter.  Awesome, we’re in the gardens with our sandwich lunches we purchased before entering Versailles.  Gotta tell ya, I was so looking forward to seeing the gardens in person and they were pretty.  I didn’t see what I expected to see, though, which, for me, was a little disappointing.  The gardens were all swirly and many of them were landscaped but the real beauty of the gardens, besides it being so peaceful (and EXCEPTIONALLY GIGANTIC) were the fountains.  Let me clarify – the fountains when they’re on.  See, it costs so much to run the fountains that they only turn them on for short periods of time on the weekends and on special holidays.  We (Renee, Camryn, and I) went in the gardens and walked around various parts, which I’ll have to detail later, until about 2:30 – the fountains were to turn on at 3:30 and I was SO disappointed that we were going to be in the palace at that time.  Sad right?  First world problems.  Anyway, the palace is in so much debt that it’s difficult to restore many things as well as pay for the running of the fountains; they were also being worked on at the time so when 3:30 came around, there was one little fountain that came on.  One.  And it was less than stellar so I didn’t miss much, but I was sorely disappointed that the gardens were not at their full splendor while we were there.

Latona Fountain and Parterre, Gardens of Versailles

Orangerie, Garden of Versailles

5. Meet at 2:40 to go into the palace.  This tour, while we only had time for just a few rooms, was absolutely fabulous!  We saw the most famous rooms, the rooms King Louis XIV entertained in, danced in, played and gambled in, slept in, and generally ran his kingdom from.  They really were splendid, colorful, and full of purpose.  I could go on for quite a while about the paintings and the history and the grandiose nature of the place as a complete shrine to The Sun King, Louis XIV, but I won’t here.  I DID see the hall of mirrors, though, and that was truly spectacular.  The pictures are gorgeous, but it really is a sight to behold when you get to stand in it and realize that kings, princes, princesses, leaders, and those other important historical figures walked and danced (and pooped) on those floors.  I was sad to learn about how much was destroyed during the French Revolution but was glad that what did survive were many of the most important pieces of the French court.  Versailles was a glorious experience that I will DEFINITELY be going back to in the future.  I’ll allot an entire day to it, too, and go when it’s cooler.  That part is important.

Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles
This room was the token room for King Louis XIV, The Sun King

6. Finish tour and meet to leave the palace.  This was the most heartbreaking part of the day for me – having to leave.  I wanted to keep going on the tour and asking questions and learning about the history of the palace and the people who called it home.  Brian was so informative and could, quite literally, discuss one painting, ONE PAINTING, for an entire day.  We could all tell that he absolutely loves his city, its history, and is so proud to be Parisian.  BTW, he’s also an American.  He was born and lived in Brooklyn until he was two when his mother (who is Parisian) moved her family to Paris where Brian went to school and grew up as a Frenchman.  No French-English accent, either, as his father was American.  He truly was fascinating, welcoming, and exuberant.  I wish he would guide us on more tours!

Ok, so Versailles was over with and dinner was very soon so we boarded the bus and headed off to 

Flam for, well, flam.  I had never heard of it before but it was delicious.  Apparently, it is a German invention that is similar to pizza.  Basically, it is a cracker-like thin crust that is topped with cream, cheese (not cream cheese – commas are very important), and any other topping that you want.  We had one with beef and chives, and another with bacon.  Then there was dessert flam.  Again, cracker-like crust with cream, cheese and any topping you want.  Our dessert flams were topped with chocolate, apple slices and cinnamon, and caramel. And, wow, were they good!  I found out later that flam was invented in Strasbourg, which was actually the next city we were going to be visiting.  Pretty neat stuff!  I think the kids all enjoyed it and they’re doing pretty well for not knowing much about the different cultures.  Some are still struggling with not having air conditioning or ice or refills, but for the most part, they’re going with the flow and having a great time!  I think we all are.  It’s definitely not without its struggles, with the sleep deprivation and the language barriers, but we’re making it and keeping a great attitude.

After dinner, we took our first metro ride of the day.  Since Flam was near the Champs-Élysées, we got to walk down much of the street and take in the culture and shoppes, and the children dancing, the smell of bread, cheese, caffe, people, and the sounds of hundreds of people enjoying Paris.  So basically, the northern end of the Champs-Élysées, the end with the Arc de Triomphe, has all of the commercial stores like the Disney store, the Apple Store, clothing stores, etc.  The southern part, the part with the obelisk (I’ll discuss that in a future post), has the local tents and merchandise.  That is the stuff I prefer.  Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to stop and enjoy it.  On to the metro!  We took it to… I have no idea what stop but we were on our way to a 1-hour boat tour down the Seine River.  Finally, something peaceful to do!  We got our first good, close glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, too.  Something I already have about 20 pictures of but just had to get some more.  Then we walked down to the boats, about a 10 minute walk, boarded the boat and rode it up and then down the Seine River taking in some of the most iconic locations the city has to offer, like the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, the Grand Palace, and Notre Dame.  We also passed the little island where Paris started over 2000 years ago, but those dang Romans had to go and conquer the tribe that lived there. It was a fairly large island but is now connected to the banks on either side of it.  Ooo! We also saw that bridge that’s been in the news recently – the one with the love locks.  Yeah, you really can’t hang locks on that bridge anymore but many more bridges have locks nearly covering them so don’t everyone get all huffy and upset.  The tradition will continue – just not in the same place.  It’s understandable that it would have to be taken down – those bridges are old and were getting very heavy, too heavy for the foundations.  But that tradition is definitely not lost so go and get a lock with your loved one and make that known to everyone!  (btw, I also saw the same thing later on in Heidelberg.  Pretty cute.)

Right, so the boat tour was relaxing and definitely helped cool everyone off.  I felt a bit more refreshed after I stepped off the boat.  After boat ride was the Eiffel Tower.  *Sigh* I love the Eiffel Tower, but there are always too many people standing in line!  Now, I’d already been up to tower on my previous trip so it wasn’t something I needed to do again – I wanted to save my money for something else.  So, Renee and I hung out down below, people watched, souvenir shopped, and ate.  Again.  The Flam wasn’t very filling because it was so very thin so we were hungry.  I got fries and a bretzel sucre (sweet pretzel).  That definitely hit the spot!  Then we people watched.  Several vendors were apparently chased away by the police, which sounded exciting – po-po running full tilt after people selling cheap stuff.  Basically, the guys selling the really cheap stuff are illegal aliens, mostly from Africa, who avoid the police at all costs.  When the police see them, they track them down and, when they catch them, ship them back to their home country.  So, vendors running full away, spilling much of their merchandise, just for the sake of a few Euro really is a sad reality and just goes to show what people will do to have a better life for themselves.  The sad thing?  Within 2 minutes, it seemed as though twice as many new vendors showed up wanting to sell their merchandise (cheap Eiffel Tower keychains, light up towers, laser pointers, etc.) and hoping someone would say yes.  A few of our kids did, and I know the vendors were grateful, but for me it’s just a bother.  If I want your business, I’ll go to you.  Please don’t come begging to me.

This is getting long… um… after the Tower, which did light up, we took another metro line to the hotel for bed.  The great thing?  We were going to sleep.  The bad thing, we had a 5:20 meeting time the next morning for our next city.  What time did we get back?  Midnight.  What time did we (Renee and I) wind up going to bed?  2:30.  Renee is such a great person and we really hit it off, I think.  So we talk all the time, which means we lose sleep, but I don’t mind!  It’s nice to have a like-minded person to share a room with. 

I debated not even going to sleep since I knew I would feel exhausted the next morning, but I went to bed anyway.  Yeah, I don’t think I should have done that.  What I should have done was continue documenting my experiences and just sticking it out until the following night.  I was so dead the next day, I could barely function.  If I hadn’t written any of it down, I wouldn’t have remembered anything we did.  What did we do? Read on to find out!

Taxis and Macaroons

7 June 2015

Wow, ok so today was a pretty busy day.  Sadly most of us were so dead to the world that it was difficult to enjoy or even comprehend the days events.  We all met downstairs in the lobby of Novotel for the bus at 5:20, grabbed our bags of breakfast they so kindly put together for us and waited for the driver to show up.  Breakfast was interesting… there was some delicious yogurt drink that I downed in about 3 seconds.  Then I had a second one because someone else didn’t want theirs.  The bottle was tiny so I didn’t feel like a pig having a second one. There was an apple in the bag that was good, along with an applesauce squeeze, orange juice (which was NOTHING like the juice we would think of – like it was made from the orange peel, not the pulpy, yummy inside. It was almost clear and was not very good.), a chocolate chip muffin-like pastry, and shortbread.  I saved mine for a while because I didn’t want to eat at 5:30am and be hungry again at 10 am. 

Right, so that day started off well. 

Lies. 

We were all in the lobby by 5:30 waiting for the bus.  Our tour director, Michela, came in about 5:50 and said that there was a problem with the bus (it broke down…) and that they were sending another one.  6:15 she announced that the company was not sending us a bus and we were going to be taking a taxi to the train station to catch our train to Strasbourg, France.  I heard ‘taxi’ and immediately started to fear for my life.  Like I said in a previous post, there don’t seem to be many traffic rules – people just kind of do what they want and it’s all supposed to work out.  Needless to say, I was excited to take a taxi but scared at the same time.  I’ve never ridden in a taxi before so that was going to be a new experience altogether.  I was pretty certain our driver would get us there safely, but the way there I anticipated to be frightening.  I guess it was a good thing we took one on a Sunday.  There was hardly any traffic so there was no weaving in and out of a hoard of cars, or lots of bikes passing between cars or crazy moving around in the seemingly non-existent lanes.  He stopped short just a couple of times but otherwise, the ride was just like a ride in Memphis.  No big deal.  I rode in the first taxi with Michela and Conner, a student from Florida.  We were all pretty cozy in the back seat but quiet because we were all still so tired.  So, fleet of taxis going to Gare de l’Est bringing students and teachers who would rather sleep to a place to wait.  And that’s what we did for about an hour and a half.  We waited.  EF Tours policy is to be at your mode of transportation 3 hours in advance – our train didn’t leave until 8:25 – we could have been there at 7:30 and been just fine.  So we waited until about 8:10, then we boarded the train to Strasbourg.  I wrote some of the way and slept the rest.  Man, that train was comfortable, considering I would have laid on the floor if the conductor didn’t have to walk up and down the aisle.  Everyone else slept, too.  Poor, tired Americans.  But you can’t blame us.  When we don’t get finished with our day until after midnight and then have to be UP at 4:30 the next morning, you’d be tired, too. 

I didn’t take in much of the French countryside because I was asleep most of the time, but we did make it safely to Strasbourg, France, which is on the border between France and Germany.  Strasbourg has a rich, socially confusing history that I will hopefully help explain a little later in a different post – not here.  That would take too much time.  We got off the train, dragged our luggage downstairs, and met our tour guide for the city, Nikole.  She was very sweet.  Then, our bus driver met us (young, fairly attractive, especially since he speaks, like, 3 languages.  Then again, most everyone in this part of the world does), and we went on a bus tour of Strasbourg.  Honest, I’m not sure that was such a good idea because all the kids (and adults) wanted to do was sleep, which I know some of them did.  But we learned a lot about the city and it’s history, which I always enjoy.  It’s fantastic to plug in what I’ve learned in my history classes with the history that happened in other countries at the same time.  The world has been so global for such a long time, we just don’t realize it.  But I’m not getting in to that.  We all have a life to live and limited time with which to do that.  After the bus tour, we did a walking tour which, again, I’m not sure was the best idea because we could barely comprehend where to put our feet much less how to use our ears.  I did take notes over Nikole’s tour so hopefully I’ll remember what they mean when I get to writing about our experience.

After the walking tour, we stopped in the city center and were on our own for a couple of hours for lunch and shopping, etc.  Renee, myself, MyKel, and Brittany all went to a little restaurant called Brasserie l’Italia, which, obviously, was an Italian restaurant that was VERY good. I had Spaghetti 4 Fromages, which is spaghetti with four cheeses.  I ate every bit of that pasta dish.  I noticed that not many people in Strasbourg seemed to speak English – we used our limited French to order our lunch, but it was all correct.  I did ask the waiter of he knew English, after we conversed a little in French, and he said “a little” which means different things to different people.  I didn’t want to say something he didn’t understand so I ordered in French, at least, I did my best to order in French.  Overall, lunch was good but we had to move on.  We went inside the cathedral in the city center, Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg, which was beautiful.  And no, this was not the same Notre Dame as in Paris.  It was modeled after that one and has the same name, but is also full of its own history and story.  It is the oldest cathedral with all of the original stained glass in it, which I’ll discuss, again, in a future post.  Not enough time here.  But it was beautiful.  In case I haven’t already said, Notre Dame means ‘Our Lady’ so lots of French cathedrals will have the same name.  Pretty nice, huh?  

Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg, Alsace, France
*This is not my picture; I had to borrow one from the internet because mine turned out terribly*

Stained glass in the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg, Alasce, France
All of the stained glass in the cathedral are the original pieces.  They are the oldest in France.

After the Cathedral, we shopped a little, found the free toilets, and got macaroons, since this was the last French city we would be in.  I had never had a macaroon and, quite honestly, thought they were very different than they actually were.  I thought they were a nutty cookie, and since I don’t do nuts in my food, had never had one.  They might be different in the States, but macaroons in France are little cake cookies with flavored filling.  Some of them have the flavored filling and ice cream or gelato in the middle.  So. Freaking. Good.  I only got two, a caramello and a caffe, and would have gone back for more if we had more time.  

My first macaroons!  I should have bought 10 of them.
Strasbourg, Alsace, France

From there, we walked back to the bus and rode it to Heidelberg, which was only about 2 hours from Strasbourg and the town where our tour director, Michela, is from and currently lives in.  I can’t tell you how wonderful I thought Heidelberg was.  It was the biggest small town I’ve ever been to, and very safe.  Plus, it’s in the mountains, which only added to its beauty and charm.  Heidelberg has just about everything that a big city would, but it’s quiet, small, and friendly.  And everyone speaks English but we all tried to be good Americans and use the little German we know to communicate.

So, we took the bus to Heidelberg and took a small bus tour on our way to the restaurant for dinner.  Michela loves her town and I think she could talk about it all day.  Honestly, I’m not sure we were all very excited about Heidelberg at the very beginning but it was definitely a city I think we all grew to love by the end.  We didn’t so very much that evening because everyone was so tired.  But we did to go dinner at Schnookeloch, a German pub, where we were served bratwurst, sauerkraut, fried potatoes, and a semi-liquid chocolate pudding for dessert.  It was all wonderful.  And look at me, someone who HATES trying new food, I tried the sauerkraut and I absolutely LOVED it!  I put it all over my bratwurst and ate most of it.  They gave me a lot so there was no way I was going to eat it all.  But I cleaned my plate and my dessert bowl, too.  I really liked the pudding even though the texture was like melted ice cream.  But it was good.  After dinner, we got back on the bus and went to check in at the hotel, NH Hirschberg Heidelberg.  The rest of the evening we stayed at the hotel, relaxed, went to bed, socialized, or whatever we wanted to do.  It was wonderful have a nice relaxing, early evening with the knowledge that we wouldn’t’ have to get up until 7:00 the next morning – which by all the standards of this trip so far, was sleeping in.  I took a well deserved shower and went to bed around 11:00, I think, and slept really well for the first time since the trip started.

Honestly, I had forgotten how exhausting traveling abroad can be those first few days.  I mean, when I landed in Dublin, I remember being tired, but I was also running on adrenaline having never stepped foot in a foreign city before, and I was taking everything in.  We walked a lot that first day, too, and I remember feeling disgusting and looking like a hot mess along with the rest of my group.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m 7 years removed from that experience or not, but these first few days really were rough.  I think the worst is behind us, though, and the rest of our trip will be a little more leisurely.

Alright, well, this is already getting to be very long and I’m sure you’re tired of reading now, so I’ll stop here and gather my thoughts (and notes) for my next post and I’ll see you on the other side.

Auf Wiedersehen! Bis zum nächsten Mal.