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.
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| 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?
- History
- France is famous for their perfume
- 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.
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| 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.
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| Latona Fountain and Parterre, Gardens of Versailles |
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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* |
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| 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.
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| 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.
