Ohhh..Champs Elysees

As I last wrote, my next European Escapade would be to the lovely, romantic Paris! Classmate Angela and I signed up for a three day guided tour with the International Friends travel co.

We left Saturday morning at 6:00am.
It took about 2 hours to drive by bus to the port where we were to take our ferry.
We then took the fairy from Dover (white cliffs and castle in the distance) to Calais (another hour and a hald), and continued on bus to Paris (an additional 3 hours). Now, the ferry was so large, cars and buses could drive onto it, so we had the same bus all weekend.

After arriving in Paris, we had a coach tour of the city, which was a whirlwind and then were set free.

I had my first French meal (thankfully I know how to pronounce "quiche" and "lorriane". It also set a prescedent for my meals there as I mostly ate "quiche", "crepes" and "croque monsieur" (which is a fancy grilled cheese and ham sandwich).



Then, the next day we set out for a bunch of sight-seeing!
Sacre Couer (forgive my spelling), Notre Dame (got to see mass inside), Versailles, boat cruise on the Seinne, climbing to the tip top of the Eiffel Tower, to name a few.

Outside Notre Dame:

Me, in the courtyard of the Palace of Versailles:

Eiffel Tower from Boat Cruise:


Also, Art Nouveau is my favorite art movement. It came around in the early twentieth century and is just so graceful and beautiful. It was widely used in architecture in Barcelona, Spain, but Paris evidently has a great deal of it as well!




The final day (Monday), we went to the Louvre museum, which is an amazing collection of art, sculpture, pottery, paintings, and awesome.

I got to see the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and so many others.




My favorite painting was called "Psyche and Cupid". It is so sweet and romantic, I just loved it.



Then, we sailed back to England. And as the white chalk cliffs of dover came into view, I realized I only have 2 weeks left in England, so I'd better make the most of them!


Cheerio!
-L