France 2.0: Saturday, April 9.

Today's agenda includes the Musee d'Orsay, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, and shopping on the Champs-Élysées. On top of that, the weather forecast is for sunny and 75! We will spend this evening with our host families in Nogent.

First stop, d'Orsay. This beautiful museum has had an eclectic history. The building started life in 1900 as a train station. Later in life it served as a car parking garage. Now it is one of the most beautiful museums in the world. It houses works from Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Manet and Van Goth to name just a few. We did not have a group reservation, so we arrived at 9:00 to get in line. The museum opened at 9:30 and we were able to enter about 9:45. When we left at 11:30 the waiting line was probably 30 to 45 minutes long.

From the Orsay we walked down the Seine River toward Notre Dame. The Seine is a working river with all of it's banks lined with docks and walkways.


The Notre Dame Cathedral was crowded. There is a huge public plaza in the front and gardens in the rear. The construction was essentially completed in 1345, and is considered the finest example of French Gothic architecture in Europe.


We took the Metro from Notre Dame to the Arc de Triomphe. From the there the Champs-Élysées stretches a mile toward the Louvre. Because of the beautiful weather I think everyone in France was out shopping today. The streets were a mass of people of all sizes, shapes and colors. At 4:30 we collected to take the Metro back to the hotel to meet the tour bus by 5:00. The subway was very crowded, and we suffered another bump in the trip planning. One of the students missed getting off the subway at the right stop because the cars were so crowded. They had no cell phone, so Danielle went looking for her while I took the rest of the students back to the hotel to load the bus. Danielle texted me several times saying she had not been able to locate the student. All of a sudden the missing student shows up at the bus. They had managed to ask for help and navigated the subway back to the hotel all by themselves.

We left Paris at 6:00 and arrived in Nogent about 7:45. The French students and families were so excited to see us. The students Finally all headed out with their host families. My host is Patricia. She teaches at the High School in Nogent and has been active with the exchange program. We met up with her husband Dan at the art exhibition of a local artist who also teaches at the high school. About 9:00 we arrived at Patricia's home. They invited a neighbor to dinner and we ate and visited for hours. The neighbor is an American who moved to France 25 years ago, but is now spending a year in Texas, and this week is back in France for a week for business. Confusing? Anyway, we spent the evening talking education and politics, and comparing French and American systems. I can't even begin to summarize all the opinions and observations. As the evening came to a close I noticed the time. 1:45 AM. YIKES!!!! Suffice it to say that I slept well.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad