Paris, je t'aime!

Yesterday was our first of three days in Paris. It was quite an adventure! Everyone met at the train station in Rouen and sleepily got their tickets from our teachers before saying bye to our amis francais (who were going to school for the first day after vacation) and then went on the train. After about an hour we arrived in the city and met with our guide for our bus tour of Paris. When the tour began, many were relieved to hear that our guide was speaking English. We learned a lot about the different buildings in Paris as we drove by them, and many frantically attempted to take pictures from the windows. Some were more successful than others, and the chaos that took place inside the bus when we passed by le Tour Eiffel for the first time was enough for the bus to stop for a five minute break. Everyone piled out of the bus, with cameras in hand, and stood on the platform with a picture perfect view of Paris' main attraction. It's hard to think of another time we ever looked more like tourists. It was in front of le Tour Eiffel that we also had our first encounters with the men selling Eiffel Tower paraphenilia...everywhere. We were able to ignore the heckling in order to take pictures, for the most part. Once the bus tour was over and we had all seen the city, and the Seine, we entered the Musée du Louvre. The first task: our group all went to see La Joconde, otherwise known as the Mona Lisa. We had to push through the crowd surrounding the painting to get a decent look or picture. The size of the masterpiece was slightly suprising, and the large empty wall it was on only helped make the painting look smaller. After seeing that, we were allowed free time in which some looked at French paintings, while others went to the Egyptian and Mesopotamian exhibits. Everyone was able to see a lot of art and many sculptures. The visit was well worth the wait, although it was short lived. I'm sure we'd all love to have an extra week to go through all of the art in that museum. We ended the day with returning to l'Arc de Triomphe and walking up and down les Champs-Elysées. There was plenty of time to shop before returning to the train by the Metro. The Metro is a lot cleaner than the subways in Boston! Most of us slept on the train ride home, exhausted and already trying to ready ourselves for day 2 in Paris.