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Paris/Annecy
Day One:
After a seven and a half hour flight, our plane actually got to the Paris airport thirty minutes ahead of schedule, around 11:00 am. We all loaded onto the bus and headed to the hotel only to find when we got there that our rooms were not ready for us. So, our group leaders took us around the area and showed us where the nearest metro stop was and also showed us where our welcome dinner for that night would be. After that, Melissa and I headed back to check into our room where we then showered. We then left to go to the Eiffel Tower. It was a gorgeous day. We took pictures and ate ice cream. After a few hours sitting around enjoying the view, we went back to the hotel where we fell asleep. We got up in time just to meet the group for dinner. After dinner, Melissa and I ran into this other girl named Mary in the lobby of the hotel. So the three of us went to a café across the street and got dessert. After that we were all ready to crash.
Day Two:
This was our first day of class. We started it off by getting up at 7:00 to eat breakfast provided to us by the hotel. It was pretty decent. There was toast, crescents, fruit, yogurt, eggs, cereal, etc. Then we had our first art class of the trip. Afterwards we headed out to meet the group at the D’Orsay museum. There was an elephant statue outside. I of course had my picture taken with it. Our teacher gave us a brief tour of the museum in which she pointed out paintings we had talked about in class. Then we were given time to wander around by ourselves. The museum itself was beautiful. It is in the old train station. Most of the artworks in this museum are newer than those in the Louvre, from the 19th century mostly. It had a lot of Impressionist and Surrealist work. We saw some Van Gogh as well as some Monet. After the D’Orsay we headed over to the Louvre where we ate lunch at a café there. We couldn’t really read the menu so we ordered whatever looked slightly familiar. Then we of course took pictures outside with the pyramids. When we finally
got to go inside our professor once again took us around to show us paintings that she had pointed out in class. Then Melissa and I actually walked around for a couple hours after that. We went through the entire Richelieu wing which we didn’t get the chance to go to when we were in Paris. There were some very interesting things there. I enjoyed getting to see the rooms that they had set up like the apartments of Napoleon III. They were very ornate and reminded me a lot of Versailles. Melissa and I were pretty exhausted after all that walking around so when we finally got back to the hotel we again took a nap for about 3 hours. Around 10:00 we decided we should probably get something to eat. We actually went to a Chinese restaurant just next door to the hotel. It was pretty good. While we were there these two British guys came in, and we talked to them for a while. They seemed impressed by what we were doing. They were in town on business having something to do with the French open. After we left the restaurant we just went back to the
hotel, got online, sent a few e-mails, talked to a few people online, and then went to bed.
Day Three:
We had music lecture in the morning from 8:30 to 10:00 but then we had most of the afternoon to do whatever we wanted. So we went out to Notre Dame where we took pictures and walked around inside. After that we got back on the metro and headed to the Arch de Triumph. We chose not to go up to the top because it cost 9 euros and we had both done it before. But we took some pictures and then walked all the way down the Champs Ellysie (spelling?) where we got on another metro stop to head back to the hotel. I believe we actually took another nap. We had to leave the hotel around 7:30 to head to this jazz club where we were going to a concert. Unfortunately, we had to pay the 10 euro to see this concert. I was under the impression that our tickets to this stuff would be paid for, but apparently not. We are also apparently responsible for our own transportation to get to these places. Melissa and
I ended up having to by more metro tickets because we only bought enough to go to the places we wanted to go on our own. After the concert, we walked around the area with a bunch of people before we headed back to the hotel to finally get some sleep.
Day Four:
We had another music lecture in the morning from 8:00 to 9:00. Afterwards we went to the Opera House where we had to sit around outside for over an hour because they were having issues getting tickets. Well, we finally got to go inside and it was so beautiful inside. This is the Opera House where the phantom supposedly resides. After the Opera House, we went to the Pompidou which is the modern art museum. It’s a pretty ugly building. Melissa likes to say that it looks like a hamster cage, which is pretty much true. Before we went into the museum we got crepes for lunch. In the museum, we saw some Salvador Dali. This was the only name that I really recognized aside from the names mentioned in class. After the museum, we went back and took yet another nap. So unlike me,
I know. Then we went downstairs and were sitting in the lobby of the hotel when a big group of people came down and said they were going to Sacre Cur. So, we decided that we would go with them. We stopped and got pizza at a little restaurant right underneath the church. Then we headed up to the stairs in front of the church where we ran into almost the entire rest of our group. They were all listening to this guy that was singing and playing the guitar. He played a lot of songs that we knew and so we were all singing along. We actually talked to a few guys from France so that was pretty interesting. After the guy finished singing, somebody in our group actually went up to him and asked him a special favor. So then he played one more song, Georgia On My Mind, just for us. I came back to the hotel and had to finish packing. It was after 3:00 before I finally got to sleep.
Day Five:
We had to be up and ready to leave the hotel by 8:00. Then we spent most of the day on
the bus. It was rainy and pretty gross. I spent most of my time sleeping, but I got a good bit of reading done as well. We finally got to Annecy around 5:00, and it is beautiful there. It is this very small town in the mountains. We went into the center of town for dinner, and it is right on this lake with the mountains in the background.
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