Day 9 in Paris Pt. 2

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After a little bit of a slow start to our day but a much better than average in America hotel breakfast, we headed out to the Louvre with Mr. Marc Seray and Mr. Marc Baesjou (another one of the French hosts who also traveled to Atlanta last year and helped chaperone on this trip). It was an incredibly experience at the Louvre albeit somewhat scattered. It turns out that traveling with 18 people in a place where you can go in hundreds of different directions is not easy. This on top of the fact that according to one our students who researched it, it would take an entire year to see the whole Louvre even if you just saw each item for 30 seconds. We saw the Northern European art, the Ancient Greek and Roman statues, and of course La Jaconde (the Mona Lisa) among many other things that we could squeeze into just over 2 hours. After the Louvre, we strolled through the Jardin de la Touillerie and we picked up food from a local grocery store and picnicked to regain our strength. We navigated a closed subway station because of the ongoing transportation strikes (subway and trains) and eventually made our way to La Place de L’Assemblée to get back on the metro and travel to the Place de L’étoile to visit L’Arc Triomphe. Students waltzed down the famous Champs Elysees from there under a perfect Paris sun. Students shopped and took in the sights as they made their way back to the Tour Eiffel for a second time. After a few hours there and lots of great photos, we made our way to the Latin Quarter where students enjoyed one last French meal. The Latin Quarter is also a well known student hang out corner with an eclectic cuisine offering and a last chance shopping opportunity. Our night ended on a bit of a surprise with the news that Air France was on strike and our flight the next was cancelled. It was a long night for the teachers and a very short sleep for students...

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