Return to the Table of Contents

French Promenade
Clarissa Caplan

On April 7th, at 10:15 in the morning we arrived at Miami International Airport. On our way to France we took a connect flight into Washington, which was fun. We slept a little, relaxed and then got on our next flight to Paris which was very long. It was about 9 hours. When we arrived, we met up with our tour guide, Evelyn, who took us to our bus. While we waited for the other groups, the bus driver, Guido, put some French music on which was surprisingly not all bad at all.

We drove to Paris and we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The architecture was beautiful and it was so different from anything I’ve ever seen before, I loved it. After we spent about three hours in that area, we walked around the city. Around 5:00 P.M., we checked in the Hotel Versailles.

 
The second day in Paris, we visited Les Invalides, where Napoleon was buried. It was gorgeous, and the top was coated in gold. We also stopped at the Eiffel Tower to take pictures and walk around. After that we went to Versailles Palace. We learned about Louis the Sixteenth and a few other kings. We also learned about the royal system. Later in the day, we drove around Paris and stopped at Champs – Elysees.  However, most roads were closed due to a marathon.  That night we went to a restaurant in Paris and walked around and we learned how to use the Paris subway.

The third day in Paris we went to the Louvre museum.  We admired many paintings, including the Mona Lisa, statues, and the royal jewels and crowns.  Later we ate lunch.  We walked through the Tuileries Gardens and took the subway.  We visited some of the stores in the area and we had dinner. We took a tour on the Seine River.  The boat tour was a major highlight of Paris. The scenery was an unforgettable experience. We passed by the Notre Dame Cathedral while it was lit. That evening the tour took us back to the Eiffel Tower and we went up to the top.

The following day we left Paris and went to the Chartres Cathedral.  Later in the day we visited the winery and we saw the wine making process, including packing and shipping.  It was quite interesting. After the tour, we purchased wine, and stopped by the DaVinci Statue, and we headed back towards the hotel and ate there.

The fifth day, we went to the Loire Valley, visited the castle of Chambord, and had lunch at the castle.  On the eighth day, we went to the region of Brittany to the monastery of Mont St. Michel and to St. Malo known for its Corsair pirates.  We spent the afternoon shopping in the area.

On our last day in France, we started our day by driving to Normandy’s D-day Beaches. This trip there was very emotional, seeing the dugouts and the bunkers where the allied forces invaded France during WWII. We then stopped at the American Cemetery in Flanders, where more than 9000 American soldiers are buried.  Seeing the amount of crosses made a great impact on us. We are sure that the image of the crosses and the D-Day beaches will never be taken lightly.

We also stopped at the Arromanches Invasion Museum where we watched movies about World War II and saw models and photographs used by the Allied forces. We had lunch there, and then headed back to Paris for our last night in France. The trip back to Paris was exhausting having spent about three and a half hours on the bus.  Once in our hotel, we checked in and got ready for dinner. We walked to a little Italian restaurant for the last night. After dinner, we walked to a metro and spent our last evening shopping at the Champs – Elysees.  At around 11:00 P.M. we arrived at our hotel, Novotel, to spend our last night in Paris enjoying the scenery of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River.

The next morning, at around 7:00 A.M. we departed to London and took our last connecting flight through Chicago. We arrived home at around 11:30 P.M.  The Paris trip was amazing and the memory of so many great experiences will stay with us forever.

Top of Page