Paris is a Whirlwind

On Sunday we went to mass at Notre Dame,  it was great.  We also ate at a Couscou restaurant and had an amazing variety of great food.  After running around some more I brought Deb back to her hotel and we awaited Jenn's return from Germany.  No problems this time!  I then went back to Fontenay Aux Rose on the train and became completely lost.  It was around 10:30 at night, not the best time to be lost in Paris.  Luckily I was able to call Lori, and she reminded me of the Mediatechnique we were staying close to, so I just walked the streets for about an hour, asking people if they knew where it was.  No one seemed to, and finally on my own I was able to find it.  When I got to the house, I could not work the key to get in and once again had to rely on Lori to let me in.  Seems the key is a little tricky because Lori had similar problems.


We are going all around Paris.  Yesterday we went to the Louvre, the Arc de Triumphe, and another Arc where we went to lay a wreath on the grave of the Unknown French Soldier.  Melanie and John did the actual wreath placing and the students all participated in the activity.  My role was that of pack mule because most of the students handed me bags and cameras to hold.  I held them for over a 1/2 hour and my arms were pretty sore, but the students all enjoyed the activity.  We walked many miles yesterday, and the walking took its toll.  Deb is sore and I had hamstring and calf spasms last night.  Today we went to the St. Michel Fountain and the D'Orsay Museum.  In two days we have seen many of the works done by leading artists throughout history. Pannini remains my favorite (not the sandwich, the artist).  We'll put some good pictures on here very soon!

Tonight if we're able to walk(and the judge is out on that), we will go to the Eiffel Tower.  We also tried to find a laundrymat, with no luck.  We had better soon of I will be walking outside sans clothing.  Where we are staying has a washer, but no dryer and they hang the clothes in the basement to dry.  If the towels are an indication, I will not want my clothing dried in that manner, because the towels feel like drying with brillo pads! 

As in Venice, many places in Paris charge to go to the toilet, so my advice to anyone coming here, make sure you have many .50 and 1 Euros on you.  The trains and Metro are pretty easy to get around on, and I'm sure by the time we leave I won't be getting lost as often as I do now.  Big place, lots of sights and adventures!

Addendum.  We did go to the Eiffel Tower and th students asked me to take a picture of them with the Eiffel Tower in the background.  I did, and as I did Jenn took a picture of me on the ground.  It looks like I got mugged! What I won't do for my students, LOL.