Paris was wonderful!

Well, I am soooooo behind on this blog! I loved Paris. Paris is me. I want to live in France, now. Here's just a quick rundown on my trip:

Stayed in a private home, an apartment just a block from Metro Dugommier. The rest of the group stayed in a hotel off Rue St. Antoine, about a quarter mile from Place de la Nation. That was about 3 stops on the metro from Dugommier. Every morning I had breakfast with my host, Patrick. He ran across the street to the boulangerie and brought us back a fresh hot baguette, which we ate with butter and jam (confiture). I had my tea with sugar and milk, he had a cup of hot chocolate.

Once breakfast was over, I took the Metro to Nation, and joined my fellow travelers at the hotel. Since I had actually registered for the hotel, and paid for it, I helped myself to the breakfast there and fixed a sandwich for lunch. (One of my classmates wanted a private room, so she paid me back for my portion.)

About 9am every day, we all set out to explore Paris. The first day we went to L'Arc du Triomphe, and climbed all the way up to the top to see the views of the city. Yikes! I was NOT in shape, but I made it. Thought my legs were made of rubber by the time I got to the top. After we climbed back down, we sauntered up the Champs Elysee in pairs and met up at the Place de la Concorde. After that, we had lunch, then toured La Louvre (I got to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo!).

Subsequent days we saw several museums, including the Musee d'Orsay, L'Orangerie, and more. We went to St. Sulpice church, saw Napoleon's tomb, the Rodin museum.

On Friday, the group went to Versailles, but I went with my host and his girlfriend to Chateau Chenonceau on the way to her mother's home in Lavasseau, a village southwest of Paris (about 3-4 hours). We spent the weekend there, and it was wonderful. We went to a medieval festival honoring a fairy named Melusine in Lusignane. We explored the city of Poitiers. We visited churches and pondered the long history.

One day during the 2nd week, the group went to Normandie to the beach. I stayed in Paris and went to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where I saw Chopin's tomb, and finally found Jim Morrison's grave after two hours of walking. That cemetery is soooo huge, I only covered about 1/4 of it in over two hours.

We saw the Conciergery, the Catacombes with all the bones, walked all over the Latin Quarter looking for the bus stop that would take us back to the hotel.

All in all, a wonderful trip, and I would be back there in a heartbeat.