Paris Day 1

It started with a 3:15 a.m. wake-up call to be on the coach at 4:30 to make our way to the EuroStar station.  It's a beautiful place, and it had bathrooms we didn't have to pay for.  The thing travels at 195 miles an hour and goes thru the Chunnel, the tunnel that runs under the English Channel.

We seemed to arrive in Paris in no time.  Most of the Girls slept.  The grown-ups napped, read, or made room assignments.   Some of us drank coffee.

We arrived at the Paris station at 10 a.m., but our bus driver didn't arrive until about 11:30.  We made our way to the hotel but couldn't check in at that time, so we hoofed it to the Metro station to go further into the city.  There was a delay getting the tickets but eventually made our way to Les Halles Station to find something to eat.

That was no small thing, as things are rather spendy here, and no one was sure what sounded good.  We eventually decided on salads, pizza, and pasta.  After lunch, we had a walking tour of Paris, which led us to an Indian dance performance, which included audience participation.  A couple girls and two grown-ups joined in.  We'll leave it to you to guess who!  The dancing took place at an art museum, whose name escapes me at the moment.  It was an incredible building, one that took Parisian some time to get used to.

The walk continued to Notre Dame.  Words cannot describe that experience.  We were able to walk through it.  Some girls lit candles and wrote prayer requests for Carmelite nuns to pray.  We had free time after that, so our group sat at a sidewalk cafe and had various coffee drinks and ice cream.

We then made our way back to the Metro, Paris' subway transportation.  That has become a grand adventure, and we are quite familiar with it.  Tomorrow, we're inviting the Girls to take the lead on that endeavor.  (So we we make it back to the hotel, we will post more then.)

We met up with the rest of our tour group and had dinner at a curious little restaurant (again, the name escapes, but hey, I've had 105 mins of sleep since 7 a.m. Friday).  Then it was back to the Metro and back to our hotel.  The Girls showered (gratefully) and they turned in relatively early (GRATEFULLY!).  We get to sleep in until 7 a.m. (which is midnight Wisconsin time) when the Paris adventure continues ...