Thursday November 27-Sunday November 30, 2008
From Home Alone I:
-Kevin, you are what the French call ‘Le Incompetent’.
This Week’s Travel Tip:
1) Paris is beautiful but I’m sure it’s much prettier in the warmer months than November. The gardens of Versailles would be gorgeous in the spring or fall.
2) Travel. There is so much to see in the world but don’t forget everything the United States has to offer. This trip has made me realize all of the wonderful places there are in the U.S. that I have not been able to experience yet.
3) Expect to spend money on Metro tickets. The subway system, the metro, is the only way to get around town efficiently. It’s impossible to walk everywhere you want to go.
American Song of The Week: The theme song from the film The Breakfast Club: “Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds. Heard in one of Paris’ 1000 souvenir shops.
Last Monday was a special day in the Holmes family. Mamma’s youngest grandchild, my sister Katy, turned 18 on Monday, December 1st. Happy Birthday Kat!
-On a sadder note, Paul Irwin Davis, one of the most interesting and knowledgable people I've ever met, passed away last week. I only knew him in his later and unfortunately sick years, but he was always a great time to be around and anyone that knew him knows you could talk to him for hours.
This semester I spent two hours a day commuting to and from school. On the weekends we had train rides with lengths of 2 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours, and even a couple days at 12 hours. You got to read about all of these except for our trip to Berlin. Berlin was the weekend before mid-terms so sorry I never got around to doing that one. It’s a shame though because Berlin was probably my favorite city and favorite weekend here. In the past 100 days I went to Oktoberfest, saw Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, toured Mozart and Beethoven’s homes, went skiing in the Swiss Alps, celebrated Miami’s 40th anniversary in Lux, saw the Berlin Wall, the Cliffs of Moher, Big Ben, Auschwitz, the beauty of Barcelona, and the Eiffel Tower. I have no complaints, it’s been a great semester, but the United States of America is still the greatest country in the world!It’s been an incredible semester and no better way to finish our travels than the beautiful city of Paris right?
Thursday’s train left Lux City at 7:00 PM with all of us carrying on our Thanksgiving dinner: Cold cut Turkey & bread, Honey Roasted Doritos, and a bottle of California red wine. I know we’re in the center of wine heaven but a bottle from the U.S. was a Thanksgiving exception. I am not the biggest NFL fan but it sure was weird to not have the option of watching football on Thanksgiving. We did however do what most families do on Thanksgiving and watched Home Alone, in our Hostel on a computer.
Friday morning we went to Versailles, on the edge of Paris. This is where King Louis XIV made his home. This estate is just unbelievable. The artwork inside is some of the best, even if most of it is of him. Louis was pretty fond of himself and the artwork shows. His palace goes on forever and the gardens outside did as well .
Friday night we headed to The Louvre. The Louvre is where Napoleon lived during his reign. It is now a world renowned art gallery that holds the original Mona Lisa. It has some other world famous sculptures but my art knowledge is very bad so I recognized them but I couldn’t tell you their names. We were in The Louvre for 3 hours and did not even make it halfway through the place. Most people would recognize The Louvre however from the movie ‘DaVinci’s Code’. Some scenes of this movie with Tom Hanks were shot here. To show how small a world it is I actually ran into a girl in the museum who graduated a year behind me at Watterson. She was studying in Rome through St. Mary’s College and her R.A. actually has a brother that is in the program in Luxembourg with me. It’s a small world.
After the museum we made our way up the first half of Champs-Elysees. This is the famous shopping street in Paris. Part of it is temporary souvenir shops, homemade products, and food while the other half is Louis Vuitton like stores. We only walked by the temporary venders, grabbed crepes and waffles for dinner and headed home.
Emily and I decided to go down the carnival slide with the kids!Saturday morning took us to a local flea market that Wyatt’s mom told us about. This was a street market on the edge of the actual city of Paris that had Army Surplus, Records, Bob Marley T-shirts, new tennis shoes, bullet proof vests, antiques, and everything else you could imagine. After a short time there and a few laughs we left and headed for the Eiffel Tower. It is as stunning a monument as I had built up in my mind. The structure is 1,063 feet tall and when you are standing below it it looks never ending. We decided we would wait to go up to the top until night. Then we headed to the other hot tourist stop of the Arc de Triomphe. It was built in honor of those who fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars. Eight of the main roads in Paris all converge into a round about that is chaotic around the Arc. We climbed the stairs up the Arc and had an incredible view over the entire city. The Eiffel Tower, Cathedral de Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triomphe, and the “downtown” are all very spread out as we learned looking over the city. It was just sunny enough to have a great view.
After the arc we headed to a seven story shopping mall that was the most hectic shopping mall I have ever seen. This mall/store was interesting because it was like a massive Macy’s in which everything was one store but it had all the brands you could think of just like a shopping mall. We did pass the Paris Opera House on the way so that was pretty neat.With it getting dark so early it was now about six so we headed to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. The European Union elects a president every six months from each of its member countries France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is currently the EU president so in honor the Tower is lit up blue at night and has the stars representing the EU on it.
About once an hour for a couple minutes the tower would blink of regular colored lights. Definitely one of the coolest things I have seen. Check out the video below. I turned my camera long ways to record it, but I still have not figure out who to correct it once its on the computer. Sorry...As we were standing in line to ride up to the top of the tower it the ticket sign repeatedly said ‘Top floor is temporarily closed’. As we got to the front of the line the sign changed and we could pay our 12 euro to get to the top of The Eiffel Tower. It is unbelievable how high up you are over this beautiful, freezing cold city.
On a dreary Sunday morning we got up and first went to Sacre Coeur Basilica. This is the popular Roman Catholic Basilica in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is located at the point of Montmarte, the highest point in the city. After being harassed by guys selling Eiffel Tower key chains and knock off Prada purses it was time to head to the Cathedral de Notre Dame.
We made it just in time for 11:30 A.M. mass. Most of the mass was in French but it was still an incredible experience.
After mass we took a few pictures, grabbed a crepe for lunch, and headed to the train station for our 2 hour high speed train ride home. Hopefully everybody has enjoyed reading this and if you did sorry this is the end. I learned a lot this semester and hopefully you learned something too! I made some great friends, spent too much money, and found plenty of new friends to play euchre with. We got to sample some great beer, plenty of good wine, and some excellent new cuisine. It’s a bittersweet end to the semester where everybody is ready to go home but we all know as soon as we get there we’ll want to come back.
Here are a few pictures that can maybe show the fun of the semester, from start to end....
