BLOG: French Students Travel Abroad for Spring Break

Day 1: We got to Paris and went for dinner up in Montmartre, the art district of Paris! Everyone was pretty jet lagged and slept well that first night!

 

Day 2: We had a bus tour around Paris and took a pit stop at Les Invalides. We learned about the Haussmannisation de Paris, which happened in the 1800's. An architect called Haussmann reconstructed Paris to have the large boulevards that we know today. This was done to help mitigate the street riots and barricades that broke out in Paris during this time, to help with hygiene, and for aesthetic purposes! We had a lovely time and learned lots! We also passed the obelisk that represented the place where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined. That afternoon, we had lunch in the Tuileries garden. We went into the Louvre where we saw the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa (in French La Jaconde), and many more amazing works of art! That night after dinne,r we went to the Eiffel Tower where we couldn't get up to the tippy top because of technical issues, but got to watch it light up! It was beautiful!

 

Day 3: Our last full day in Paris! In the morning, we went to the Musée D'Orsay with the famous clocks, full of impressionist paintings by Degas, Monet, Manet, and an exhibit on Van Gogh! Then, we crossed the river to have lunch at the famed Angelinas. All of the students tried the hot chocolate and LOVED it! It's more like melted chocolate than hot chocolate. We then walked down the Seine to the Latin Quarter, where we saw the front of Notre Dame (the back is still under construction from the fire) and went into Shakespeare and Company Bookstore! For dinner we went back up to Montmartre, toured the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, and went past Pablo Picasso's Parisian apartment. 

 

Day 4: We packed up and left Paris for Versailles. We had an amazing tour of the castle where we learned about the rooms inspired by the Greek Gods, and got to see how Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette spent all the money, which eventually led to the French Revolution. After Versailles, we bussed down to Chartres to see a cathedral that supposedly houses the veil worn by the Virgin Mary! We ended the day in Tours, which is found in the Loire Valley.

Day 5: We explored castles in the Loire Valley. First up was the Chateau d'Amboise where Leonardo da Vinci is buried. Then we went to the Chateau de Chenonceau, a castle that sits over top of a river. The castle was a gift from Henri II to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. After the death of Henri II, his wife, Catherine de Medici, took the castle back. That night we had a cooking class and the students learned to cook in French!

 

Day 6: A long bus ride took us to Mont St. Michel, an abbey which was created on a rock just off the coast in Normandy. It was Good Friday so we got to see some monks and nuns during a mass. Then we bussed into Bretagne to a coastal town called St. Malo. We walked along the ramparts and got to see how fortified the city is!

 

Day 7: Our last full day in France took us to Normandy in Arromanches where we explored the D-Day museum. We learned all about operations Mulberry and Overlord, which were key to help liberate France at the end of WWII. We also learned about the artificial harbor that was created off the beaches of Utah and Omaha - super cool!! After that we went to the American Military Cemetery and Omaha Beach. An incredible and sobering day!