Équipe Brest 2017: Paris

The French government kind of messed up our plans for Monday. We discovered that many sites and museums are closed on Monday. So much for our visit to the catacombs and Victor Hugo’s apartments.

Michael and Loïc’s group still visited the amazing Place des Voges, built by Henri IV and inaugurated on the event of the Marriage of his son, Louis XIII in 1602. Victor Hugo lived there in the 1800s. Since we couldn’t visit his apartments, we decided to go to the Picasso Museum. A quick internet check told us that was closed as well.

We wandered the streets of the Marais district and decided to have lunch in the Rue des Rosiers, the heart of the Jewish quarter, groups of three or four choosing different cafés. (Several chose a falafel restaurant.)

We decided to visit the museum of the Holocaust. Although unplanned, it was a very rewarding experience. The profundity of what happened to 6 million Jews and some 2 million gypsies and political prisoners during World War II really struck a chord with the students. The horror of the events and the honor of the people became real for them.

Lindsey and Évie’s group decided to visit the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, exhibition halls on the banks of the Seine with ever-changing exhibits. Unfortunately, the Petit Palais was also closed and the Grand Palais was expensive. In the end, they visited the Tuileries Gardens and a carnival that is a summer feature of the gardens. Imagine, Mari and Joseph in bumper cars!

We all met in front of the Comédie Française for our visit to the Louvre museum. It was really good that we had a group reservation as it is the height of the tourist season in Paris and there were hundreds and hundreds of people in line for tickets.

Even so, we had less than two hours to visit the third largest art museum in the world. We split into four groups, one with each teacher, and struck out to see ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, Renaissance painting (including the Mona Lisa), 18^th and 19^th century French paintings, decorative art from the 17^th and 18^th centuries and pretty much anything else you can imagine up to the 1840s. One group visited the Old Masters, Dutch paintings from the 16^th century including Rembrandt.

The students were overwhelmed after our whirlwind visit. But they all agreed that it was an excellent experience.

Afterwards, we stayed in small groups for free time and dinner. Michael’s group dined in the Tuileries, then stopped by the Madeleine church and visited Place Vendome and Rue du Rivoli, some of the most expensive shopping in the world. The others were equally as adventurous.

We capped the evening a tour of Paris – on a boat! We took the Vedettes du Pont Neuf for a sunset cruise on the Seine River. We got to see the Louvre, Assemblée Nationale, Place de la Concorde, the Alexander III Bridge, the Invalides and of course the Eiffel Tower all before we turned around. On the return trip we also saw Notre Dame, the museum of the Arabic world, and a beautiful view of the Île de la Cité as the sun sets in the west.

It was a long, hot day but really great!