Équipe Brest 2017: Paris

We were due for a day in which everything went right, and Wednesday was our day.

We arrived for our guided visit of the Musée d’Orsay and were ushered in with virtually no wait. We picked up what we thought were mp3 players, but turned out to be devices on which we could hear our guide without her shouting.

The guide was absolutely fabulous. She spoke French slowly that the students understood quite well. She explained the origins of Impressionism with artworks that were right in front of us. Then she led us into the gallery of Impressionism and tied what we saw there with what we had seen before. We saw colors and details in paintings none of us had imagined. She explained how these painters understood how the human eye perceives color, even though they were not scientists and had not studied perception.

In the end, it was an extraordinary museum experience for us all.

We then high-tailed it to the Champs de Mars, the park at the feet of the Eiffel Tower, so we could picnic in the shadow of the iron lady. (Actually, it was cloudy, so there was no shadow.) Everyone took pictures and fell in love with the grand lady of Paris.

A sudden light rain shower sent us headed to our Métro stop quickly. But we had an appointment with Montmartre.

Montmartre, the hill overlooking the heart of Paris has its own history. We met a group of actors there who took us through that history from the point of view of people who lived there at the turn of the 19^th century. The visit was funny and fun, even if our students didn’t get all the jokes and historical references, and the actors spoke French as if they were native French speakers.

The end was perfect as the actress who played “la Belle Gabrielle” and the actor who played “Jean-Jacques Latour” danced with Loïc and Évie respectively.

We had a bit of free time before we needed to meet for dinner. One group headed for the Centre Pompidou (the modern art museum), another for Notre Dame, another stayed in Montmartre. And one group fulfilled Ash’s wish to visit Les Invalides and Napoléon’s tomb. To quote Ash, “C’est le meilleur jour de ma vie!” (We’ve actually heard her say this before…)

We met back up at the auberge before dinner. We headed to Flunch, which is a buffet-style restaurant chain. Ours happened to be in the Pigale district, not far from the Moulin Rouge. We saw some curious things on our walk. But everyone was full when we started back to the auberge to pack for the return home.

Thursday morning, we said goodbye to Abby and Sophia who were staying in Europe to travel with their families. After a couple of free hours in the neighborhood, we drug all our bags down to the square in front of the Trinité church to await the bus that was to take us the Aéroport Charles de Gaulle. We left Loïc and Évie behind, as they were staying in France to visit their families. Micah got a head start on saying goodbye, even though he was to be with us all the way to Indianapolis.

On the bus on the way to the airport, there was one last rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner and the Marseillaise.

Some flight delays caused us to arrive in Indianapolis at 2 am, but our families accepted us anyway!