Thursday in Paris

Hello all-

Blogger Bradley here. I have been given the daunting task of writing the blog post for Thursday, today. We couldn’t write it Thursday, since we came back from the boat trip at 11 o’clock. But you’ll read about that later.

I am blogging to you all from the train headed to Madrid, but by the time you will all read this I (and the rest of the group) will be in Madrid. This will probably be a very short paragraph, since I can’t think of anything else that relates to train. Also, you all probably came to read about Thursday, not the train ride. But now you probably want to hear about both. And also about today, you’ll all want to hear about today. This is going to take a while…

Anyways, we had an exciting day yesterday. We went to the Opera (I am not sure what vowel gets the accent, but I am pretty sure it is not the “O”), which was very interesting. I thought the architecture looked very cool. They were two rooms that were designed to look like the sunrise and sunset. An interesting fact: You could use flash photography in the sunset room, but not in the sunrise room.

Next, we went to the Galleries Lafayette, a huge collections of department stores. I would say that they are bigger than your average department store in Milwaukee. We spent 1 hour and 30 minutes in those stores, but I ended up buying nothing. However, most of the girls bought some stuff, I am pretty sure. UPDATE: I will not have to write tomorrow’s blog post. I believe the 8th grade girls will write it. Anyways, after the Galleries Lafayette, we had lunch at various places. Some people had sandwiches, some had pizza. UPDATE: I will not write the rest of Thursday’s post, because I am too slow of a typist and the 8th grade girls want to write. From here on the post will be written by 8th grade girls, unless otherwise noted.

UPDATE: This is now the 8th grade girls and the teachers blogging! (And we love Bradley’s “UPDATE” technique, so you’ll definitely see more of it as we write.) At the Gallery Lafayette, like at the Opera, and like in the hotel room, Serena, as Shakespeare would say, puked! Poor Serena had an upset stomach for most of Thursday, though we are happy we are say, she is back on top. As a matter of fact, today (Friday), Serena not only ate her own ice cream but also most of Michelle’s!

After Gallery Lafayette, we walked to the Louvre to take photos of the pyramid and then strolled through the Tuillerie Gardens. The bright sunshine and cool breeze made the gardens just lovely to sit in, taking in the views and people-watching. From the Tuillerie Gardens, we walked through Concord Square, where we saw the 3000-year-old obelisk from Luxor. From there we continued up to Champs d’Elysses for a bit more shopping.

With all that walking, we were completely exhausted at 4:30, so we took the Metro back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. After dinner came one of the most exciting parts of our trip: the Eiffel Tower and a boat ride down the Seine.

The Eiffel Tower “dazzled” us, as Michelle described it, with its tres magnifique views. Ratyhan would probably not have chosen the word “dazzle.” He might use words like “terrify.” However, he fought his fear of heights and edged his way to…about four feet from the railing. Mr. and Mrs. Pillai, he did make it all the way to the edge eventually, and we have photos of his white knuckles to prove it. He even looked down the glass window in the floor to see exactly how high up we were!

The boat ride was exciting for those of us who stayed awake. Unfortunately, quite a few students, including the three girls responsible for this blog entry, fell asleep. Well, the three teachers enjoyed the breathtaking views of Paris’s lights.

The day was full of many events, some of which Serena would NOT like to relive, but she did buy herself a chic French Connection dress on sale at Gallery Lafayette, so the day was not a total loss for her.

UPDATE: It’s time to move on to Friday’s blog entry.

Here are our (tired) travelers at the top of the Champs d'Elysses:


Here is the lovely Mona Lisa:


Here is the dazzling Eiffel Tower: