Traveling to Paris

Ok, so now we can get into the good stuff. As you all know, I went to Paris on Friday, and I got back to London late last night. How did I get there, you ask? Oh. It was quite an adventure. A twelve hour adventure, mind you.

My group of seven girls, Caitlin, Alex, Katie, Hazel, Erin, Jessa, and me, got onto the Tube at the Baker Street station close to school at around 6:00 p.m.  We took the Tube to Victoria Train Station, where we got on a train that took us to Brighton, UK.  From Brighton, we got onto a coach, or charter bus.  That bus drove for two hours, where it then pulled inside a cargo train car, that went into the the Chunnel to France.  Holy claustrophobia.  If it wasn't for the fact that I was exhausted by this point, I would have been freaking out.  But once we got out of the Chunnel (it only took about 35 minutes of actual traveling in the tunnel itself), we had a bit of a wait in the terminal place. We got some water, ate a bit of a snack, and waited. Then we got back on the bus, which drove us the rest of the way to Paris.  I tried to stay awake a bit so that I could see the French countryside, but it was impossible. And also, it was about 2:00 a.m.

We stopped at a rest stop at around 4:00, where I changed my clothes and freshened up as best as I could.  The next time I woke up, I was greeted by L'Arc de Triomphe.  Not a bad wake up call, if I do say so myself.  It was built by Napoleon in 1806, but took thirty years to complete. I was shaking in my boots, I was so excited.  Mind you, I am the only one of the seven girls that went that spoke a lick of French, or knew anything really about French history.  So I was dying of excitement the whole day, and they probably wanted to kill me.  

We then got back on the bus and drove down Le Champs Elysees, which is comparable to Rodeo Drive.  The shops are pricey, you shop there if you have beacoup d'argent! 

After this we took  a little drive, catching the Paris Opera and L'Obelisk.  We stopped to take a quick picture of Les Invalides, which was originally built as a hospital and retirement home for French war veterans.  Today it serves as a museum for military history, and houses the tomb of Napoleon. 

Mind you, I have "slept" on the bus.  But it is about, 9:00 at this point.  I haven't showered. I'm feeling a bit greasy.  But I am so awake.  The bus stops again by the River Seine this time, and we get to go into this little boat to freshen up a bit.  It is not until I get out of the bathroom on the boat that I look and see, THE EIFFEL TOWER. I am at this point like a little kid at the circus. I don't know if my friends really knew how excited I was.  But we walk to the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, and then we walk up this hill by what is called Trocodero. It was great for taking pictures, but there were so many sketchy people trying to shove little Eiffel Tower key chains on us. It was not pleasant dealing with them, I finally just told one of them, NON, JE NE VOUDRAIS PAS YOUR EIFFEL TOWER. The Franglais worked, ladies and gentlemen. Merci, Madame Sellers, my high school French teacher!

After this, we went to Notre Dame!