Hurry up, wait, don't sleep, and walk on

Monday, April 24 and Tuesday, April 25

After spending the morning preparing for the trip, we met at the Concord Coach bus station for our afternoon ride to Logan.  The bus ride went smoothly and with very little traffic in Boston (WOW!) we arrived early.  At the airport, some of us got a little extra unwanted attention from the TSA with special bag and body checks.  

The time at the airport was spent getting snacks and frantically figuring out who had been aissgned which seat and switching everyone all around so that they could sit with whoever they wanted to sit with.  Of course the airline had given us random seats throughout the back of the plane.  Fortunately, there were also several open seats in our area so we were all able to be together and have a little extra space.  We were ved dinner (the beef stew was good, the tortellini was not so good), and then we tried with all our might to sleep.  Some people, such as Brooke and Emma, actually got a few good hours.  Others slept a tiny bit, and most of us didn’t sleep at all.  

In the “morning” (11:30 PM in NH, 5:30 AM in Spain) the lights came on and we were served a wonderful breakfast of partially frozen cheese and tomato sandwiches accompanied by a full-sized Kit Kat bar.  We quickly went through passport check, found some real food, and onto our next flight, which was full to the brim with Spanish business travelers. 

Arriving in Paris, we were happy to see our suitcases and to spend lots of time changing clothes, washing faces, and reapplying makeup for those who wear it in the bathroom so as not to arrive in Paris looking like we spent the night not sleeping on a plane.  

Our amazing guide, Fabien, met us outside of the baggage area and brought us directly to our bus that was waiting outside the doors.  The ride into the city took about an hour because of the traffic and Fabien pointed out the sites along the way to those who were awake.  We arrived at the hostel and left our suitcases locked up in a room so that we could spend the day without them.  

We jumped on our first metro ride, which was overwhelming to many of us.  First stop, les Champs Elysées!  This large boulevard has fancy shops and restaurants and we grabbed some lunch before heading up 200+ stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  Our first site of the Eiffel tower, and the rest of Paris, was well worth the walk up! After this, we had some more time on the Champs Elysées before heading back on the metro to go to Montmartre.  We spent some time in the souvenir shops, some rode the carousel, and then we walked up to the top of the hill to see the Sacré Coeur church and the view of the city below.  

Arc de Triomphe

Champs Elysées

Le Métro

Sacré Coeur and Montmartre

Our dinner was in a lovely restaurant around the corner called La Bonne Franquette.  Some even enjoyed escargots!  The French onion soup got rave reviews and everyone enjoyed their dinner, the piano player, and the company!  We returned late to the hotel and after some towel complications, we went to bed sometime around 1:00 AM.