Easter Monday - lundi de Pâques

Good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight!!  We have been awake for too many hours and we are exhausted!!

We began our travels after Easter morning activities with our own families.  Concord Coach bus to Boston, followed by a mostly smooth but long check in for the flight.  The flight on Air France was a quick 6 hours where we were served dinner and breakfast.  There were many entertainment options and most of us slept very little.  We all sang happy birthday to Riley in the plane as she turned 17 while crossing the Atlantic Ocean!

Arriving in Paris, we zipped through the passport check and found our bags.  We took a little time to freshen up and then went out to meet our bus.  Easter Monday is a federal holiday so the trip into the city was quite quick without the normal Monday morning rush hour traffic.  We dropped our bags at the youth hostel and set off!

First stop, the newly renovated Notre Dame cathedral!  Before entering we were happy to meet up with Belmont's very own Leanna Rowley!  Leanna is spending a gap year teaching English in a French middle school and came to Paris to spend the day with us!  We had lots of hugs and catching up!

After Notre Dame we grabbed sandwiches, croissants, and pastries at a boulangerie and then we went to the Eiffel tower.  We took two different elevators to go all the way to the third floor, spent some time exploring, and then took another elevator to go back down to the second.  We walked down from there.

We had a bit of time to take some pictures with the bubble man and in front of the Olympic rings that they are keeping up for an extended time after the games last summer.  

A boat ride on the Seine was next and we were happy to see some sights while being able to sit down.  Our bodies needed a break!  Fatigue was taking hold and we decided to say goodbye to Leanna and go back to our hostel to relax, shower, and wait for dinner to be served.