Monday, May 17, 2010

France: Paris


            On Tuesday, I met took the train from Montlogon to meet Katie in Paris.  We were both without cell phones so we planned to meet in front of Notre Dame de Paris at 9 am.  We had a baguette breakfast before meeting the Paris Free Tour group at 10 am at the Place Saint-Michel.  Our guide was very enthusiastic and the experience was quite enjoyable.  Afterwards, we took a walk down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées with our friend Ben who we met on the tour.  Our last stop that day was in the Musée d’Orsay on the left bank of the Siene. The Musée holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces (the largest in the world) by such painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Gauguin and Van Gogh.  Katie and I caught the train back to Montlogon, ate dinner, and watched a movie with Henri before bed.
            Wednesday, my last day in France, Mr. Jacqueau dropped Katie and I at the train station where we were off again to Paris.  I had to catch a bus to the airport early that afternoon, but we were able to squeeze in a Louvre trip and good-bye lunch beforehand. 
            The next 30 or so hours were a blur.  My plane from Paris landed in Pisa at 20:30 where I picked up my suitcase and boarded the train to the Pisa station, arriving around 21:00.  I had to wait at the train station for the trenonotte which departed at 2:19 and arrived at 5:51 in Roma.  From there, another train to the Roma Airport and finally my flight back to JFK – departing 10:00am arriving 1:40pm.  Tayler and Nicole picked me up from the airport, complete with “Welcome Home” signs and plenty of family stories to catch me up on all I had missed.  On the way back to the Cianciotta’s house we stopped for a sushi lunch – in my state of delirium and jet lag, it was perhaps the best sushi I’d ever tasted.  Europe was amazing – but it felt so good to be home.

No comments:

Post a Comment