August 23-25, 2009 - Paris, Reims

This morning we spent most of the earlier hours driving from Bruges to the Chateau de Versailles. Although the ride was relatively long, I enjoyed doing pretty much nothing. And although the countryside was very monotonous, with just farms to the horizons, it was somewhat calming and humbling, manifesting a personally reflective state. Once we arrived at Versailles we were bombarded by a slew of North African appearing salesmen selling key chains, postcards, watches and these stupid flying birds toys. It was very odd to see all of them working independently but desperately trying to sell the exact same products. It took some time, but after futzing with passports, ids, group tickets and audio sets and headphones, we finally got settled on our own guided tours. And these tours needed to be somewhat guided, because between the extreme heat, the hundreds of thousands of people, and the literally infinite amount of rooms and identically appearing paintings and artifacts, maintaining any form of focus and care was difficult. After about an hour of exploring a section of one of the wings I called it quits within the gigantic building. Seeing other friends with similar reactions we began to wander outside to the ‘gardens’. I say gardens with quotes because everywhere where people can walk is just dusty and grimy gravel. All the grass and trees are in between the gravel paths. We strolled in the desert heat for another hour or so, saw the fountains spew some water and returned to the bus. The whole Versailles experience was a little much. It is certainly a masterpiece, and I doubt that anything will ever be built to that same magnitude; I cannot imagine where anyone will find that much land ever again. The Chateau, however, felt very pretentious. I recognize that it was built for one of the queens and is a French icon that houses so much of its history, it’s just I thought that it was way over the top. From Versailles we drove to our hotel in the Northeast of Paris, hotel Kyriad Prais la Villette. After settling in we re-boarded the bus for an incredible group dinner at Le Vauban restaurant. After dinner we were privy to a boat tour “Pont Neuf” on the Seine River by sunset. Standing on the top deck with some friends, rarely did I feel as humbled, and at the same time, motivated to be something. It was somewhat odd combination. As everyone left the boat at the end I took a few more seconds to stand on the deck under the stars, with a glowing Eifel tower in the background, and a canal lined with bridges, museums and shops. I felt compelled to reflect on the incredible opportunity that is presented to me this semester, and A) how lucky I truly am and B) more importantly, that I want to make sure that I can be successful enough to have similar trips like the ones I have taken and will take. It was a very calming, but powerful moment for me.

After the boat tour, Kelly and I decided to skip the bar/club scene and decided to walk along the water, through the shops and to the great arch. We stopped at the amusement park and enjoyed a Ferris wheel ride that provided us with a very scary but very gratifying view of the whole city. I just wished our car didn’t spin and shake every time we moved while suspended hundreds of feet in the air. 45 minutes later, much more time than we anticipated, we arrived at the unexpectedly not so exciting arch for a quick smile and photo. We grabbed a cab and packed it in for another full day in Paris.

The next morning we had a highlight tour of Paris on our very own bus by a very unclear French woman. Most of us slept through most of her broken English but woke up just in time for snapshots of the Eifel tower. From the bus we were dropped off at the Louvre Museum for a few hours and then the rest of the day was ours. Josh and I ventured through Italian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Greek history until we said enough was enough. The Louvre is the kind of place where you gotta spend a select amount of hours for a few consecutive days to really get the full experience – kind of like doing all the Smithsonians. And of course I saw the Mona Lisa, woopdy doo!!! Not such a big deal. It’s not even that good of a painting. Once we were done with the Louvre a bunch of us strolled over to Notre Dame, I took a hunch back picture. From Notre Dame we labored to figure out the subway schedule, which Kelly, Shari and I successfully mastered, which enabled us to eventually find our way through the dismal thunderous rain, to a breath-taking view atop all of Paris at the Sacre Caure. What a view! Paris is such a metropolis! From Sacre Caure, we, and all of our sopping wet clothing, traipsed back down the hilltop to a small dinner place for a restful meal, followed by some redeem team basketball by Josh and I at the park across the street. The park’s basketball court was surrounded by a large fence, the hoops were made of thick plastic, no more than 9 feet tall, so I could dunk, and of course like triple rimmed. Such a ghetto park. The four French players, Christopher, Ben, Damian, and Thomas, were very friendly but not very good at basketball, making it extremely enjoyable for me as I was able to display my high school basketball skill-set and some team USA flair. The night ended at the hotel just hanging out with friends.

Our final morning of the day was spent mostly on the road. Before we left the hotel, which I should note that our hotels significantly declined in quality after the Crown Plaza in Brussels, I had a showdown with the continental breakfast staff. They had made it clear that this final morning they were going to crack down on sandwich makers (the people who make sandwiches and take them out of the breakfast room for later consumption), but each morning I had successfully smuggled out sandwiches so I could save money on lunch food. A long story short, I was able to package 1.5 sandwiches without them noticing. What a moral victory! From the victorious breakfast our group drove to Notre Dame de Reims, which was very similar to the one in Paris, just bigger but in a need of much more repair. After the cathedral we visited the Champagne Pommery for a tour of the cellars and some champagne tasting. By the end of the 5 day study trip I would say the CES staff had been successful in making us say that we were more than ready to return home, to our new abodes in Maastricht, and boy was it great to get back to Maastricht and settle back in.