When it comes to France, there's nothing that compares to the real thing. Our stay may have been short but our memories will last a long time. Personally, I have a hard time recalling what happened on which day, and even though my body has gotten over the jet lag, I'm still a little bit off of the actual time here now. In spite of this, I will do my best to depict our visit in an accurate way.
The first thing I remember clearly was getting off the bus and feeling completely belittled by the gravity of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Unfortunately for those of you at home, Pictures do not do it justice. The height of it truly does seem to reach the heavens. The next thing I remember was Noah's encounter with a bird. I feel as though someone else must have mentioned it by now, but as an eyewitness I'd like to point out the fact that Noah handled it very well. I think that there might have been people who let such a thing ruin their day, but Noah seemed to enjoy the rest of the day without even a second thought.
Enjoying Paris, I might add, was not the easiest thing to do. Most of us were still terribly exhausted from the plane for a while, to the point where I asked someone whether it was morning or evening and they weren't really sure. However, the band directors and our tour guides did an excellent job of exposing us to all of the major attractions and the history behind it as well. The food, as I've been hearing for so long, was excellent.
Of the next day my favorite experience had to be Versailles. On the bus ride to Versailles I met a small spider in the seat next to me, and despite Nick's anxiety I named him Toby Maguire and allowed him to occupy the vacant seat. At Versailles I was completely astounded. It was almost impossible not to be, considering it was built to intimidate the rivals and allies of France all throughout Europe. There were countless rooms filled with countless paintings and furniture. The sheer size of the palace is enough to draw a crowd, and the fact that it's completely filled with wealth is overkill. Additionally, I got in some trouble with security when I walked past the point where the audio guides were supposed to be turned in with 33 of them around my neck. Woops.
The sights we saw and the food we got to try was enough to make anyone want to stay much longer. Fortunately we had plenty of opportunities for excellent photos and learned a lot about the history of all that we saw, so that if we ever went back, it wouldn't be difficult to decide what was worth seeing again.
With fulfillment
- Kevin F.
