Notre Dame, The Louvre, Exploring, Sacre Coeur

We begin at Notre Dame Cathedral at around 10 am.

Four boys contemplate greater things within the quiet of the cathedral. Shhhh!
(Anyway, Callum thinks this might all  be fake!)

.

After Notre Dame it's off to The Louvre for a morning and part of an afternoon to see over 400,000 artifacts. Most of us manage to see more than the 10 that we hoped to.

Winged Victory appears preparing to land on Cody's head! Jeremy  has to decide whether to help his friend, or do the Jeremy thing and just wander off on his own.

Thar she blows! If you look close you can seen Darcy right up at the front having a good look!

Down in the foundations of the medieval castle that became The Louvre.

Kyle and Ang take a few pictures of Hamurabi's Code.

A few pretty excited travellers!

Jonathan decides the pick the cheater's nose!

Exiting The Louvre through Ai Wei Wei's glass pyramid.

After supper we climb the many many many stairs up to the Sacre Coeur Cathedral, past the many many many hawkers and sellers. If you make eye contact with them, you're likely to find yourself giving them 10 Euros for a string bracelet, or a cheap Eiffel Tower knick knack. Some of us made eye contact, and found ourselves spending money we hadn't expected we would.

Here we queue up for our last subway ride. We may not be the most confident riders, but we're way better at than we first started. We know when to crowd on and when to crowd off. Some of us ride the subway like hockey players.

Paris, Versailles, the Seine

By 7:30 we're at breakfast, and by 8 we're on the bus headed for the heart of Paris. Once there we meet our local tour guide for the day, Brian Haldeman, who grew up in Ethiopia, speaks Parisian French, as well as a perfectly "Canadian" English.

Daniel explains to the bus driver the plan for the day.

This first tour of Paris ends up at a photo op with a view of ...

... the Eiffel Tower, which was first mostly hated by Parisians, but  by now  has become such a notable landmark that it's become synonymous with the city itself.

And here we are. And there it is!

Next we head to Versailles, the palace, built by King Louis XIV, the sun king, about 20 kms outside of Paris, on 500 hectares of land. Before we begin our tours both inside and outside the palace, we grab a little lunch.

Taking photos of Dad's taking photos, is my new thing.

The grounds and gardens of Versailles.

The boys chillin' after their tour of the inside of the palace.

Daniel was a very knowledgeable and interesting guide. Here  he describes one of the rooms that  honoured the king and prepared the visitor for his visit. In this room the visitor is presented with a statue of the king with an Adonis-like body, in order to intimidate. King Louis was not, however, Adonis-like in anyway. He needed to make them believe that he was powerful. The palace is filled with imagery designed to create the illusions of power and wealth. Generally it appears that wealth was not an issue, but military might was less sure.

The hall of mirrors was a marvel; the trendiest, richest, most opulent reception and celebration hall of the time in all of Europe.

We were impressed too.

After Versailles and two hours of free time in downtown Paris, we head to a Crepery for supper. (That's a crepe, with chicken and whitesauce inside it.)

Waiting for supper!

After supper we take the subway over to the Eiffel tower and the Seine River for a boat ride up the river. 

As the boat ride ends, we see the tower lit up and sparkling with flickering lights! The city of lights indeed!

Tomorrow we'll tour Notre Dame Cathedral in the morning, and then have time in the afternoon to tour the Louvre, and the many other sites along the river! It was a great, long, day!

Subways can be interesting for many reasons! This guy pushed his way on just before the buzzer and played (busked) for most of the ride. He earned a reasonable bit for 15 minutes of work. 

Through the chunnel and into Paris

March 29 (Thursday)

As it has been confirmed that we will be spending two more days in France, the pressure to "get as much in as possible" has subsided, and we allowed ourselves a day to sleep in. We woke up for breakfast at 9:45 and then spent the morning changing pounds to euros and making last minute souvenir purchases. By 12 pm we were on the bus bound for the St Pancras Train Station. Once there at around 1:20 we settled down to wait and find some lunch; our last opportunities to use pounds.

Waiting in St Pancras Station

At 2:40 we're called to board the Eurostar train that will take us across England to the channel and then under it, and up onto the land of northern France.

Boarding the train

On the train, and a bit excited!

Once we reach the Gare du Nord in Paris, we disembark and head to our next bus, and our new driver, Rafael, who drives us through some pretty crazy traffic to Flam's Restaurant where we eat an Alsace kind of thin crust pizza, both for the main course, and two versions - chocolate & apple - for dessert.

Paris traffic. See if you can find a lane ...

... or a way to find your way into a lane.

Our supper destination.

Waiting for supper.

Ham topping with a cream sauce.

Apple dessert.

After supper it's back on the bus to get to the All Seasons hotel where each room has a colour theme. Cute!

Ours is green, others are purple and red.

 Tomorrow it's off to Versailles in the morning, and then a bateau ride up the Seine River in the evening.   

Windsor Castle & London

March 28 (Wednesday)

Wake up is at 7:30 and we're at breakfast at 8. Breakfast is buffet of croissants, toast, muslix, brown rice crispies (that look like small rabbit turds), yoghurt, fruit (grapefruit & peaches), orange juice, milk, coffee, and tea. Again we're on the bus by 8:45 and out the door.

"my lovely lot ... ladles & jellyspoons"

Once we're off the bus he gets us into Windsor Castle quickly, and orients us as to what we need to look for, then he sets us free to explore the castle apartments (where the Queen entertains heads of state and dignitaries), watch the changing of the guard, tour St. George's Chapel, and then head into the town below the castle to have lunch (and shop, somebody's always shopping!).

Windsor Castle

Windsor's keep - the oldest part of the castle

Joel, doing his thing.

Joel's still doing his thing

Kyle, Tasha, & Tara on the steps of St. Pauls Cathedral

Everyone, on the steps of St Pauls

Callum, on the wobbly bridge

After lunch we're off again to London. The tour here is mostly from the bus windows as we're pressed for time (the story of our lives!). It's hard to identify all the places we see, but we learn the difference between the north (prestigious and proper) side of the Thames, and the south (low brow and dirty – Southwark – pronounced “Suf-uk”). Crossing over the Thames on the current version of London Bridge (there have been at least 4 – and it's not the Tower Bridge, which people often mistake as London Bridge), we stop at St. Pauls Cathedral and enjoy the sun on the front steps. Here we also find out that in London you can get into a national art gallery for free, but you have to pay to tour churches (it's the opposite in France!). After walking halfway over the “Wobbly” bridge and back, we get back on the bus to get dropped off near Westminster Abbey in order to spend an hour or so exploring.

Some of us head for Trafalgar Square to chill. Some of us head for a tour of the Churchill War Room. Some of us head to the National Gallery. Some of us head off to shop (of course)! At 5 pm we meet back at Westminster Subway entrance for our first experience on the Tube (subway). It goes well the first time, as we don't really have to push our way on. (Later on that night we'll have at least two chances to push and squeeze in and violate our personal space!).

 Stephen & Graham in front of Buckingham Palace

Supper is at the Young Prince William Henry where we have a traditional English pub meal – bangers and mash (which is three pork sausages served over a mound of gravy covered mashed potatoes (with peas on the side) and apple pie and ice cream for dessert) – for meals this trip has been hitting it out of the park. After supper we all head back to the Tube and travel over to Victoria Station, which is where 18 of us head off to see Wicked, and the remaining 17 explore, shop, and find parks, etc. to pass the time.

GQ Darcy on Westminster Bridge

The Apollo Victoria Theatre

After the show we meet at Victoria Station and take the Tube back to Waterloo Station, where we take the train back to Feltham, and our hotel. A good, but rushed day. We all wish we'd have more time to tour some of the major sites. A few of us found our way to Buckingham Palace, and some got into Westminster Abbey, but when you're here you realize how much there is to see and do here. It's overload really. Most of us will want to come back to have another look. Watch out for lots of “when we were in London” stories when we get back.

Stratford, Oxford, Cotswolds, London

March 27 (Tuesday)

Wake up is at 7:30 and we're at breakfast at 8. Breakfast is buffet of sausages and bacon and oatmeal and eggs and fruit and toast and wow is it something else. Our arteries scream for mercy!

We get on the bus at 8:45 and Sergio gets us going to Stratford on Avon. We drive a combination of narrow country roads (paved) and the M4 – essentially an interstate sort of roadway – to arrive in Stratford at 10 am. Over the course of the trip Katie has us name all 37 of Shakespeare's plays – PK restrains himself from answering every hint – and then a few of us recite quotes and short bits of his plays. Amazingly, most of the kids are engaged!

in line for the Shakespeare birthplace tour

watching two dudes do a scene from Romeo & Juliet

Once we arrive, we line up at the site of Shakespeare's birth for a short orientation tour. The tour effectively uses artifacts and video clips, in order to give the kids a sense of what England was like at the time. Once we're through with this we step outside and follow the path to the house. Along the way we enjoy a short dramatization of a scene from Romeo & Juliet. The house itself is, well, old. And we couldn't take pictures inside of it.

lunching across from Anne Hathaway's cottage

funny pictures after lunch 

From there we have 30 minutes of free time to shop and explore the town before we're back on the bus for a short ride up to lunch and a tour of Anne Hathaway's cottage. Lunch was a comfortable combination of chicken and mashed potatoes with peas. It felt like we were at grandmas – complete with a scowl and reprimand if you got in the way.

Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare's wife and her family farmed, and were more well-to-do than his were. The house itself is more than twice the size that it was when Shakespeare was courting her, and the local tour guide was well-versed in questions of the building and its furniture.

group pic at Anne Hathaway's cottage

After lunch and the cottage tour we bid farewell to our good friend and driver Sergio (the Italian Scot from Edinburgh) and say hello to Mahi, the new driver. We change coaches and head for Oxford. Katie has added a short tour of Oxford for us, on her own! Together with Mahi they get us to the centre of town, near the Bodleian Library. The time here gives us a great sense of the town, and of the many stories that are told with this place as inspiration. After Katie gives us a short, brisk, walking tour, we have 30 minutes to explore on our own. Some of us shop. Some of us look around.

the Bodleian at Oxford

On the road again, we head for London, getting to our hotel in Feltham by 6:30 pm and by 7 pm we're at the Waterloo station waiting for a train into the City of London proper. Once in London we head to the waterfront to pick up some food before Katie takes us on a walking tour of Covent Gardens, Trafalgar Square, then past the clock tower (which houses Big Ben, the biggest of the five bells in the tower – and it's cracked) of the Buildings of Parliament. She also gives us 30 minutes to explore the area, and then we're back on the train at Waterloo Station to head for the hotel for night.

London! Waiting in Covent Gardens at night

London at night: In front of the Houses of  Parliament!

View of the Eye from across the Thames (the Houses of Parliament are behind us) 

in all its glory!