June 8

Our train for Paris was leaving at 10:30, so we woke up around 8:00, finished any packing, and took a taxi to the Lisieux train station. Once again we ate breakfast at the cafe next door.
We thought we were going to have reserved seats on the train, but actually, the reserved seats had been for an earlier train to Paris. Oops. So once again, we had to take whatever seat was available and hope that no one had reserved it.
When we got to St. Lazare station in Paris, we went right outside to a Greek restaurant. There was not enough room in the restaurant for our suitcases; that was obvious, but for some reason Madame ignored it. Therefore, after we ordered, everyone but Madame stood outside with the bags. Then, she started calling us back in by what we had ordered -- they had gotten our order wrong? I'm not really sure what happened, and at the end we still didn't end up with what we had ordered, but we all survived. (For example, one of us ended up with chicken instead of meatballs. Poulet, boulettes...) We went back into the station to eat.
While in the station, we met an American veteran who was headed up to the Normandy beaches. Melissa was very excited, because so far we had not met any Americans, and she had been very disappointed by that.
We took the metro from St. Lazare to Dupleix. We changed somewhere, but I don't recall what station. Dupleix is on line 6, and only line 6, but it was very close to our hotel. Anyway. We went up and down so many stairs through the metro stations. Cate, Jeanne, and I would carry down our suitcases, one person would stay down, and the other two would go back up. Melissa and Stephanie would go down the stairs carrying one of their suitcases together, and then go back up and do the other one. Then the two of Cate, Jeanne, and I that had gone back up would carry down Madame's large suitcase, and Madame would carry down her small one. This was very tedious with lots of stairs in lots of different places.
When we got to the hotel it was raining -- the rain had arrived earlier than forecasted. We got our hotel keys and went up to our rooms to unpack. Jeanne, Stephanie, and Melissa took the room with a courtyard view, room 216. Madame, Cate, and I got room 405, which looked out onto the street. We could see the Eiffel Tower from our room, and the metro went right by it. The courtyard view ended up not being so beautiful as it sounded, but it was away from the noise of the road -- which wasn't that loud in the first place, though some people would have been annoyed by the metro.
The first thing we did was visit the Eiffel Tower. Like I said, it was raining, and Madame had decided not to go up. Having already been once, I stayed down with Madame (though I don't know if that was a good decision) while the other four girls went up the Tower. At first, they looked at the line and said they would take the stairs, but Madame told them that the line moved very quickly and was actually short at the moment. I think they were crazy to even consider the stairs. I don't know how anyone could climb up and down the Eiffel Tower in a reasonable amount of time. Madame and I looked in the gift shop, and she took my picture in front of a statue of George Eiffel (an amazing engineer).
While we were trying to stay out of the rain, we met two Mexican tourists who did not speak French and spoke very little English. So, I tried to speak to them in Spanish. It was terrible! I kept saying things I knew were wrong...and then they started asking about Versailles. Madame wanted me to explain to them that there is a package available in the RER stations which includes transportation and entrance to Versailles. Umm...that's a bit too much...maybe next year...so we waited for Melissa and Stephanie to get back. When they did, they translated for the tourists and Madame.
We then walked to the Human Rights Square. It was only slightly interesting, but from there one can take excellent photos of the Eiffel Tower. After that we went to the Arc de Triumphe. There was a military ceremony there, so we were not able to go up. We heard the Marseillaise played mutliple times. Allons enfants de la patrie...
And then we explored Champs-Elysees in the rain. O Champs-Elysees...but it wasn't too interesting for me. I don't shop. We took the metro to Place de la Concorde, where Madame explained how there had been guillotines there during the revolution and the Terror, and then she told us about the obelisk. After that, we got on the metro to Dupleix. It was raining very hard.
When we arrived at Dupleix, it had stopped raining, but the other girls were soaked. (I had worn my rain jacket and therefore only my shoes and the bottom of my jeans were wet). They went up to the hotel rooms to change, and Madame and I went to an Italian restaurant. We told the girls which one, and that they could meet us there, or they could go to another restaurant. (They chose the latter option, though also ended up eating Italian food...) I ate another Regina pizza. And then I had mousse au chocolat for dessert! Yum.
But the oil was in old wine bottles shaped like American footballs...weird.
Both groups arrived at the hotel at the same time. We were all fairly worn out, so we went up to our rooms. Madame, Cate, and I saw the Eiffel Tower "dance" at 10:00 and at 11:00 (the lights flash)...the Eiffel Tower is so beautiful at night. Madame blogged, and Cate and I commented.