If our group had to be assigned a name today, it would be "the fumble bumbles." Then bus from MHS had a visible gas leak, discovered 3/4 of the way to IAH, thanks to a frantic passenger in another car screaming out of her window to the bus driver. Thank goodness arrival at the airport was safe and we sure hope coach made it home okay
With plenty of time to spare a the gate in Houston, we got the scattered seats and worked to reseat everyone so families and friends could share the long flight. As it turned out, about half of our boarding passes also had return seats printed on them and without knowing it, we were working with the wrong seats. It's safe to say the Americans irritated the French before we ever got off of the ground as the air France crew were unhappy that there was seat confusion and ended up making us sit in our original seats or wherever there were empty seats. The upside to this is that they dragged some standing teenagers to the business class for the long flight.
We met our dear friend, Guylaine (Ed tour guide), at the luggage claim exit and were on our way to the hotel. The hotel did not have our rooms ready so we dropped all luggage in one locking room, had a safety meeting/reminders and headed out for our first subway journey. Luckily on the weekends, the metro is not crowded because businesses are closed. It was a nice way to show ayeveryone how to (quick quick quick) navigate the busy subway. At this juncture of our day, we looked like a poetic ballet. The kids and grown ups did really well getting on and off, simultaneously.
Our first stop was at the St. Chapelle, which was perfect for today as is a small 13th century cathedral built by order of one of the "Louie's" to receive some of the relics of the Passion of the Christ, most noteworthy the crown of thorns.
We did this in two reservation groups and the group not touring got to walk to some side streets to get some take away pizza, gyros or paninis and also duck in and out of little shops on our way back to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Our whole group came together to meet at the end of the cathedral front lawn
and our tour guide was waiting for us at the front of the front lawn. Once we connected about 10
minutes later, we were able to file in and see the cathedral's interior which is extra exciting right now
because of the 850 year birthday of the structure.
We walked to the garden area where we watched some little french kids hold bird seed and feed the birds from their hand for the crowds, before walking/subwaying, back to the area where we had our dinner. Tonight was "tarte flambé" night which is a French form of pizza. Very tthin, crispy crust like a crepe, which bechamel sauce and then ham or hamburger, veggies, etc. or even apples or shaved chocolate, for a dessert.
After fumbling with key cards for rooms, figuring out how to get the electricity to work in the rooms (have to leave the room key in a special slot when in the room), moving some kids to double twin bed rooms instead of single, double bed rooms, we decided to walk to a corner store to get some inexpensive waters, sodas for the rooms.
In keeping with the day, after the 5 minute walk, we discover that the grocery store we were sent to by the front desk, has been permanently closed down. This is our sign that though we have seen wonderful things today, we are exhausted and time to close the door on day 1.
Tomorrow we journey by bus through the city and then out to Versailles where we will tour the country home and gardens (palatial is an understatement) and then back in to the city for some fun, dinner and then to the tip top of the Eiffel!!
For those of you who have followed our travel blogs before, you will appreciate that Mrs. Savage is not having to work any front desk and is in fact able to update the blog from wifi connection in her room, on her own iPad. Ahhhhh...its the little things.
Bonsoir!!
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