Our Journey to Paris.
It’s 6 pm on March 19th, and all my classmates are arriving to the airport, with their parents.
After a couple of hours and several troubles, we’re waiting to be boarded to the plane that will fly us to Paris.
As we land, I notice the actual size of Orly airport. It is huge. We walk about 300 mt to reach our baggage! Fortunately, no one of our bags went lost.
We reach the hotel by bus, and after putting our bags in our rooms, we go to the near pizza restaurant, to have dinner.
I wake up, more tired than the past evening. First breakfast in Paris.
At about 9 we’re leaving towards downtown, where we’re going to get our metro season tickets. Then, again in the tube, and when we get out, the Arch de Triomphe is in front of our eyes. A quick look and then we walk along le Champs Elisèes, and visit several shop, such the Virgin, the Disney shop and some show rooms.
We separate for lunch, someone goes with the teachers to a restaurant, and someone else, alike me, to the nearest McDonald’s.
In the afternoon we meet the teachers of the class we’re going to work with.
They take us to visit the Petit and the Grand Palace, the Alexander III bridge, with golden statues, and the Louvre Gardens and Shopping Centre.
In the evening, we go to the restaurant we’re going to eat in for the rest of the two weeks. Its name is “La Casa”, and the owner even speaks a bit of italian.
Next day, early waking up.
Because today’s the big day. Today we’re going to school and know the french pupils.
At 10 o’ clock, after a trip around the brand new school, we start to show our works in the school’s auditorium.
Each group, one by one stands up and explains the images shown in the background. Some works are too long, some others are too less interesting, but never mind.
After about an hour, we have lunch in the school cantin, where italian food is served.
After lunch, we leave the school and go with the bus towards Père Lachaise Cemetery.
At last I visit Chopin’s grave. Such a moving moment to me. We also visit Wilde, Proust and Jim Morrison’s graves.
Today is the turn of the pupils to show us their works.
I must say I didn’t like them at all. They talked about interesting things, but they didn’t even try to translate the text in english. One of their teacher translated what the were saying in italian, with questionable results.
Another lunch in the school cantin and then we go to the Science Museum, which is just in front of our hotel. We get our ticket and visit the three floors of museum, and while the others leaves at 4 pm, I stay until the closing time, at 6 pm.
No school today, but a fine walk around the city.
Late as always, we take the metro and arrive to the Tour Eiffel. After an infinite queue, we finally get to the lifts, in the North Pillon. The view from the top of the tower is impressioning, and everyone takes photos. Everything can be seen from up there.
Some friends and I have lunch to Subway, and then we take the metro again and go to Pompidou centre. I like this centre a lot. Everything here reminds of architecture and creativity. It has been designed by two architects, one of them was the young Renzo Piano.
In the middle of the morning we arrive to Notre Dame Cathedral. My friend Francesca agrees with me expecting a much bigger cathedral and square. We visit it all inside, and of course it is beautiful. Then we visit the Latin District, where someone goes shopping in the several souvenir shops. Then we see the Hotel de la Ville, the current town hall. It’s still early and too sunny to come back to the hotel, and someone visits the near shopping centre, but I prefer to wait them in the beatiful sunny square sitting on the fountain.
Today’s a challenging day at school.
In the morning we are divided in three groups, one in the metallurgic class, one in the Architect Assistant class and me, in the third group, to the Economy Class.
French pupils use computer much more then us, and I think that’s good. One hour later another teacher, who speaks a quite perfect italian asks us if we want to join a debate class. So we spend a pleasant hour talking with the french guys about our countries.
But the day isn’t over. After lunch we go with the french class to Place de Vosges, a little square surrounded by elegant houses with quite identis façades, where noble people used to live.
We sit on the grass and start to draw down a frontage. I liked a lot drawing sat on a lawn, under the sun, frisking with friends with some music in the ears.
Today’s Saturday. And this means we’re taking the train to Versailles.
Versailles is of course full of people, and the crowd always makes me feel bad, so bad that I didn’t enjoy the visit to the palace. I liked the walk in the huge garden, instead.
I felt reborn, walking along the streams, across the little wooden bridges and the white gravel paths.
Maria Antonietta’s farm is gorgeous, even if not in great conditions. Some wooden parts where falling apart.
We reach the Grand Canal and someone rents a rowing boat. We’re forced to leave, when the skies become gray and a bit of rain starts to fall.
Sunday, finally we can sleep.
Today we visit the Sacre Cœur, a church on a hill. On top of it there’s a beautiful view, with the usual fog in the air. Then, a walk along Pigalle, a red light district. There are a lot of erotic shops, massage centre and even an eroticism museum. But I wouldn’t expect to find so many families, kids and people just passing with their dogs, all seems so normal.
We see the Moulin Rouge, and some friends and I go to its entry, to take some photos.
But the best is yet to come, just after dinner. We take the metro again, and we go to the Tour Eiffel again. But in the night, it is such more impressing. It spakles with bulbs every hour, and we wait to see it. Then, a kind bus driver gave us a free step to the metro stop we need to go back to the hotel.
On Monday we mainly go shopping, and visit Lafayette centre, and on Tuesday we spend the morning to school, working at the drawing we made in Place des Vosges. The afternoon was free, and someone advantages to wash his clothes in the hotel’s laundry.
Today we’re going to visit the Louvre. We visit the Italian gallery and the Egyptian part, including the famous Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of Monna Lisa, just next to Napoleon’s coronation. Then the Greek part, with Milo’s Afrodite. But after all the visit, we’re dead tired, and we go back to the hotel.
Next day, next museum. Today’s visit is to the Orsay museum. It is a beautiful building, an ex 1800‘s train station, that have been tranformed into a art gallery. We don’t need to pay, because we’re under 26, and our tickets are free. So we leave our bags in the wardrobe and someone gets the audioguides.
The central nave is full of paintings on the wall and statues and bas-relief in the centre. A big amount of famous paintings were missing, because of external expositions or restoring. We enjoy Monet, Manet and Van Gogh paintings, staring at them for minutes, and discussing the meaning of each picture.
The afternoon if free, and someone goes back for the last time on the Champs Elisèes, someone goes walking near the Pompidou Centre and someone else, alike me, needs a little rest and goes back to the hotel.
Today is the day of goodbyes. At 9 o’clock we meet the french guys, that invite us to a little breakfast in the cantin. I think everyone feels strange, saying goodbye each other. This has been a wonderful experience, and someone have known new friends.
There’s a heavy silence when we walk out the school door.
Very last opportunity to visit the places of this wonderful journey, who spends the afternoon going up and down in the 14th metro, who buys the last gifts, who prepares his bags. During dinner, the sadness of leaving such a huge and wonderful city melts with the desire to finally go back home with friends and families. We go bed early, because the wake up is fixed at 4 in the morning.
