Budget

HOTELS – 
    Hotel Sevres Montparnasse = 1240 € = $ 1644
    New Hotel Bompard = $ 279
    TOTAL = $ 1923
TRAVEL – 
    Metro Tickets = 48 € = $ 63.64
    4 Day EurRail Pass = 870 € = $ 1,153.45
    Plane = $ 8,465.50
    TOTAL = $ 1,217.08
ATTRACTIONS – 
    Eiffel Tower = $ 43.10
    Notre Dame = $ 33.16
    Louvre Museum = $ 76.26
    Giverny = $ 29.84
    TOTAL = $ 182.35
FOOD – 
    Breakfast = $ 10 per meal
    Lunch = $ 15 per meal
    Dinner = $ 20 per meal
    TOTAL = $ 3417.26
SOUVENIRS – $ 900

ORIGINAL AMOUNT = $ 20,000.00
TOTAL = $ 16,105.18
TOTAL LEFT = $ 3,894.82

Itinerary

July 2 – Travel to Paris from RDU

July 3 – Eiffel Tower

July 4 – Notre Dame

July 5 – Louvre Museum

July 6 – Train to Alps/start hiking

July 7 – Backpacking

July 8 – Finish Backpacking/Train to Marseille

July 9 – Beach

July 10 – Botanical Gardens

July 11 – Train to St. Flour/ Millau Viaduct/Tour de France

July 12 – Versailles & Giverny

July 13 – Back to Paris/Bastille Day Ball

July 14 – Bastille Day Parade

July 15 – Travel to RDU from Paris

FLIGHTS:

To Paris-

    RDU 9 am – 10:05 am Chicago O’Hare

    Chicago O’Hare 5:35 pm – 8:45 am Charles de Gaulle

Going Home:

    CDG Paris 2:30 pm – 4:55 pm JFK NY

    JFK NY 7:50 pm – 9:55 pm RDU

HOTELS:

    Hotel Sevres Montparnasse (July 2-5 and July 12-15)

    New Hotel Bombard (July 8-11)

    Backpacking July 6-7 (No Hotel Required)

Day 14

Charles De Gaulle

Today, Christie, Megan, Olivia, Amanda, and I got breakfast at the hotel and then went back to the Charles de Gaulle airport to go home. None of us wanted to go home. If only we had time to visit Champs Elysees, Chateau de Chantilly, Arc de Triomphe, Musee d’Orsay, and everything else. But if I stayed any longer I would’ve become very homesick.

So while we were waiting for our flight, we had a wonderful lunch at the Charles de Gaulle airport in one of their fine restaurants. We finally boarded our flight and I really wanted the window seat this time. We all got to sit in the same row. We all got drinks and snacks on the plane. Christie, Megan, Olivia, and Amanda were all talking. I was getting caught up on my reading. Our plane landed in the JFK airport in New York.

We had another fine meal for dinner in a restaurant in the JFK airport in New York while we were waiting for almost 3 hours for our next flight. This time, Christie wanted the window seat. Christie, Megan, Olivia, and Amanda still talked and I still read. This flight was much quicker. When we arrived in RDU, we got our luggage and left in a taxi together. We all went home and told our families and friends about one of our greatest vacations ever – A Fortnight in France.

-Monica

Day 13

Today is July 14th!  Bastille Day, or as they call it in France, La Fete Nationale!  Bastille Day is celebrating the day that the Bastille Prison was stormed in 1789.  The Bastille Prison/Fortress was where the Government held prisoners who disagreed with them.  It is symbolic in France as a rebellion against the royal government, and led to the French Revolution.  On Bastille Day, it is tradition for Paris to hold a military parade.

The parade was very cool.  We were standing near the Arc De Triomphe, which is a memorial for the people who died during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars.  Megan was extremely excited when the air force planes flew over us.  They left colorful trails of smoke shaped into the French Flag.  Thousands of French military cadets from the Army and Navy marched past us, dressed in very elaborate uniforms.  There were also tanks, motorbikes, and the Paris Fire Brigade.  A lot of foreign guests were there too, such as cadets from Westpoint Military Academy in the United States, and Armies from Brazil, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Austria.

After the parade we walked around Paris for a little bit of last minute souvenier shopping.  We all bought berets and Eiffel Tower Figurines.

We went out to a delicious restaurant for dinner, where we had the classic Bastille Day feast, which is onion and potato crepes and French wine.  They eat this meal because it is what peasants in revoltution era France used to live off of.

-Christie

Day 12

People dancing in the streets at the Bastille Day Ball.

We woke up early again the next morning, and I (Olivia) still wasn’t happy about it. Did I mention I hate waking up early? Anyways, after another long car ride, we ended up back in Paris.

But Christie had a surprise for us. She had told us pack a dress for the trip and wouldn’t tell us why, but when we got back to the hotel today, she pulled out tickets to the Bastille Day Ball! Needless to say, everybody pretty much freaked out.

Dances on July 13th, the day before Bastille Day, are extremely popular in Paris.  Bastille Day is a holiday in France where they celebrate the storming of Bastille, a prison during the French Revolution.

After much dancing, we retired back to our hotel once again. I passed out as soon I put my head on my pillow.

After we had all calmed down somewhat, Christie demanded we all go shopping and give each other make over’s. Since Monica had refused to bring a dress like she was supposed to, we decided that Christie, Monica, and Megan should take her to go find one, while Amanda used her computer and I took a well needed nap. When everybody had returned to the room, we took turns straightening and curling hair, putting on makeup, and trying on perfume. At 7:00 p.m. we grabbed a cab and drove to the ball.

As we pulled up I could hear the loud thumping of the bass of music. I couldn’t wait to go inside and when Christie each handed us a ticket, I speed walked to the front of the line, followed closely by an overly excited Monica, a hyper Megan, a happy Amanda, and Christie, the not so overly excited.

As soon as we passed though the rope and into the inside we hit the dance floor. I never want to see our dancing again. Ever. But at the time most of us didn’t care, and were laughing at each other as we tried to move.

-Olivia

Day 11

Versailles

Today, Christie, Megan, Olivia, Amanda, and I visited Versailles and Giverny. The Palace of Versailles is a royal château in the Île-de-France region of France. In French, it is known as the Château de Versailles. It is a suburb of Paris (20 km from Paris). The court of Versailles was the center of political power from 1682 (Louis XIV) until the royal family was forced to return to Paris in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

Versailles was gorgeous! I took a bunch of pictures. Christie, Megan, Olivia, and Amanda were talking to the tour guide about the history and culture of the palace. We learned a lot by the time the tour was over. We got to see the palace, the circular designed grass area, and the fountains. I had so much fun!

The garden was amazing! I took so many pictures (again). Christie, Megan, Olivia, and Amanda were counting how many types of flowers they could find and were talking most of the time. We especially enjoyed all of Monet’s paintings inside the house. Olivia really enjoyed the art studio in the barn. We learned a lot about impressionist painting. Another fun day!

Garden at Versailles

We also visited Giverny. This is the location of Claude Monet’s garden and home. His house was turned into a museum. Giverny sits on the “right Bank” of the River Seine and lies 50 miles from Paris on the border between Normandy and the Île-de-France. The house is rented and is 2 acres (8,100 m²) and is situated near the main road between the towns of Vernon and Gasny at Giverny. There was a barn that doubled as a painting studio, orchards, and a small garden. 







Here is a little bit about what I learned about Claude Monet:
• Claude Monet was born in 1840 on November 14 in Paris. He grew up in Le Havre, near the sea.
• When he was 20, he studied art at an inexpensive art school in Paris.
• Camille became Monet's wife and they had two children, Jean and Michel
• In 1878, Camille got sick and died.
• Monet got married again to Alice
• Monet and his family moved to Giverny
• Painted his Impressionist wheat stack and cathedral paintings that became very famous.
• House had a wonderful garden with a lily pond that had a Japanese bridge across it.
• Monet died in 1926 in Giverny. Unlike many artists, he was famous even before he died.
• Famous Works – Morning Haze, Marine Near Etretat, Lily Pond
• Founder of French impressionist painting

-Monica

Day 10

 On our 10^th day in France we decided to visit something modern for a change. We visited the Millau Viaduct Bridge. Plans for the bridge were started in 1987 as a solution to taking the A75 Motorway from Clermont-Ferrand to Beziers. No actual construction began until December 14, 2001. The bridge was officially finished and inaugurated in 2004, just three short years. Since it was Megan’s idea to visit the bridge, she did all the research, Olivia called a cab, and we all piled inside. Unless you are driving over the Millau Viaduct Bridge you can’t actually “visit” it, you have to go to the Viaduct Information Centre. The center does provide beautiful viewpoints of the bridge, but the closest viewpoint was a 30 minute walk uphill. By the time we got up the hill everyone was out of breath! It turned out that the walk was worth it though, because everyone was speechless when we got a good look at the bridge. It was so beautiful; we all agreed that it should be the 8^th wonder of the world.

After spending a few hours at the Millau Viaduct Bridge, we decided to go see Tour de France. It was the 9^th day of the Tour and it was being held in Saint Flour. Olivia and I had heard about the Tour de France and we were just dying to see it.  The Tour was started in 1903 because of a feud between two French sports newspapers, Le Velo and L’Auto-velo. So Olivia called yet another cab and it took us from Clermont-Ferrand to Saint Flour. The drive took little more than an hour.  By the time we got to Saint Flour, there were already hundreds of people standing behind boundaries. We didn’t get such good spots to stand, but we could see the bikers and that was all that mattered. Megan bought some Tour de France hats for everyone and I was overjoyed. It was so hot standing there around all those people. Monica had her camera with her from the bridge and snapped a few photos of the bikers. We stayed in Saint Flour until around 8 o’clock, and then we decided to head back to our hotel and call it a night.