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.

Day 9

After backpacking in the Alps and walking around all day in the Botanical Gardens, everybody decided we needed to take a break, and since Marseille was only 30 minutes away from the beaches, we decided it was a good time to go swimming. So we headed to Cassis.  

The bus left 10:30 a.m., which gave me (Olivia) a good chance to catch up on my sleep since we had been pretty much sleep deprived since we had left North Carolina. I fell asleep on the bus all too quickly, only to be woken up by Megan, the only person with a straight face at the moment.

“What did you do to me?” I asked quickly, knowing that sleeping on the bus was probably not the brightest of ideas. Monica, not being able to hold in her laughter pointed at me and choked between hysterics, “Your face!” 

Turns out that SOMEONE thought it would funny to draw on my face with a sharpie marker while I was sleeping. It was definitely not funny. Though I have to admit, whoever it was good at drawing mustaches.

After checking into the hotel and washing my face off, we all through on our bathing suits and headed down to the beach. The water was so clear, even in waist high water you could see the bottom.

Christie hates the beach, so she decided it would be best if she just chilled on the beach chair, reading and not taking her cover-up off. Megan told me later that she asked her if she could go back to the hotel room every few minutes or so.

Megan was lying on a towel sunbathing for most of the time at the beach. Once or twice she got in the water to cool off.  She didn’t do a very good job tanning, cause instead of tan she was bright red.

Monica and I hit the water first, renting boogie boards immediately. I spent the day riding the waves and getting overturned by the big ones. Let’s just say that I probably had too much salt water that day. After a while Megan swam up to us with her own boogie board and joined us.

Amanda decided it would be fun to go around the beach and look for shells. She founds some pretty one and she put them in a bag so she could keep them.

After the beach we all fought over who was going to take a shower. You can guess who won…


For dinner we went to Miramar, a popular restaurant in Marsielle.  Miramar sold mostly seafood, but also many other popular French dishes.  Most French food seems to consist of pastries and meat.  The food was absolutely delicious!  I had the lobster bisque, and it was excellent.  For an appetizer, we all had escargot... snails!  They were very chewy and tender, and not as bad as I thought they would be.  


-Olivia

Day 8

On day 8 of our trip to France, we visited the Jardin de la Colline Puget botanical gardens in Marsseille.  Amanda had been looking forward to this the whole trip, and had done her research on the garden.  She told us that he Jardin de la Colline Puget is a huge garden dedicated to the artist Pierre Puget who was born in Marsielle in the 18^th century. 

The garden was absolutely beautiful!  As we walked through it, Amanda told us about all of the plants and flowers.  Monica went totally camera-crazy, and took pictures of every single flower.  The coolest part of the garden was how ancient it was.  The trees were all huge because they were so old.  Most of the garden was grown in the 1800s!

-Christie

Day 7

Our last day backpacking in Paris was kind of uneventful and a little sad; no one really wanted to leave. Hiking around Paris was a lot of fun, but I definitely wasn’t looking forward to having to sit on a train for so long, up to 3 hours. Even though everyone was a little sad we sucked it up and set out to find our way to the Paris Gare Lyon train station.

It actually took us 3 hours and 20 minutes to get from the Paris Gare Lyon train station to the Marseille St. Charles train station. We decided to leave at 7:00 a.m. so we would have plenty of time to nap on the train. That way, we’d feel refreshed when we’d walk through the botanical gardens later on. The train went super fast and the ride felt smooth and quiet. I read in a pamphlet that the train can go up to 200 miles per hour! When Monica looked out the window she got a little sick, I couldn’t blame her because everything we passed looked really blurry outside. Even though it was more than 3 hours it didn’t seem so; it felt like it only took half the time.

-Amanda 

Day 5 and 6

Today, we went backpacking. Well actually, today we drove to the French Alps and set up camp. We got up at 4 in the morning to eat breakfast, pack up, and get our hiking gear ready. Boy was that drive fun. Eight hours of fun. I don’t know how any of us stayed in the same seat for that long. Christie was texting for the first half hour of the trip, but turned her phone off as quick as she could when I told her that there weren’t any power outlets on a mountain. Other than that, the trip was quite uneventful.

We got to our destination of Mont Blanc, where we set up camp. After eating some shepherd’s pie, one of my signature trail dishes, I treated the group to some of my dad’s famous dutch-oven chocolate cherry cobbler. At about 10 pm, we got ready for bed and went to sleep. I was woken up several times to be someone’s “bathroom buddy” because they didn’t want to go alone. It was quite the night. We did get a good amount of sleep though, which is good because we had a 10 mile hike in the day ahead of us!

We woke up early, yet again, but I was the first awake, just to boil some water. I think everyone else was disappointed when they found out that I hadn’t already cooked breakfast for them. I just gave them some instant grits and oatmeal, and they were fine.

Everyone seemed so enthusiastic once we got on the trail, but as soon as we started hiking uphill, that wasn’t the case. I knew once we got to a viewing area, everyone would be happy. Nothing much happened during the actual hike; we had to filter some water, but that was pretty much it.

Once we got to the observation area, that was another case. First, I had to explain to Olivia that you can’t wear converses on a 10-mile hike and expect not to get blisters. Second, I had to tell Christie that even though we were a few hundred feet above sea level, there weren’t any cell phone towers around to get a signal. After all that, I was accused of being too outdoorsy.

We ate our lunch which was very good after our long hike, and even saw some wildlife. There were a few herds of goats on a mountain in the distance, and some eagles or hawks flying above us.

The hike to our next campsite was beautiful. There were all kinds of interesting plants all around us. It was definitely one of the best hikes I’ve ever had.

-Megan

Day 4

Louvre Glass Pyramid

It's our fourth day here, and everyone is having a blast!  We visited the Museé de Louvre, or Louvre Museum.  It is a huge art museum in Paris, originally made as a fortress by Phillip II Augustus at the beginning of the 13th century.  The first thing we noticed when we arrived at the museum was the giant glass pyramid in front.  Monica wanted to climb it, but Megan talked her out of it.

Mona Lisa

We walked through the museum to find the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.  The whole time, Olivia would not stop talking about how excited she was to see it.  After an hour of wandering around the museum, we finally found the temperature-controlled room that contained the Mona Lisa.  Olivia pushed through the crowd to see the Mona Lisa, and was shocked to see the little 30-inch high painting.  She was so disappointed that she ran right back out of the room.

Because of her Egyptian heritage, Monica wanted to go see the Egyptian antiques.  Megan was more interested in seeing the Islamic art, and Amanda wanted to see the armless Venus De Milo statue. 

I (Christie) was more interested in going to the Carousel du Louvre shopping center.  It is known to be the most liked shopping center in Paris.  We decided to go to the food court there for lunch.  It was spectacular!  There were 13 gourmet food stalls with food from all over the world.  We decided to eat at the fabulous Chinese restaurant. 

After lunch we spent the afternoon going to all the different boutiques around the mall.  At one store, Megan accidentally shoplifted a pair of sunglasses and got chased down by the security guard.  It was a great afternoon!


-Christie

Day 3

Notre Dame

On our third day in France, Christie, Megan, Olivia, Amanda, and I visited the Notre Dame Cathedral. It is a Gothic, catholic cathedral located on the eastern half of the Ile de la Cite in the fourth arrondissement of Paris. It is the cathedral that contains the cathedra (official chair) of the Archbishop of Paris. The name Notre Dame means “Our Lady” in French. Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports).

When we got there, we went straight to the top so I could ring the great bourdon bell (Emmanuel). The security guard threatened to kick me out if I rang that bell again, so I rang the other four smaller bells. He got really mad at me but left anyways.

Notre Dame Bell

Christie was too busy texting to admire the cathedral, and she was only amazed by the great phone service. Megan, Olivia, and Amanda were too busy studying the Gothic architecture of the building to realize that Christie banged her head on the Emmanuel and fell on the floor. I cracked up laughing when I found her on the floor moaning from her head injury. I got her some ice and told her that it is a really bad idea to text while walking in a bell tower.

Then we took the tour around the cathedral. I took lots of pictures while Megan, Olivia, and Amanda were asking the tour guide lots of questions about the architecture and design of the Gothic cathedral. Christie was still texting and she tripped over a crack in the pavement, so I had to confiscate her phone. She would get it back at the end of the tour. She got really mad at me.

Then we left the cathedral to go back to our hotel and get some dinner. While crossing the street, Megan, Olivia, Amanda, and I were talking about our day at the cathedral. Megan mentioned how she should use her engineering skills to build a huge cathedral of her own. Olivia was talking about how she could paint an accurate painting of the Notre Dame cathedral and sell it for a lot of money. I was talking about how cool those bells were. And Christie was texting again, this time while speed-walking, and she was almost hit by a really big bus. The driver cursed at her in French. That was so funny, but she still should have listened to that French guy on the street say “Dude, look out for that bus” in French instead of saying “What did he say?”


-Monica

Day 2

Eiffel Tower

After having breakfast at the hotel, we decided our first stop was going to be the Eiffel Tower. Of course, as we traveled to the site, Christie had her eyes glued to her phone, texting. While Megan, Amanda, and Monica talked, I lagged behind them, half asleep, since I am not much of a morning person.

The Eiffel tower is a lot bigger than I imagined it was going to be, and as we walked toward it, my eyes widened.

“Are we actually going to climb to the top of that thing?!?” I exclaimed.

They looked at me, looked at each other, and burst out laughing. Christie took the time to tell me they actually had an elevator. I laughed it off, trying to hide my embarrassment.

After reaching the top, we all looked out over the edge, pointing things out to each other and having a good time. At one point, Monica leaned over the edge and Christie pretended to push her off. Amanda, Megan, and I rolled our eyes and shook our heads.

We stayed on top for a long time, enjoying the view. Then we headed down. For a couple more hours we hung out, walking through the streets of France, until our conversation lapsed over into the topic of food. Megan kept saying phrases like, “Cupcakes,” ”Cake,” and “Pie,” and we decided it was a good time to eat lunch.


-Olivia

Day 1

Charles de Gaulle Airport

                                                                                                                                                                   Finally, we’re in France! We left from RDU at 9 am. It was a pretty interesting experience, even before we left the ground. First of all, Christie was doing her hair, so that made us late to the airport. On second thought, I don’t think you can ever be on time to an airport. Anyway, we arrived, checked our bags, and got in the security line. We each took our shoes off, put our carry-ons in the little gray buckets, along with my laptop. Christie went through the security scanner first. “Uh, ma’am, you’re going to have to place your phone with your other belongings. You can’t text while going through security,” the security guard said. Christie hadn’t even noticed she had her phone. I went next, having to explain that I have ¼ in, steel rods supporting my spine when the alarm went off. Then Monica, with no trouble at all, along with Amanda. Olivia went next, with probably the most interesting story. She got through fine, but the guards had to search her bag because there were chemicals that are found in some plastic bombs. Turns out it was only her moisturizing lotion. Wow, airport security these days!

If that whole fiasco didn’t slow us down enough, Olivia’s fear of flying sure did. She refused to get on the plane right as we literally ran to the gate. We heard a man say last call for our flight, and eventually got her on the plane. Each of us touched the outside of the plane for good luck. I demanded a window seat because our view was spectacular.

The flight was pretty uneventful, which is, of course, the best kind of flight. We landed in Chicago and got some outstanding pizza during our 6-hour layover. One fifteen-hour flight to Paris, and we were there! The view of the city from the sky was amazing. I (once again) demanded a window seat. We grabbed our luggage, and got a cab to our hotel, which was about three and a half miles away. I don’t know what anyone else did, but I fell asleep right then and there.