Paris 2.0

I'm sitting in "Salle 6" at the John Knox Center right now.  It's amazing how a few minutes back in familiar surroundings makes it feel like you never left a place.  It's been almost a year since we left the John Knox Center, but tonight, we're back home with our U of M family.

Our first weekend trip (this time pre-class) was to Paris with six of the seven 7:11 Runners.  Robert was already committed to traveling with his wife and friends, so he couldn't make the trip.  For the rest of us, it was a great time, even for someone like me who's been lucky enough to have already visited this great city 3 or 4 times.

It was hard to get up the day after we arrived in Geneva to catch our train to Paris.  Coming to Europe is much more difficult than coming home.  Typically, it's a red-eye flight which arrives in the morning here, which is overnight at home.  You can either spend an entire day sleeping, or try to stay awake for hours.  Most of us stayed up and  got bed early.

We woke up early Thursday to catch the TGV.  The TGV is a very fast train to Paris.  It took about 3 and 1/2 hours to go from Geneva to Paris since the train travels at 200 miles per hour!  When we arrived, we were able to get right into our hotel and drop our things off.  Then, the walking began...

We walked from our hotel in Plaza St. Augustin to the Arc di Triomphe, down the Champs Elysses, around the Place de la Concorde, through the Jardin des Tuilieries , around the Louvre, onto the Ile de la Cite, and into Notre Dame.  In all, I'd say we put in 4 miles.  The evening was spent enjoying

Friday, we headed to Sacre Coeur, the church atop Montmartre.  

On our third day we, well, slept in a bit and then tackled the Louvre.  By the time we reached the Musee d'Orsay, they had stopped letting people in.  So, we headed to the Pompidou Center, Paris' modern art Mecca, for a change of pace.

Today, we visited the Musee d'Orsay before heading back.  Classes start tomorrow bright and early, so I'm off to bed.  Hope to post more soon...