9.45pm
- Friday 19 October: 40 pupils from year 9,
10,11 and 13 along with staff members Mr and
Mrs Mills,Mrs Smith and Mrs Wakeham waited
expectantly for the coach to take us on our
trip to Paris. There was real buzz in the
air as we settled in to (try to) sleep through
the night before boarding the morning ferry
to Calais at Dover and even though we were
wrapped in our sleeping bags and fleecy blankets,
sleep evaded us!
After
a couple of stops on the way and bumping into
more England rugby fans, we finally made it
to Paris around lunchtime and stopped for
our first visit at the Arc de Triomphe. After
reaching the dizzy heights of the Arc and
viewing the Paris traffic negotiating the
roundabout below ( for anyone who has not
had the experience of climbing the never ending
spiral staircase inside the Arc – coming
back down is akin to coming off the Rock and
Roller coaster at Eurodisney – particularly
after very little sleep!)
Next
stop Notre Dame and time for afternoon tea
for some of the more mature members of the
party – the rest watched the exciting
rollerblading and skating that was taking
place adjacent to to the Hunchback’s
home.
Next
morning after a hearty continental breakfast
and a good night’s sleep we went on
our first excursion of the day to Sacre Coeur
and Montmartre – the ‘artists
quarter’. The weather was glorious,
if cold and on return to the coach most of
the group had negotiated good deals on various
types of caricatures and portraits of themselves.
Next
stop was the ‘fleamarket’ –
we all got a real flavour of the real Paris
here for the two hours – shopping, haggling
with stallholders for our purchases, avoiding
the ever present pickpockets and finding places
to eat lunch.
