On Thursday we got up early and arrived at Waterloo Station in London in time for our train. We got on the Eurostar which goes through the Chunnel (Channel + Tunnel) and were in Paris by 2:00 pm. We went to our hotel, dumped our bags and went out to find lunch. That was easy considering the number of cafes on the street, the competition must be fierce! I had my first crepe which was drenched in super-rich chocolate. Delicious! After that, my
Dad and I went off to see the Musee D’Orssey, which is an art museum in a converted train station. We waited in line for a while and then got in to see the amazing works of the Impressionists. My favorite piece of art there was a large piece of glass on the floor and when I looked down I could see buildings below as if I were a giant above a city. It was a weird feeling.

On Friday we met Ellen from Paris Muse at the Louvre for a tour designed for kids. We went through the Louvre in about 3 hours and she made it very fun by creating clues that we had to find to solve a mystery sentence. We saw Assyrian, Greek, Egyptian, French, Italian and German art, you name it, we saw it. At the end of our tour we got to see the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci in all her glory. There was a special kids viewing gallery where we got to see her up close. The special thing about her is her smile. Her smile is as if she had seen all of Leonardo’s inventions (secret at the time) and taken absolute joy in them. Eventually though it was time to move on and Michael and I solved the mystery and claimed our prize. We got a DVD tour of the Louvre and a special book on Monet for kids. It was a great day and I learned a lot and had fun.

Later that evening, we went to the Eiffel Tower. At 8:00 pm, in addition to the regular lights, they had a sparkly light show all over the tower. It was magnificent. The line to go to the top was too long however, so we decided to come back another day.

Saturday my Dad and I went to Notre Dame. It was so cool to see the flying buttresses that hold up the roof. I also saw the gargoyles leaning out from the building ready to spit water out of their mouths at the next available rainstorm.

Today has been quite a day! We started by getting on a train, we met a wonderful lady Michelle and her dog Archie, she travels a lot in her life time and had many wonderful stories to tell us. All of a sudden after about an hour of traveling we stopped because of student protests outside of Paris. We were diverted to another station but still made it to Calais on time for the ferry.

We got on the ferry where we also met some wonderful people, Sally and Mike. Coincidently they live very near my grandmother. They referred my mom to the head of Mathematics at my dad’s old secondary school, Ravens Wood School. Evidently there is a chance that she might be able to tutor me in Algebra while we stay in Bromley.

We arrived in Dover, traveled through the beautiful Kentish countryside to Canterbury where my dad went to University. We checked into The Pilgrims Hotel and set out to explore Canterbury a bit before having a delicious meal.

Bugsly