By Kevin Black & Owen Gillespie
Day 10 started a little later than usual at 9:30. We were thankful for this wake time because it allowed us to be more rested for the day. At 9:30 we meet up as a group in the hotel lobby. We then took a train to the Palace of Versaille which took about an hour and a half. We had a tour of the palace and the various state departments inside. The tour was very insightful and beautiful. All of the state departments are designed to showcase a previous Greek or Roman god. The soldiers room showcased the Greek god Ares. The Palace was also very beautiful. It had gold everywhere with beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings. I have never seen anything like this Place before. The tour also provided insight on the history of the French Revolution. It taught us about King Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.
After the tour around 10 people in our group decided to grab lunch because we were hungry and thirsty. We both got a hamburger and fries, unfortunately the service at the restaurant was below par. The service was slow, we had to ask for water multiple times, and there was a dispute over the bill. The problems that we had passed and the group still had a fun time there. After the restaurant, we decided to head back into Paris. We both had different ideas where to go. Kevin and David went to Notre Dame Cathedral and Owen, Reid, Jorge, Alyana, Jenna, Hailey, Emilie, and Carter headed towards the Louvre. We got off at different stops and found our destination. On our walk, rain started to come down pretty hard and we had to run to the door. Owen, Reid, Jorge, Alyana, and Jenna had passed for the Louvre while everyone broke off and went to a cafe. Once we got in the Louvre we headed straight to the Mona Lisa. We got to the room that housed the painting and the room was packed. Fortunately for us a worker spotted Alyana and we were able to cut in front of everyone and get the closest spot to the Mona Lisa. We finished our passes by looking at ancient Egyptian artifacts.
After the Louvre closed, we met with everyone else and headed back to the hotel. We relaxed for a couple of hours before we went out for dinner with the boys on the trip. We ate at a fancy restaurant (Les Antiquaries) and got chicken salad and steak. We then met up after with the girls and went to the Eiffel Tower. At the Eiffel Tower we relaxed and took pictures.
We then went back to the hotel to sleep and woke up for our 5:45 am departure from the hotel to the Paris airport. We woke up around 5:00 in the morning to pack and meet with the group in the lobby. We loaded our luggage onto the bus and then headed off to the airport. We got to the airport and checked our luggage and passed through security and immigration. Our first flight was an 8 hour flight to Atlanta. The flight was easy because we were able to sleep and watch a variety of good movies. After landing at the airport, part of our group went their separate ways.
We said goodbye to them and continued on our journey to Columbus. Owen was one of the people in the group that broke away because he had a flight to Philadelphia. His flight took around 2 hours and once he landed he got in a car and drove 40 minutes to his house. Kevin stayed with the group and had a 1:30 minute flight.