Les Invalides

Yesterday, we all went to Paris to visit Les Invalides. All our professors came with us too because we were getting an exclusive tour--yeah it was special. We had some issues getting to Paris because the train we took that was supposed to take us to Les Invalides stopped at one of the stops and then the conductor told everyone over the intercom that we had to get off the train because it wasn't going to be running further. So everyone got off the train and no one knew why we had to get off. People were saying it was electrical issues but no one was really sure. Thankfully we were dropped off outside of Paris so all we had to do was walk around and find a metro, and luckily found the metro line that would take us to Les Invalides. So we got there and our tour guide was waiting for us. She was a really small French woman and was very interesting to listen to when you could hear her--unfortunately she spoke too softly sometimes so I didn't get to hear everything she was saying. The tour was pretty sweet though--we went into this small auditorium area and watched a powerpoint presentation about the history of the building and its functions, mostly as a military hospital. Then we walked all around the building, visiting a church where many ancient flags of France's past enemies were hung when France conquered them in battle. We even got to go into a part of the building that was closed off to the public for renovations, but our tour guide was able to get us through to see the closed off rooms, which had paintings on the walls that were being restored. Then we visited one of the museums that contained the armor of many of the French kings as well as swords and bayonets. Then we went to the section of the building where Napoleon's tomb was. Again, a couple sections of this building were roped off because the marble floors were being renovated in certain areas, but our guide took us behind the barriers and had the marble restorers talk to us about how they restore the floors. It was really cool being able to be with this little woman who could get us into the areas that everyone else couldn't see. We felt pretty special! When the tour ended, the building had closed so we all went back to Versailles since we didn't really have anything else to do.

Today, my grammar/conversation group decided after grammar class this morning that we were going to have to bring food to conversation class today to make the class seem more enjoyable than it usually is. So Erika and I went down to the Super U to get some food, and coincidentally, Mme Vaudel had planned a surprise birthday party for Lubaina's 19th birthday (which was strange and unexpected because her birthday was a good 3 weeks ago). She had made profiteroles for us, which consists of this small, sweet bread roll that you put vanilla ice cream in and then cover in warm chocolate sauce. Of course, this happens the only day of this entire program where we decide to bring a bunch of food. Oh well, profiteroles was a better substitute compared to the bags of chips and grapes we brought. So we ate profiteroles and talked for the usual two hours. Though the presence of food made the class a bit more durable, the conversation got pretty awkward when we all ran out of stuff to talk about. Two hours straight of talking is way too long.

Tomorrow I leave for Grenoble and we're supposed to have good weather, so more updates to come!