Paris: Luxembourg Gardens and Notre Dame

We are finally settling down for a good night's sleep after some of us have been up for almost 36 hours straight!  It has been quite an adventurous "day" with multiple people experiencing motion sickness due to 2 plane rides, an hour and a half bus ride, 3 rides on the metro (which included an unfortunate pickpocket of one of our adults), and a tram ride to finally bring us back to our hotel which has no air conditioning!

While we are looking forward to saying "bonne nuit" (good night) to this day, we also had some very good experiences.  We had lunch at a patteserie (bakery) in Paris followed by one hour of free time at le jardin de Luxembourg.  The palace and gardens were built in the 17th century at the request of Maria de Medici, Queen of France, who did not want to live in the Louvre Palace.

The gardens are beautiful and are now a community hangout for people exercising, reading, people-watching, relaxing, and more.

We later went to Notre Dame Cathedral, taking in all of the intricate art work and construction done in an age without electricity!

We enjoyed a traditional eastern French/German dish that is similar to thin crust pizza.

We have now checked in to the hotel and made sure most everyone has showered and are hoping for at least 8 hours of sleep!

Please don't worry! The first day is the hardest and we made it through without any complaints or attitudes!

Until tomorrow....
Mrs. Hughes

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