Back to London - 28th October

Today we caught the Eurostar from Gare du Nord in Paris back to St Pancreas Station in London. It took three and a half hours.

When we arrived in London, we made our way underground to catch a tube to Paddington, where we walked to the Shaftesbury Hotels. We put away our stuff, then hopped back on a tube to Piccadilly Circus, to do some last minute shopping at Lilywhites.

Afterwards, we went back to our hotel, where we met Beat Masi and Kiran Masa, who had come with our two extra suitcases. We caught up with them, then walked to meet Nana for dinner. We went to an Indian restaurant, where we had a magnificent feast of curry, biriyani and naan...yum! Our stomachs were full by the end of it

After dinner we walked back to our hotel and said our last goodbyes to Beat Masi, Kiran Masa and Nana.

Well, I guess this is the last post. It has been a truly wonderful experience for all of us, and we are going to miss the culture, the sights, the shops and especially the food....I mean, who else makes Pizza as good as the Italians? or Baguettes as good as the French?

Anyway, this is Alisha and Sajan Patel signing off. Over and out!

Musée De L'Orangerie & Friends - Wednesday 26th October

Today we went to the Musée De L'Orangerie. The Musèe De L'Orangerie is an art museum showing Claude Monet's famous water lilie paintings and many other famous paintings collected by Paul Guillaume. We queued for 45 minutes to get inside. Once inside we hired some audio headsets, which gave us information about the paintings.







When we got inside the museum, we headed to look at Paul Guillaume's famous collection of paintings. Some of the artists he collected from were Pablo Piccaso, Claude Monet, Henrie Matiesse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Andre Derain and many more artists. Some of the paintings were detailed, other were very simple.






Studying a painting by Claude MONET












Pablo Picasso - Grande Nature Morte







Pierre-Auguste RENIOR - Fraises


After we looked at the collection, we went to look at French Impressionist Claude Monet's water lilies. The waterlillies are a series of eight paintings inspired by his water garden, spread out amongst two rooms. The sizes of the paintings range from 6-17 meters!






The first room has the first four paintings, Morning, The Clouds, Green Reflections and Setting Sun.

























The second room contained the other four paintings, Clear Morning with Willows, Morning With Willows, The Two Willows and Tree Reflections.



















The painting's looked very beautiful. Monet used cool colors (blues, greens and purples) to paint the water lilies.



















In the afternoon, we met up with Luke, Scott, Ivy and Paul for an afternoon out in Le Marais, a historic district in Paris. We walked to a park and had some lunch and a little play, then made our way across the bridge to Lle de la City, where we went to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a famous catholic cathedral. We went inside for a look around, it was very pretty, especially the stained glass windows.




















































We then went back onto the streets of Paris. We said our final goodbyes to Luke and his family, then set off back to the apartment.

This is our last day in Europe before we head back to London :( Wah!!



- Posted by Alisha & Sajan

River Boat Cruise - Tuesday 25th October

Today we went on a boat cruise down the river Seine. In the morning, we went for a little walk around the Place de la Concorde and along the river Seine.



















Place de la Concorde

The weather was meant to be a bit overcast, but luckily, it was sunny. The cruise started at 1 pm. The boat was really big, big enough to fit more than 100 people. On the tour, we went past lots of the sights like the Eiffel Tower, The Louve, Notre Dame, Lle de la Cité, Musée d' Orsay and many other sights. The boat trip was really cool!









Waiting for our boat to leave...




















Eiffel Tower








Notre Dame

On the way back to the apartment, it started raining. Dumb! But then it cleared up and the sun came out again, which was weird. We did some grocery shopping on Rue Montogueil for dinner, then headed back to the apartment.

For dinner we had Baguette with Hummus, Cheese, Tabboleh, Sun dried tomatoes and fresh Figs. For dessert we had chocolate mousse, creme brûlée and a berry chocolate cake. It was a very simple and delicious dinner!









- Posted by Alisha & Sajan

Friends and the Musee du Louvre - Monday 24th October

Today we met up with my old school friend Luke Austin and his family at the Louve Museum. Luke used to come to Berhampore School before he moved to Paris a couple of years ago.












Me and my friend Luke....













We arrived at the Louve in the morning, when it wasn't as busy. We visited the
Egyptian Collection, a permanent exhibition of Ancient Egyptian antiques. There were Hieroglifics written on pieces of parchment and papyrus, sculptures of Ancient Egyptian gods, clay pots, jewellery, mummy coffins and much more.




















































A real Mummy......


After that, we went to see the famous Mona Lisa painted by Leornardo Da Vinci. There were heaps of people crowding around to get a photo of it. It was squashy. We also looked at some Italian paintings and sculptures.













The Mona Lisa......








































For lunch, we went to Jardin des Tuileries and had a picnic of baguettes that we filled with Salami, Ham, Hummus and cheese, which was brought by Luke's mum Sarah. They were delicious! After lunch, we went for a little walk to the playground in the gardens. Scott, Sarah, Luke, Ivy and Paul walked us to Place de la Concorde, where executions happened during the French revolution.







































Boys having fun...












We said goodbye to them, then headed to the Arc du Triomphe, the magnificant arc at the end of the famous Avenue de Champs Élysées. The Arc de Triomphe took thirty years to build. It honours the people who fought and died in the French revolution, and underneath the arc is the tomb of the unknown soldier.




























In the evening we went out for dinner with the Austin's at the Chez Omar, a North African restaurant. We had some yummy couscous with a choice of sausages, lamb or chicken.












Paul & Sajan enjoying their dessert....













- Posted by Alisha & Sajan