Inter-Hotel Amarys Guyancourt Île-de-France

... L'Australie est considérée comme un pays de seconde chance (un peu comme les USA), un lieu où on peut tout recommencer. C'est une terre d'accueil. Situé de l'autre côté du globe, par rapport à La France, ce pays me donnera tout le dépaysement que je recherche, une autre culture, un autre climat, et d'autres personnes. Chose importante : je vais ...

... instead. * Tracy has since informed me that toilet flushing experiments are in fact not part of the Grade 2, 4 or 6 science curriculum...there is clearly an appalling lack of toilet applications within the kids' curriculum this year! **In reading this, Tracy noted that she had nothing to do moving to the "dark side" in our Disney booking and is still as innocent as Daisy Duck. She is the sober yin to my raging yang. Mission accomplished! (twice...).

... in crowded areas. We also learned that sometimes it is better to just split a taxi when traveling with all of our stuff because it is safer and not too expensive. It was a little difficult recovering from the jet lag and I was not feeling well for the first two days but by the third day I was doing a lot better. Paris is a lot more diverse that I expected. There seemed to be all types of people almost ...

... There were many flowers in full bloom and it was raining a bit so everything was very green. However, there were sooo many people that it somewhat ruined the quite garden feel. The house was, in my opinion, just a normal house. After Giverny we rode an hour and a half to Deauville which is a charming seaside town. I decided to split from the group and explore on my own. I ended up lunching on some bread, apples, and a pastry with escargot in it! The beach was ...

... because my written french is bounds ahead of my verbal level. Belleville seems to be a very diverse area - many people of Asian and African origin. As I was trying to find the place I met this cute guy called stefan, who is my neighbour - no english, but he was very nice and wants to teach me french. I must admit that I am feeling a bit nervous. I wish I knew more French, and I hope it will come to me quickly.

... other.. It's a marvel that we didn't see any major accidents here! We dropped off our packs then went with Gruncle to his souvenir shop that is situated right across the road from the Lourve.. Yes, it was extremely convenient!! We agreed to meet him back at the shop at around 8.30pm when he closed, then headed of course across the road. Brian was too busy trying to sms his parents back to tell them all was now ok to notice the glass pyramids of the Lourve ...

... pretty cold by now and the lines were really long for the climb to the top. We started off in the free line for the stairs but they closed it 3 people ahead of us :( so we moved to the elevator line. There we met some U.S. students that were studying in Madrid, Spain and made pretty good friends with them-it made the 2 hour wait seem a little faster and it was nice to share our experiences thus far. We got to the top of the tower at the PERFECT time--it was just dusk ...

... Several seconds pass before I realize I just got dive-bombed by one of those flying plastic birds! I hear some shouts of "desole, monsieur" from one of the bird-sellers. I cussed him out and debated either keeping the damn bird or stepping on it. Before I could do either he took it away and disappeared. Afro and Spaz didn't know what happened until the guy had taken off. So already the day has started with me in a ...

... André, the house was built in 1875 during the era when Baron Haussman was laying out the grand boulevard. The arrival by carriage must have been stunning, as one enters off Boulevard Haussmann and follows a driveway alongside the depth of the house, until rounding around and facing the grand entrance to the house and its French gardens. What a pleasure to be able to visit such an extraordinary home, and see its remarkable art collection ...

... I decided to leave and go back to the Louvre. I saw about 45 minutes worth of the Ancient Egyptian section, and the bottom of a castle in the medieval section, and then I was so tired, that I decided to head back to my room. Once back at La Cite I bought tokens for the washer and dryer, and finally got to wash the rest of my clothing! I couldn't have been happier. I took a nap for an hour while the washer was going, then got up and threw it in ...