30th April 2010 - Last Day in Paris

We got up at 6.00 am to catch the train and get to Gare d' Austerlitz. We are going to take an early morning trip down the river Seine on the shuttle called Vogueo. The weather is lovely, cool but not cold. The shuttle started at 7.00am and we scrambled on board. We are the ONLY passengers at this time in the morning but the river is lovely and the bridges that we go under are spectaular. I am so glad that we decided to make the time for this journey. You get a totally different perspective of Paris. It is kind of sleepy and still trying to wind up to full speed.

Zoe and I decided that we would go to the - Sorbonne (the university in Paris) and engage an international student in conversation.Tell them about your adventures - that was the challenge.

We headed to the train station (remember we had a 3 challenge restriction) so that was to be our second challenge. The train was on the platform and Zoe and Rainey stepped into the train and the doors closed - yup Lily and I were on the outside of the train and it disappeared into the tunnel. The next tran arrived a few minutes later and we continued on to the Sorbonne. There was no sign of Zoe and Rainey. Much to our disappointement all that we walked and everybody we spoke to NONE were students. Finally someone informed us that the university was on holiday and the students were gone. I was so disappointed so much time wasted to no avail. Suddenly a young man walked up to us and asked us if we were looking for a student. We sad yes and we discovered he was the gy that Ze and Rainey had found and seeing us with our scavenge book in hand he had approached us. He was very nice and we got our points - Hurray!!!


Next stop was to visit the Cimetiere du Montparnasse and find 3 tombs Susan Sontag, Serge Gainsbourg and Jean- Paul Sartre. When we departed the train who do we see ahead of us but Zoe and Rainey. It really is a small city. Jean- Paul was easy to find as he was right by the front entrance to the cemetery. The guy who was running the gate gave us a map and pointed out where to find the other 2 graves. Evidently when Kit and Joanne (another team) had gone, nobody knew where Susan Sontag was and they had done all the research on how to find her. By the time we got there the guy marked it on the paper for us. Even with his help she was not easy to find.

Serge Gainsbourg's tomb was covered with flowers but there were also hundreds of metro tickets thrown all over. We thought this was weird until we were told that he had written a song about the metro.

Susan Sontag was actually an American author who had spent most of her life in France, she died in New York city atthe age of 71 but as her wishes she was taken to Paris and buried by her son in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse.

Jean- Paul Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was the first person to refuse tomaccept a Novel Peace Prize and when he died in 1980 it is estimated taht 50,000 people attended his funeral.

IIt was now about 9.15 and we have check in at the hotel for 10.00am. We took off at a run to try and get to "Visit the 59th floor or Frances tallest skyscrapper"...

This building did not open until 9.30am and it was a 5 minute walk to the hotel so be thought it would be a steal to go to the bottom take the elevator up 56 floors walk the last 3 take the elevator back down and be at the hotel with minutes to spare... Think again.. We are in Paris wth the most unmannerly people in the world. When we arrived at the ticket counter to buy the tickets there was a group of about 20 teenagers with their teachers. The teachers were still trying to collect the money from their students and had not even joined the line as yet. The ticket seller would NOT sell us the four tickets until the group had paid. The clock was ticking and these adults painstakingly counting out nickles and dimes to try and get the amount they needed for the group to visit the tower. Eac time we figured great they are finished they came up short and they would go back to the group and collect more money. This went on repeatedly ... finally believe it or not they got it together. The time is now 9.45am .. we hustled on to the elevator and zoomed to the top of the world....out the elevator.... run- scramble and rush up the last 3 flights of stairs. We are all so out of breathe we can hardly breath. The view was out of this world. It is a full 360 degree out look over Paris. It was raining or the experience would have been even more breathtaking.

We took our photos ..looked around... I wish I could have spent more time there... ran back down the 3 flights of stairs....down the 53 stories by elevator and ran at full speed down the road to check in... We made it with 1 minute to spare. I thoughtI was going to be sick with all the adreniline that was pumping through my body.... We had done it all to the very last. We had gained our last 35 points in this game.

We were told we were leaving the hotel at 11.15 to get to the airport. We are flying to New York city via Ieland on Iceland Air. Hey wait a minute isn't Iceand the place tat caused all the confusion in air travel last week when its volcano erupted? What ever... I have never been there and even though it s only a 1 hour lay over at least I can see it through the window.

Lils and I ran down the road and bought some chocolate filled croissants for breakfast and the hurried back to our room to zip up our suitcases and head off to Charles Le Gaulle Airport. What a whirl wind visit of Paris.. We will have to come back and do it at a more leisurly rate.