Dîner-Crosière
Sunday, 1/18/09
View from the cruise:
We all dressed up and headed out with a heavy heart to our last event in Paris. The glass-covered barge was filled with well-dressed tourists sitting at long tables, and our party, consisting of not just the students and guides but also some friends of the program, took up two adjacent tables. The main attraction of the cruise was not the food, which was fine but not special, at least not to our now-pampered palates. As the boat swam slowly through the Seine, we watched the great monuments of Paris float by us one last time.
The cruise started at the Eiffel Tower, lit up in the darkness, and we passed many of the places that our guides had taken us to over the course of our two weeks in Paris, including Bercy, le Musée d’Orsay, and l’Ile de la Cité. Through the murky lighting, wine softening the edges, a band serenaded us with both English and French songs. At the end of the night, we exchanged gifts, took pictures, and said our sad good-byes.
The Eiffel Tower seen through the glass roof:
On the way home, we thought about the time we had spent in Paris. It had been a good two weeks. We got to practice our French, and to see some of the greatest specimens of the classical Western canon in the arts and architecture. We were surrounded by beauty, by monuments far older than our home country. We explored, gratis, the wonders of French gastronomy. Few trips could have made for a better IAP.
K.B.
Melissa and Elizabeth on the cruise, and the final moment the entire group was together:
