Strasbourg & Arrival in Paris

Today we got to say hello, or bonjour si vous voulez, to France.  The day started like most with a hotel breakfast (one of the better ones in my opinion), and then a multiple hour bus ride.   Although we were excited to finally get to France, we were saddened because this would be our last bus ride with the world's best bus driver, Kurt.  There were many goodbyes, and one last, final photo op with him.  Anyways we were in France, at last, and we were already having problems.  Our tour guide had been delayed for some reason, and we were sent to take any early lunch brake.  Overall it seems everyone enjoyed their first lunch.  After our quick lunch, we toured Strasbourg.  The town has a lot of history, and a sort of mixed identity due to its flip flopping between Germany and France over the years.  Since we no longer had Kurt and his bus, we were set to travel to Paris by train.  On a side note this was my first time ever traveling by train (it was pretty cool).  The first step to traveling by train is, of course, to enter the train station, and boy did we have quite the welcoming party.  The French are rarely subtle in their ways, and security is no exception.  As we entered the train station, we were greeted by a group of French soldiers armed with assault rifles.  It is not very comfortable being stared down by men with large guns.  Luckily we made it through without incident, and we were soon departing, for Paris, in our high speed train.  The ride was mostly uneventful, except for learning of Mr. Hannigan's mad card skills.  I'm now convinced he runs an underground card game joint out of his basement.  After the two hour train ride we were in Paris.

In the now typical French train station way, we ran into another group of French soldiers.  Following another awkward stare down, we boarded a new bus just for the afternoon.  It was not as nice as Kurt's bus.  The new bus took us to the dinner spot for the night.  We had quiche, chicken, and apple tart.  So far Parisian food is pretty good.  After dinner we went to the hotel, which is wear I am now as I write this blog post.  France is quite awesome, and I expect it to become even more awesome as the week comes to a close!

-- Jamie