Day FIVE: Paris



    This is Maximo Gamboa, Connor Martin, Dimitri Rozakeas, and Abhishek Karthik from the Lucki Squad. Day Six was jam-packed with exciting experiences for everyone on the trip. Today, we visited the Palace of Versailles and its gardens with a local guide named Pierre-Marie, stopped for a quick lunch break, visited the Louvre Museum, ate a delectable dinner and capped it off with a beautiful boat ride up and down the Seine river. 

    We started our early morning with a quick breakfast, then we parted for our tour of the Palace of Versailles. Under the tutelage of Pierre, we regarded the magnificent interior of the palace as well as its rich history as the home of the French Monarchy and a firsthand look at the lavish lifestyles they lived. Our favorite parts were the Hall of Mirrors and its rich history as a center of diplomacy (mirrors were extremely rare at this time as they were imported from Venice) as well as the beautiful scenery of the gardens - something definitely worth checking out.







    For our lunch, we went to a local restaurant "Le Musset" where we enjoyed escargot, spaghetti a la tomate, and mushroom risotto. It was definitely one of the best lunches we indulged in the whole voyage and we would definitely recommend it. Consequently, we headed ourselves to the Louvre Museum. We were astonished at the remarkable works displayed, ranging from even the tiniest works, like the surprisingly small Mona Lisa (La Joconde), to gargantuan paintings such as The Coronation of Napoleon. All of this was enough to give us Paris Syndrome, as described by our tour director Fran. Ultimately, the museum was so vast that many of us (ABHISHEK) ended up getting lost (if you looked at every work for three seconds it would take you three whole months to get through everything!). Connor and Maximo enjoyed a coffee at a local Cafe, before departing for the next adventure. 

    Apres Ca, we had dinner: a delicious beef with mashed potatoes. It is truly moments of bonding like this that make the trip something truly special. But after all this, our favorite moment of the day- in Mr. McGann's words: epic - was indubitably the boat ride. We cruised up and down the Seine; we were amazed when we saw the Eiffel Tower's true beauty at night. Though it was cold and we were getting blasted by the winds, it was one of the best experiences we had and something that we will definitely remember for the rest of our lives.




    As Fran gathered us up and we 'came closer' to him, we were reminded of the amazing day we had and, by the end, we were so surprised that we went to Versailles in the morning and finished so much in a single day. As we reflect, we come to realize how lucki we are to do it all again tomorrow!

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