I've loved following Mason and the other BC Cadets on their trip to the European Battlefield trip. Cheryl was a member of the Richmond Thunderbirds Baton and Drum Corp from age 8 to 18! She traveled with the group and I was fortunate enough to chaperone on some of the trips. Because I worked for the airlines I would take all the "standby airline children" while the others went on a scheduled trip. We went standby and it saved the parents a lot of money in airfare. The trips were such bonding experiences and the children had so much fun. The chaperones had a blast too.
The cadets arrived back in Vancouver around 8 PM last night. They flew from Paris and changed planes in Toronto! Their flight was delayed and they must be exhausted. I'm sure all the parents are happy to have the cadets home.
Here is the last communication from the group:
Sending this summary slightly late, as another busy day in Paris. But the group has gone through security now, all checked in, and en route home.
We had a wonderful day in Paris, on our last day of the tour -- our best weather yet! We started the day with a bus tour of the city with Cid, our local guide, with the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier our first stop. Many of the places we've visited along the way are inscribed on the arch: Bergen-Op-Zoom, Ypres, and others, and we got a good view of the crazy traffic zipping around the arch itself. After a quick photo stop of the Eiffel Tower at Champs de Mars we continued to see predominantly the rive droite (right bank) of the city, seeing the Champs-Élysées, Place de la Concorde (Guillotine and the French Revolution), Madeleine Church, the Opéra Garnier (setting for the Phantom of the Opera), Place Vendôme (the city's most luxurious square), and finally the Louvre.
We said goodbye to Cid, and then have some free time to grab some lunch and explore the city. Some of us went to the Galeries Lafayette Gourmet, sampling Parisian macaroons from Pierre Herme,and grabbing dumplings and Vietnamese soup for lunch...others took takeaway and people watched on the steps of the Opéra...others still went for croques monsieurs and crêpes in various brasseries.
After a couple of hours of free time, at 15.00, half the group went back to the tower, this time successfully reaching the top, climbing the stairs to the second level and the elevator all the way to the top; and half the group ambled down the river Seine, leisurely window shopping along the way. We have a lot of Parisian sweets headed Canada way...
At 18h, we reconvened to hop on the metro to dinner, where we had Flammekueche, a thin-crust pizza originating from the Alsace-Lorraine region in northeastern France, and after a few speeches at dinner we hopped on board out bus back to the hotel to pack for departure.
We had a wonderful day in Paris, on our last day of the tour -- our best weather yet! We started the day with a bus tour of the city with Cid, our local guide, with the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier our first stop. Many of the places we've visited along the way are inscribed on the arch: Bergen-Op-Zoom, Ypres, and others, and we got a good view of the crazy traffic zipping around the arch itself. After a quick photo stop of the Eiffel Tower at Champs de Mars we continued to see predominantly the rive droite (right bank) of the city, seeing the Champs-Élysées, Place de la Concorde (Guillotine and the French Revolution), Madeleine Church, the Opéra Garnier (setting for the Phantom of the Opera), Place Vendôme (the city's most luxurious square), and finally the Louvre.
We said goodbye to Cid, and then have some free time to grab some lunch and explore the city. Some of us went to the Galeries Lafayette Gourmet, sampling Parisian macaroons from Pierre Herme,and grabbing dumplings and Vietnamese soup for lunch...others took takeaway and people watched on the steps of the Opéra...others still went for croques monsieurs and crêpes in various brasseries.
After a couple of hours of free time, at 15.00, half the group went back to the tower, this time successfully reaching the top, climbing the stairs to the second level and the elevator all the way to the top; and half the group ambled down the river Seine, leisurely window shopping along the way. We have a lot of Parisian sweets headed Canada way...
At 18h, we reconvened to hop on the metro to dinner, where we had Flammekueche, a thin-crust pizza originating from the Alsace-Lorraine region in northeastern France, and after a few speeches at dinner we hopped on board out bus back to the hotel to pack for departure.
