Vive la France!

Hey everyone! I know I'm a little behind on this, but here are some pics from our Paris weekend! We took an early 5:58am train to Paris and hit the ground running. The entire Baylor group went to the Pasteur Institute and toured Louis Pasteur's apartment and lab. At 7 that night we went on a bike tour of the city. It was beautiful! We rode through the Latin Quarter and stopped on the Ile de la Cite to look at Notre Dame and eat Berthillon's ice cream. I recommend the passion fruit and pear :) Then we rode around the Louvre at night and along Seine to jump on a river cruise. The next morning Annabelle, Jordan and I took a train to the town of Chartres. The largest cathedral in France is there and it's famous for the stained glass. The glass was stored piece by piece during both world wars and is gorgeous. We also made time for the Musee d'Orsay and the beautiful impressionist paintings there (Degas was my favorite.) On Sunday, I went with the family, who was still enjoying their Parisian vacation, on a tour of the Loire Valley. The castles and countryside are beautiful. The three castles we saw are Chambord with hundreds of chimneys, Chenonceau across a river and Cheverny with its hunting dogs. Sunday night was a fun night hanging out at the Eiffel Tower only to catch a train back to Maastricht bright and early on Monday.