Bonjour from France!

Hi everyone, sorry it's taken me a couple of days to update.
I left Cleveland in the afternoon on Tuesday. Hanna (from Kirtland) and Anne (from Buckeye) were on my plane as well as Ingrid ( from somewhere in northeast Ohio). The plane was TINY; there were 11 rows and the ceiling of the aisle was 6 ft. tall and I'm not exaggerating. We sat on the runway for like an hour, and for like 40 minutes once we got to Minneanapolis. Hanna, Anne, Ingrid and I had 80 minutes to get to our gate, which was at the opposite end of the airport. We all were hungry so we stopped to get pizza to go. When we finally got to our gate they were halfway through boarding. There were all these Rotary students on our plane waiting in line to get on. Anne and I were talking a little in French and joking about how bad our accents were when we realized that basically everyone in line who wasn't wearing a Rotary blazer was French. We got on the plane; my seat was only four rows back from first class. I sat next to a French girl who was probably like 10 at the most. Everyone around me was French except for two Rotary students a couple rows ahead of me.
The flight was long but it took only 8 hours. I didn't sleep at all; that was not fun. There was a French flight attendant who looked like Jess from Gilmore Girls except he had a mustache. They passed out copies of Le Monde to the French people but I took one and tried to read it. Dinner wasn't too bad: pasta, salad, bread, cheese, and a brownie that I still have in my purse. After they showed the first movie they put up on the screen that we were over Northern Canada and it was -56 degrees farenheit outside. The plane was freezing cold, if you ever fly to Europe, bring sweaters and Tylenol p.m. After awhile it showed we were over the Atlantic and it was dark out. About two hours later I thought we would still be over the ocean, but we had flown over Dublin and London and were over the English Channel. After that the plane went from 40000 feet to 8000 in 20 minutes and my ears were popping ridiculously much.
We finally got to Paris, but we didn't fly over it because Charles de Gaulle is outside of it. The flight attendant wished all the Rotary students luck over the speaker and everyone who understood English cheered. We all got off the plane; no one knew where to go. I finally found customs and got through in two seconds; they didn't search anything or ask me anything, and I didn't have my Rotary blazer on (Hannah, Anne, and I were the only ones who didn't wear ours at all, they were a pain so we stuffed them in our carry-on bags in Cleveland). I got my bags and went out to look for my host family. There were lots of host families with signs. Mine didn't get there until about half an hour later, so I waited with Hanna and Anne. Hannah taught me my new favorite phrase--"Oh mon dieu" which means "Oh my dear". Finally they got there, and Ophélie told me that we were going to Paris to meet Marcus (from Australia) and his dad. We drove into Paris and passed the Eiffel Tower twice and the Arc de Triumph three times. The city was not crowded except for the tourist spots because most Parisiens are on vacation for the month of August. We parked at the Louvre and went into the courtyard where the glass Pyramid from the DaVinci Code is. The Louvre is ridiculously beautiful in person, it doesn't even look real. All of Paris is that way really, it is much nicer than I thought it would be. We met Marcus and his dad at the Louvre and walked to a bridge over the Seine that had all these gold statues on it. They all ate half-baguettes with cheese. Then we walked to the South bank of the Seine. There were all these houseboats on the Seine that people actually live in and are very expensive. One had hundreds of rubber ducks in the windows of all different colors, which was very weird.
We met Camille (whose name is pronounced Ca-mee, not Ca-meel). She is the oldest daughter and she lives and works in Paris. We all walked to Notre Dame, where there was a huge line, but we didn't go in. I could tell a lot of Americans very easily because they were the ones wearing shorts, fanny packs, and white tennis shoes. We went back to the Louvre; I still was carrying my purse that was very heavy from the plane; there were venders selling bottled water for 1€ at the Louvre. We drove out of Paris past the Arc de Triumph again and went on the highway to Vernon. I heard Billie Jean, Wakin' Up in Vegas, I Got a Feeling, and I'm Yours on the radio to name a few American songs. I'm staying with this family for a week, then I go to the another.
They have a dog, Volvie, who they don't let in the house. She is a golden retreiver except she is very small, a little bigger than a beagle; they found her in the South of France one year. Their house is 100 years old and is very big. The ceilings are about twelve feet high and there are 3 1/2 above-ground stories. One room on the ground floor is their store where they sell refinished antique furniture, and they also have a studio attached to the house.
All the houses in Vernon are gated with walls. Today I went with Ophélie, Violaine, Marcus, and Marcus's dad to drive by my school. It is very pretty and the Nazis lived in it during WWII. We drove around Vernon; the streets look like the Madeline street from the movie Madeline, and the houses look similar to the old house covered in vines that Madeline lived in. I'll post pictures soon hopefully. There are separate rooms for the bathtubs/showers and toilets. They don't have fans or screens on the windows.
Lunch today was pasta with mushroom sauce, bread, really good cheese, and then dessert. Dessert was plain yogurt with sugar and raspberry jam. Eveyone else ate it, but I thought it was... interesting.
They do not have fresh milk like us, so the milk tastes very weird. The water also tastes weird. There is a HUGE chateau in Vernon. There is also a small castle and a big cathedral. We drove into the country to my host families' farm where they keep tons of antique furniture. It is very pretty and we passed at least two chateaus on the Seine.
Okay, I have to go, but I'll post more soon.
Au revoir for now!