J'adore Paris!

Hello everyone!
On Thursday, I went to Paris with my class for a field trip. We all met at the Gare de Vernon at 8 a.m. and took the train to the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris. The ride was only like 40 minutes long, and the train stopped two or three times.
The Gare Saint-Lazare is really, really big. It reminded me of "Ocean's Twelve" because there's a scene in that movie where they're at the Gare Saint-Lazare. Anyway, we went out of the station and had an hour to shop on the Champs-Elysee, but all the shops were closed; they didn't open until 10. So I went to... STARBUCKS!!!!!!!
There are lots of Starbucks in Paris, but none in Vernon... however, that is definitely a good thing, because Starbucks in France is ridiculously expensive. My small mocha cost 4.60€ - that's about 7 dollars. For a small drink. I ordered in French, so I said "Je voudrais un tall mocha cappucino light glacée" to the guy at Starbucks, but I guess I probably said "tall mocha cappucino light" with a total American accent because he and the other guy working there laughed after I gave them my order. So I got my Starbucks; it was worth the seven dollars. Outside of Paris, they don't have anywhere like Starbucks in France. You never see French people walking around with cups of coffee like you do all the time in America.
At 10 the class met up and went into a "Métropolitan" stop to catch the subway to the Musée d'Orsay. While we were waiting for the train, we saw a group of people on strike. They had flags and were chanting and climbing on the ticket machine things. It was the first strike I witnessed in France... I'm pretty sure they're kind of common.
Once we got to the Musée d'Orsay, we stood around for a little while to wait to go in. There was this hobo begging for money; he went up to every single person in my class and was like "s'il vous plait, j'ai faim" (please, I'm hungry).
Then we went inside the museum... it's sooooo pretty. It used to be a really big train station, but they turned it into a museum. The ceiling is glass and there's a giant old clock at one end of the main part of the museum... I took pictures, as soon as I get them uploaded you'll see what I mean.
The Musée d'Orsay is known for its collection of Impressionist art (Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, etc.), so it was one of the places I most wanted to visit in France. I got to see one of my favorite paintings in the whole world by Renoir; it's really really famous - I'm sure you've seen pictures of it before, it's called "Bal du Moulin de la Galette" - I think in English it's called the Ball of the Moulin, or something like that. Anyway, it was amazing in person. I also saw Monet's really famous painting of a poppy field, and his famous painting of the cathedral in Rouen, and his most famous lily pond painting. I also saw Van Gogh's "Self Portrait", which is really famous, and one of Degas's ballerina paintings that we talked about in AP Euro. I also saw Degas's sculpture "Little Dancer, age 14", which is probably the third most famous sculpture in the world after David and the Thinker. It was so small and cute. I bought a compact mirror that's gold on the inside and pink on the outside, and it says Degas and has a picture of the statue on the front. I didn't even have time to look at a lot of the paintings; I ended up rushing past some amazing Monets and Manets and a lot of others, but hopefully I'll make it back to the Musée d'Orsay. Okay, so one more famous painting story; we walked into the Manet room and my class was looking at one painting (they were on a tour with a guide but I didn't pay much attention because it was all in French and I'd rather just look at the paintings), and I turned and saw the painting "The Balcony" by Manet that Mr. Peters (my APEuro teacher, for those of you who don't know) had a poster of that was literally right in front of my desk all of sophomore year. It was so funny to see it in person; I was like "APEURO!!".
So after the Musée d'Orsay, we had about an hour and a half to eat. I ate lunch on a bridge over the Seine with some of my class. For lunch I had a sandwich, bread, chips, and an apple (they gave us a picnic lunch). There were a lot of tourist boats passing underneath the bridge, and Charlotte and Anne (from my class) poured water as they were passing underneath.
The view was really good; I could see Notre Dame and the Grand Palais from the bridge. And the weather was really good all day; it wasn't cold and it was sunny.
After lunch we walked back to the subway station and went to the National Library of France to go to an exhibit about Eugéne Ionesco. We weren't there very long.
Then we went back on the subway to the Boulevard Saint Michel, which is a famous street in Paris. We had like an hour and a half to go shopping, so I went with Camille and Charlotte to look for an H&M. We didn't find one, but we went in a couple of other stores. I bought an Eiffel Tower shirt in one. We bought cookies (I got MINI oreos... I was so happy to find mini oreos!) and ate them. Then we went back to where we had to meet the rest of the class; it was in front of this amazing fountain called the Fountain Saint Michel, which is famous and sooo pretty. At like 8 p.m. we went down this really neat street to a theater that's been showing Ionesco productions for like 60 years. It was really, really small, and I was in the second row. We saw an Ionesco play; it was really funny even though it was in French.
When the play was over, we went to McDonalds (which they pronounce Mac-Donahlds here, lol). The McDonald's had three stories, but the food was exactly the same as in America, except they had a few different items on the menu. When everyone was finished eating we all waited outside for our teacher. Charlotte pretended to be a beggar and sat on the sidewalk with a hat; some guy put money in it, which was really funny.
At like 11 we went back to the Gare Saint-Lazare and caught the train back to Vernon. We got back at midnight, so I didn't get home until 12:15. But it was definitely a really fun day. There's a reason why Paris is called the most beautiful city in the world: it's true! Now that I know how easy it is to catch the train to Paris, I can't wait to go back.
The next day, I had to get up at 7 to go to school; that was not fun. That morning, the whole lycée ran through the forest for like an hour, and since my feet were already aching from walking around Paris all day, that wasn't fun. But we did get hot chocolate and snacks afterwords. Friday night, I went to dance class. Then today, I had dance rehersal for a recital in December. The theme is Pirates; we are dancing to the Pirates of the Caribbean music. It's really fun.
Tomorrow I'm going to Brittany for a week; it's fall vacation and I get twelve days off school! I'll update again when I can.
Au revoir,
Halle