Leaving Paris

We got a popsicle on the way out and we had to find someone with a lanyard to exchange pins because this was the one thing that I was

told to do.  Brian gave Oscar two pins, one to keep and one to exchange, but it must not be that popular in Paris, because we’re having a hard time finding anyone with a lanyard.  We have to ask around and finally a person brings someone with a lanyard directly to us so that Oscar can pick a new pin.  We head out as storm clouds are moving in and hit the RER for a return to Paris.  Oscar is covered in popsicle, but it’s one of those days, that you just can’t care about things like that.  At least he’s finally feeling better.  I do find out that Disney did get some more money out of me

because as we leave the park, Verizon sends me a text that I just incurred $25 in charges for my use of data using their app in the park to see how long the ride wait times were and where we were in the park.  Great!!!  We meet up with John who how has returned to Paris right before us and the group really liked Chartres.  There are a couple of students in the group who didn’t get to go today because they are now sick with whatever we have going around the group now.  Hopefully, everyone else can stay healthy from here on out.  We find a little place down the street that is open for dinner and I feel like it’s one that I had read about, but I’ve read too much preparing for this trip and can’t be sure of anything in my brain anymore.   I

 get some onion soup and goat cheese and spinach lasagna.  The soup is awesome and YEAH!!! I finally have a good meal in Paris, which is a reason to come back.  The lasagna seems kind of soupy, but when I dig in, it’s delicious and this is like a coin in the Trevi fountain bringing you back to Rome.  Now, I have a reason to return to this city which is really a strange mix of welcoming and not, big and little when you stay within in an Arrondisement, and expensive and cheap depending on where you shop.  The next morning, I get some flowers for the staff at the Aida Marais hotel who have taken such good care of us as far as finding us doctors, hospitals, thermometers,

Disney tickets and putting up with 11 college students, who can cluster and be loud at times.  This was actually a great location i Paris too, so I would love to return to this hotel.  Rachel and I take a taxi to the train station with the luggage and meet up with the group who took the Metro to wait for our train to Bruges.  Oscar is excited about a train and everything is good until I find my seat which was purchased separately from John’s and I’m alone with Oscar supposed to be in my lap, but there are trays in the way of this.  There are empty seats and I’m just ignoring the looks that I’m getting from everyone as I tell him to take another one.  John comes to us to have some lunch with us and then returns to the students because we’re going to have to transfer soon.  Oscar drops his pringles on the floor where all the little bits spill out and when I hand him the

water bottle, he  drops that too.  It’s like we’re proving every reason why children should not be allowed in this cabin.  I snap at him because I’m embarrassed, the guy across from him kind of laughs and I can see that his feelings are hurt.  He does a slow blink that kind of looks like he is trying to hide behind his own eyes and not cry.  I tell him he’s okay and reassure him that I’m not mad at him.  Then we’re finally getting off this train and onto the next one.  This one is less crowded and we sit side by side to look out at Flanders.  Can’t help but think about how we’re going through countryside that has seen the deaths of millions of soldiers.  If you take the area to the east of us with Verdun and Bastogne into 

account, we’re talking many millions.  It’s amazing to think of the battlefields we’re passing and I’m pretty sure that John and Rachel’s students are oblivious to it.  We need a historian on this trip….to point out Waterloo, Flanders, Dunkirk, Calais, etc, etc, etc.  Romans and Gauls and even big Celtic battles before then have been fought on this land.  There’s some reason to believe that there is something about the land itself because this doesn’t happen in other places like this.