At 2.30am on Friday 3rd October 74 students and 9 teachers departed the school for Paris, France. This was the biggest school tour, ever!! On our arrival at Charles de Gaulle we were met by our bus driver and his 83 seater, double-decker, bus. We then made our way to our hotel, Oops!, which was conveniently located beside a number of metro stations. We made our way to the Champs Elysées, by metro, and took pictures of the Arc de Triomphe and dined in McDonalds. We then went to the Musée de Louvre, which is one of world's largest museums. This museum was an art students dream but everyone managed to appreciate the creativity and imagination of the various artists. From there we walked to Notre Dame, with Mr. O' Leary as our very able tour guide. We then paid our first visit to Flunch, which was beside the George Pompidou Centre. Another metro trip followed to the Bateux Mouches, where we enjoyed a relaxing cruise, and took in the magnificent Parisian sights illuminated by night. We were particularly enthralled by the Eiffel Tour and its' flashing lights. After a particularly long day we took the metro back to our hotel.
On Saturday we went to the Place de la Concorde, where we met our three tour guides. We then went on a walking tour of the area surrounding the Jardins Tuileries. After lunch we went to La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, the biggest science museum in Europe. Following the museum we went to the Montmartre area of Paris for our evening meal. We then went to Aquaboulevard, arguably one of the highlights of the trip. It is Europe's biggest urban water park and we spent over two hours on slides, in Jacuzzi's and swinging off a rope!
Disneyland Paris was our destination on Sunday. We spent the day enjoying the attractions and that evening, after a meal in Planet Hollywood, we made our way to the Champs Elysées. It was lovely to see and experience Paris at nighttime.
We went to the top of the Montparnasse Tower on Monday morning. The tower is 689 feet and it offers panoramic views of the city from its top floor. Then we made our way to Place de l'Italie for a spot of retail therapy. We then met our driver at our hostel and went to Beauvais airport.
We arrived back in Ballygar at 2am Tuesday morning, wrecked but exhilarated.
This was a massive trip, by all accounts. It was the biggest tour the school has ever undertaken and it was also one of the busiest. Our students were a credit to our school community. They were extremely well behaved and a pleasure to bring away. Huge thanks to our teachers, who gave up their weekend, who took care of our students. It was a wonderful trip.