Friday, March 5, was a very full day! We attended classes at St. Do in the morning – some of us attending English class, some French literature, some working with younger students in their classrooms, and a few of us even attended P.E. class. While there are several similarities between St. Do and NA, it has been so interesting to sit in on classes and view the differences between our daily life back home at NA and the educational system here. The most striking difference is how many students are in each class here; it is typical for there to be 30-35 students in one classroom. Also, each week, the students take an exam for an entire afternoon, to provide them with practice leading up to taking the Bac. Can you imagine taking a 2-4 hour exam every week??

After lunch in the cantine here at St. Do, our leaders of the day, Elise and Taylor, navigated the metro to the famous shopping center Galeries Lafayette. We had about two hours to wander around the area, shop, and eat lunch. Many of us enjoyed going in Printemps, another more affordable shopping center, nearby, and other stores on the street that are unavailable to us at home.

We spent the afternoon in the gorgeous Palais Garnier, or the ornate Opera House designed by amateur Charles Garnier in the 1870s. The ceiling in the auditorium was

Marc Chagall ceiling at Opera Garnier

repainted by Marc Chagall in the 1960s and remains controversial since the aesthetic is very different than the rest of the building. The beautiful main hall reminded several of us of a mini Hall of Mirrors at Versailles – absolutely breathtaking! We learned that you can rent the space for $200,000 for a wedding; some of the girls were dreaming of doing this! We stopped by the Phantom of the Opera’s box and were reminded of the story that was inspired by events at Palais Garnier.

The Phantom of the Opera’s box.

After reconvening with our hosts back at St. Do, we all went our separate ways to spend the weekend exploring the city with our host families. It has been an incredible jam-packed week thus far, and it is hard to believe that our time here is almost half way over.

Written by Laura Osborne ’17, recounting March 5, 2015:

Today, once arriving at St. Dominique’s now familiar campus with our corres, we departed to the metro to travel to Le Musee D’Orsay. It was a beautiful, sunny day! After multiple metro stops we emerged at Tuileries Gardens where we could spot Le Louvre, Cleopatra’s Obelisk, and L’Arc de Triomphe on the axis of Paris. We crossed over one of the many love lock-decorated bridges across the Seine to Le Musee D’Orsay. Not only was the architecture of the building breathtaking, but the art inside is only something we have seen in pictures. Our fantastic tour guide split her helpful information between English and French to accommodate us. Seeing the masterpieces up close and in person was truly inspirational and beautiful. The paintings we viewed were by famous impressionist and neo-impressionist artists –  Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Manet, Monet, and many others.

After our tour, we headed back to St. Do for our dejeuner at their cantine. Following our quick meal, we took the metro again towards Le Louvre and began a tour of the city on a double decker bus; we all sat on the open top and took pictures of Le Louvre, Notre Dame, Le Grand and Petit Palais, the Seine, La Tour Eiffel, Les Champs-Élysées, and so much more – all explained by the audio provided on the bus. Some of us even spotted Kim Kardashian and Kylie and Kendall Jenner walking the streets as a part of Paris Fashion Week! After our chance at a new perspective of the city, we traveled back to the school and parted ways with our corres for the evening.

Twenty-two Norfolk Academy sophomores and juniors will be spending the next two weeks in France! After an early morning arrival on March 1, the group will head to Normandy for three days and will spend the remainder of the trip in Paris, living with host families from our sister school, Saint Dominique in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and exploring the school and the city. This past week, Dr. Rezelman shared a moving lesson on D-Day to set the scene for the students’ upcoming visit to the Normandy. Follow along on their adventure!

Dr. Rezelman’s talk on D-Day.