Today we visited Versailles. Obviously this is on the “A” list when it comes to visiting Paris. But for our students, it is also another important step in mastering their way around Paris. While Dr. Nell and I accompanied the students to Versailles, they made their own way back to Paris. One group of students stopped at the Eiffel Tower and others made other stops on their way back. The students are becoming increasingly confident in their ability to negotiate the mass transit system here.

Until now, the weather has been very cold and overcast (but fortunately no rain). Today, there was a glorious blue sky and warm weather. We are looking forward to good weather for the rest of our stay.

I forgot the mention that last night we ate in a Spain Tapas restaurant. Tomorrow night we will eat at an Italian restaurant. The final two dinner stops will be North African and then back to France for our final banquet. We learned today that the crepe place by the hotel is run by people from Sri Lanka and I found out that we have a lot in common—none of us can speak French. (Some of our students speak French quite well and the others are doing their best to pick it up.)

Tomorrow is another big museum day. The difference is that after the first stop—a museum that has a huge collection of Monet’s Water Lily paintings (we travel to the pond on which they were based the day after tomorrow)—the rest of the day the students will make their way around town on their own.

It is hard to believe the trip is at the halfway point, but it clearly is. Some of the students have begun to plot their shopping excursion for the free day on Saturday.